(LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it has created a “Disinformation Governance Board” to be headed by former Ukrainian advisor and critic of “free speech absolutism” Nina Jankowicz, who has disparaged Hunter Biden’s laptop as “disinformation.”
The new board, which is already being ripped as “dystopian,” is set to “coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia,” reported Politico Playbook.
Jankowicz, who separately confirmed her appointment as executive director of the new board on Wednesday, has previously advised the Ukrainian foreign ministry on “disinformation and strategic communications” under a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship.
She has also discussed her research into governments’ responses to “Russian information warfare tactics” in her 2020 book, How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict.
In October 2020, Jankowicz told the New York Daily News regarding reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop, “We should view it as a Trump campaign product.”
The Daily Mail has noted that her suggestion that the laptop is a Russian “disinformation op,” which she never recanted and in fact recently reinforced, “is causing questions” about her “ability to accurately judge disinformation” now that several sources have confirmed the authenticity of the laptop’s contents.
READ: Washington Post admits Hunter Biden laptop emails are real after 18 months of denial
In addition to her readiness to combat Russian “disinformation,” Jankowicz aligns with Biden administration policy objectives in that she presents herself as generally something of a speech hawk.
In an April 16 NPR interview on Jankowicz’s book “How to be a Woman Online,” Michael Martin noted Elon Musk’s desire to transform Twitter into “a sort of absolutist free speech environment,” asking Jankowicz what she thinks is the right policy approach to speech on the platform. She applauded Twitter’s recent “progressive” approach to reporting content and added, “What I would love to see is more incident reporting on platforms.”
While discussing the online “abuse” women face, she said, “I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities,” complaining that “marginalized” groups are “already shouldering … disproportionate amounts of this abuse.”
The term “free speech absolutist” apparently references a March 5 tweet by Elon Musk in which he stated, “Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint. Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.”
DHS Chief Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned the new Disinformation Board while responding to concerns about “disinformation among Spanish-speaking voters,” voiced by Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ohio) during a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Mayorkas told her the DHS is “focused” on such minority-targeted disinformation “in the context” of The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), a counter-violence and terrorism initiative, “and other efforts.”
On April 12, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which operates under the DHS, released a “Disinformation Stops With You” infographic campaign that advises people to look to “fact checkers” before sharing information online.
According to Mayorkas, DHS Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans Rob Silvers, “is co-chair with” DHS Deputy General Counsel Jennifer Daskal in “leading” the Disinformation Governance Board.
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