Former US 'Minister of Truth' now foreign agent in UK

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The United States's former "disinformation czar"  has recently been registered as a foreign agent for a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom. Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the Disinformation Governance Board, is now working for the "Centre for Information Resilience." 

According to CIR's website, the organization is an "independent, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to countering disinformation, exposing human rights abuses, and combating online behavior harmful to women and minorities." 

The organization claims to conduct research, digital investigations, strategic communications, build local partners' capacity, and collaborate with media to "amplify the impact" of its work.

CIR is financed "in part by grants from the U.K. government, including the Foreign Commonwealth, and Development Office."

According to Fox News, Jankowicz will be supervising research, executing business strategy, overseeing the establishment of CIR's research, communicating with the media, and briefing individuals and officials about the organization's research. 

Criticism has been on the rise regarding Jankowicz's credibility - can she be impartial? 

Jankowicz's reign as 'Minister of Truth'

In May, the US Department of Homeland Security said it will pause its controversial only-weeks-old Disinformation Governance Board.

The board, which stated that its intended goal was to "coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security” was panned by Republicans, Libertarians, and free speech advocates who likened it to the Orwellian "Ministry of Truth" from the classic novel 1984.

Critics heavily criticized the board, saying it was meant to police free speech and journalism instead of combating disinformation. Examples include statements by Jankowicz herself, who suggested that verified Twitter users should be allowed to edit other users' tweets if they think they're misleading.

Moreover, she also spread doubt about reports of information on Hunter Biden's laptop, telling the Associated Press in October 2020 that it should be viewed as "a Trump campaign product", according to The New York Post. In 2016, she pushed the claim that Donald Trump had ties to the Russia-linked Alfa-Bank.

Perhaps bizarrely, she was also criticized by many for a TikTok video she made in February 2021, singing a cover of the Mary Poppins song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, but instead making it about fake news.

The board was seen by some as a natural follow-up to anti-free speech measures being adopted by the West, from its fight against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange (up to trying to assassinate him), or banning Iranian and Russian media from presenting a view that runs counter to the government's narrative.