Government disinformation board succumbs to disinformation

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An internal advisory board of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), designed to assess and respond to disinformation threats, received a barrage of criticism. Three weeks after its establishment, the board was suspended when its director became the focus of disinformation attacks and online harassment. 

Key Players

The Disinformation Governance Board, a since-suspended internal advisory board of the DHS, sought to counter disinformation related to homeland security, including Russian efforts, and misinformation fueled by cartels and human smugglers to encourage immigrants to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nina Jankowicz, former director of the Disinformation Governance Board, previously worked for the National Democratic Institute, focusing on disinformation campaigns and democracy building. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal executive department responsible for domestic public security, engages in efforts related to counterterrorism and homeland security threats, border security, immigration and customs, cybersecurity, economic security, and disaster prevention and management.  

Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Biden administration, was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021. 

Jack Posobiec, a far-right political activist, television correspondent, and conspiracy theorist, has routinely used white supremacist and antisemitic language on Twitter and in public. He is a senior editor for the conservative news site Human Events. Per the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2016, he pushed the “Pizzagate” lie that Democratic politicians attended a “nonexistent pedophile dungeon” at a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. 

Further Details

On April 27, 2022, DHS launched the Disinformation Governance Board. Its mission was to counter disinformation campaigns that could threaten national security, as well as to study and research best practices in responding to disinformation. 

That day, Jankowicz tweeted about her new position as the board’s director. ​​”Cat’s out of the bag: here’s what I’ve been up to the past two months, and why I’ve been a bit quiet on here,” she tweeted, adding she was honored to help “shape our counter-disinformation efforts. “

Immediately, confusion arose around the board’s existence, function, and funding. According to The Washington Post, congressional staff members and committees were not briefed prior to its launch. Members of Congress also complained they did not receive a proper explanation of its role within DHS.

Two days later, Posobiec tweeted that the Biden administration had created a “Ministry of Truth,” referencing George Orwell’s novel 1984, about a dystopian future of autocratic regimes. 

A mass of Posobiec’s followers then flooded the information space with hateful and derogatory tweets, a majority of which targeted Jankowicz. According to the Los Angeles Times, a Fox News personality questioned her decision to accept the position while pregnant, and a far-right podcaster called her “mentally ill” and a “nasty … Jew.” Jankowicz is not Jewish.

Jankowicz defended herself online, but DHS officials advised her to remain silent, The Post reported. Critics also mocked her social media posts and public appearances, including a TikTok of her singing about disinformation to the tune of a “Mary Poppins” song. Many conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns also spread on social media platforms, including a theory suggesting that DHS founded the board in response to Elon Musk’s endeavor to purchase Twitter. 

On May 2, DHS released a fact sheet reiterating the board’s intended purpose and promised to release quarterly reports of its activities to Congress. Two days later, Mayorkas testified during Senate hearings, CNN reported. He admitted DHS was not transparent enough about the board, but subsequently defended Jankowicz in a round of TV interviews. 

Outcome

Board suspended, Jankowicz resigns

On May 18, 2022, DHS suspended the board. 

“The Board has been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner. It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting our core Constitutional rights,” DHS stated on Twitter. The department suggested that the board had distracted from its other duties, such as safeguarding U.S. elections. 

That same day, DHS also accepted Jankowicz’s letter of resignation. “It is deeply disappointing that mischaracterizations of the board became a distraction from the Department’s vital work, and indeed, along with recent events globally and nationally, embodies why it is necessary,” Jankowicz wrote. 

Republican lawmakers condemn the board, praise suspension 

Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Mike Turner (R-Ohio), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, described the board in a joint statement as “a political tool to be wielded by the party in control,”  and said they were pleased it had been suspended.  

“DHS isn’t managing its current mission set, why would we trust this same Department to unilaterally expand its mission and tell the public what is or is not truth?” the statement read. 

According to PBS NewsHour, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said the board would enable “spreading propaganda in our own country.” Additionally, 20 Republican state attorneys general threatened Mayorkas with legal action if DHS did not disband the “Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board.”

Experts reflect on disinformation attacks

According to disinformation experts, this controversy was a textbook example of a far-right disinformation campaign, in which social media users identified an individual villain in a government institution and then used a combination of fake and misleading information to barrage, threaten, and discredit her, The Post reported.

”You never want to be silent, because then the people putting out the disinformation own the narrative. You need to have a factual and equally emotional counternarrative,” said Mark Jacobson, a disinformation expert at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Mayorkas calls for bipartisan panel to fight disinformation

After suspending the Board, Mayorkas asked Michael Chertoff, former DHS secretary under former President George W. Bush, and Jamie S. Gorelick, deputy attorney general under former President Bill Clinton, to review the board and present the DHS with recommendations within 75 days, according to The New York Times. 

DHS subcommittee recommends no disinformation board

On Aug. 24, the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s (HSAC) Disinformation Best Practices and Safeguards Subcommittee, co-chaired by Chertoff and Gorelick, recommended there was no need for a disinformation board, but advised DHS “must be able to address the disinformation threat streams that can undermine the security of our homeland.”

Mayorkas terminated the disinformation board and rescinded its charter, effective immediately.

“With the HSAC recommendations as a guide, the Department will continue to address threat streams that undermine the security of our country consistent with the law, while upholding the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency in our work,” the DHS stated.