Homeland Security pauses widely criticized "Ministry of Truth"
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The Department of Homeland Security says it will freeze its Disinformation Governance Board.
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Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the Disinformation Governance Board who resigned yesterday
The US Department of Homeland Security said it will pause the agency's 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.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Nina Jankowicz, the "disinformation expert" that the administration tapped to head the board, said that “[w]ith the Board’s work paused and its future uncertain, and [sic] I have decided to leave DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] to return to my work in the public sphere.”
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 Twitters 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 a tie 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.
Republican Congressmen John Katko and Mike Turning said the suspensions of the board was by far the best decision that’s been made when it comes to this Orwellian entity."
"From its initially botched rollout, the ‘Ministry of Truth’ lacked a defined mission or even direction. It was clear it was a political tool to be wielded by the party in control,” they told FOX News.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has requested the Homeland Security Advisory Council to present its final recommendations regarding the board within 75 days. In that time, it will not convene and its work will be paused.
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.
