DHS Shuts Down Disinformation Board

Facts

• On Wed., Alejandro Mayorkas, Sec. of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), said that the Disinformation Governance Board - which generated controversy when it was first announced earlier this year - has officially been shut down.
• In April, when the board was originally proposed, Mayorkas said its goal was to combat online disinformation and the alleged threat it posed. He added that it would focus in particular on the spread of disinformation in minority communities ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
• The proposal received immediate backlash from across the political spectrum, and Republicans in particular, on the grounds of free speech. Its choice for executive director, Nina Jankowich - who had served as a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center - faced particular criticism and she later resigned.
• The board was paused in May only three weeks after it was announced, following a letter from Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, which was co-signed by 20 GOP attorneys general, threatening legal action.
• The DHS said in a statement on Wed. that it will continue to address threats that undermine US security consistent with the law, while upholding the "privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency."

Sources: NBC, FOX News, and Daily Wire.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by The Washington Post. After an unrelenting barrage of harassment and abuse towards Jankowicz, in addition to a gross mischaracterization of what the board would've done, right-wing trolls succeeded in bringing the effort to a halt. The irony that this decision was a hasty reaction to a right-wing operation only underscores why such a board is needed in the first place.
• Right narrative, as provided by Red State. Governments have no business declaring themselves the arbiters of truth, not least because they're not impartial entities and they have a consistent record of lying to the public across history and political parties. The creation of the Disinformation Board is reflective of what an authoritarian regime would do and it's a good thing that this unethical idea has been mothballed.