Questions about whether a new Department of Homeland Security panel to combat disinformation will curb Americans' free speech, and whether the woman named to run the board is too partisan for the position, have emerged as the latest headaches for the Biden administration.
In an interview with Dana Bash of CNN, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that he probably could have done a better job of communicating what it does and does not do.
The Orwellian narrative spread far and wide.
Mayorkas casually mentioned the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board last Wednesday at a House budgetary hearing, and the administration had not done enough to explain its function, allowing imaginations to run wild.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that she had not dug into the new board. Some of the criticism was ideological and driven by the appointment of a Wilson Center scholar who has been unabashed in her political views and colorful in her musical endeavors.
Videos of Jankowicz's performances were making their way across social media, leading some detactors to call her.
The controversy is relatively small compared to a war in Ukraine or a deadly Pandemic. It poses a new challenge for the White House to find its footing in a difficult climate. The administration sees some culture wars worth fighting, but this one seems to have caught them by surprise.
There is no agreed-upon definition of disinformation, which is a potentially substantial part of the problem for the Biden administration and society as a whole. The new board says it will combat foreign outlets without interfering with Americans' First Amendment rights, but it could be difficult to distinguish between foreign and American media.
The administration says the panel will flag reports that convince migrants to come to the border with Mexico in order to get into the United States. Mayorkas wants to stop influence campaigns targeting minority communities in the U.S. Spanish-language populations have been the focus of such campaigns.
The spread of misinformation can affect border security, Americans safety during disasters, and public trust in our democratic institutions, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security last week.
The vacuum allowed some Republicans to say that the effort was similar to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's novel.
It can be assumed that the sole purpose of the Disinformation Governance Board will be to marshal the power of the federal government to censor conservative and dissenting speech. The board should be dissolved immediately.
The New Republic and Politico both received criticism. Critics said that a government agency was not the way to increase media literacy.
Liberal worry that Musk would turn the social media outlet into a hate-speech free-for-all has been caused by his acquisition of Twitter.
Musk declared in a one-word verdict.
The appointment of Jankowicz has proved to be a challenge, leading to questions about whether the board could ever engender the kind of trust it would need in order to be effective. The author of How to Lose the Information War : Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict has worked in Ukraine, making her well equipped to craft a strategy against the nation.
Conservatives have been able to malign Jankowicz because of her rich online presence. A lot of that presence is due to her singing, including for a Harry Potter-themed band she started in 2015.
Neither Jankowicz nor the DHS responded to the Yahoo News request for comment.
Conservatives seized on Jankowicz's dismissal of the New York Post reporting into the fate of Hunter Biden's laptop, a story that keeps coming back to the White House. She supports the anti-Trump dossier compiled by Christopher Steele. Jankowicz will be tasked with identifying the kind of misinformation that has been discredited in the most controversial parts of that document.
Fox News commentators found Jankowicz to be an irresistible target, with former George W. Bush political strategist Karl Rove dismissing her as a political hack on Saturday night.
Mayorkas was on the same network defending the board and the new head.
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