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The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it is suspending the work of an internal advisory board aimed at combating disinformation after what the department describes as an intentional disinformation campaign.
The creation of the panel called the Disinformation Board of Directors has begun. a firestorm It was the subject of criticism when it was announced last month. While criticism came from across the political spectrum, including from civil liberties groups, the harshest accusations came from the right. Republican leaders and commentators referred to it as an Orwellian Ministry of Truth to oversee people’s speech.
A department spokesperson said in a written statement that this was never the task of the board. Instead, it was necessary to coordinate the various agencies of the ministry in the fight against malicious disinformation by xenophobes, drug or human traffickers, or other international criminal groups.
But just weeks after its debut, its fate is now in doubt. Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation authority elected to chair the board in the spring, submitted her resignation Wednesday after facing violent and highly personal harassment and abuse online.
“The false attacks have become a major distraction from the department’s vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people,” the ministry said in a statement.
The department’s secretary, Alejandro N. Majorkas, has asked former bipartisan officials to review the fight against disinformation: Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the department under President George W. Bush, and Jamie S. Gorelick, deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton.
Mr. Majorkas asked them to prepare proposals within 75 days and said that the board could not meet within this period. In the statement, it was said that “its work will be stopped” and the suspended suspended. previously reported at the Washington Post.
Ms. Jankowicz’s departure, combined with the problematic presentation of the board, makes it unlikely that she will continue to operate in its current form.
“We killed the Ministry of Truth!” Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the board’s many Republican critics, wrote on Twitter.
Angelo Carusone, president of the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America, said opposition to the board was quickly and fiercely consolidated, suggesting an organized and motivated effort. He noted that tackling disinformation has long been part of government efforts, returning to the campaigns of the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
But the current political climate has made the issue a lightning rod that authorities need to anticipate better. Instead, they were caught unprepared for the response.
“I think it’s a disservice to all of us to lose this function, especially after what we saw in Buffalo, because it’s a result of this information landscape,” Carusone said. racist mass shooting there. “It’s a tin can.”
As chairman of the board, Ms. Jankowicz, 33, took the brunt of the attacks, she knows this very well. Her latest book, How to Become a Woman Online, chronicles the abuses she and other women have suffered by internet trolls and other malicious actors.
In a resignation letter he submitted Wednesday, he said he joined the department this year to help address the impact of disinformation.
“It is deeply disappointing that the board’s misidentification has become a distraction from the Department’s vital work and indeed, with recent global and national events, embodies why this is necessary,” he wrote.
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