The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is shutting down the Disinformation Governance Board more than three months after announcing a pause on the Board’s work.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday.
“The Department welcomes the recommendations of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which has concluded that countering disinformation that threatens the homeland, and providing the public with accurate information in response, is critical to fulfilling the Department’s missions,” the DHS said in the statement.
“We thank the Subcommittee for its work, which required extensive fact gathering and analysis over a short period of time,” it added.
The Board’s work was paused in May after Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sent a letter co-signed by 20 GOP attorneys general to Mayorkas threatening legal action against the “un-American” Disinformation Governance Board.
“As the chief legal officers of our respective States, we the undersigned Attorneys General are tasked not just with enforcing the laws, but with protecting the constitutional rights of all our citizens,” the GOP leaders wrote.
“Today we write you to insist that you immediately cease taking action that appears designed exclusively for the purpose of suppressing the exercise of constitutional rights,” they added.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also introduced a bill in May to ban federal funding from being used to launch President Joe Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board within the DHS.
Cotton was joined in the legislation with support from a team of 18 co-sponsors.
“The Biden administration wants a government agency dedicated to cracking down on what its subjects can say, an idea popular with Orwellian governments everywhere. This board is unconstitutional and un-American — my bill puts a stop to it,” Cotton said in a statement.
Nina Jankowicz, an author and “expert” on disinformation, resigned as the board’s executive director following the group’s pause.
“With the Board’s work paused and its future uncertain, and I have decided to leave DHS to return to my work in the public sphere,” Jankowicz said, Wall Street Journal reporter Dustin Volz reported. “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. I maintain my commitment to building awareness of disinformation’s threats and trust the Department will do the same.”
Last week I told @NPRMichel: I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities…which are already shouldering…disproportionate amounts of this abuse.” https://t.co/GLqMwC3iYH
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) April 25, 2022
“I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities,” Jankowicz shared in a recent NPR interview.
Many Americans expressed concerns over the government’s increased role to censor stories in coordination with Big Tech in an attack on free speech.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for the abolishment of the proposed board in a searing Twitter post in May.
Too late. Congress must act now to abolish this censorship board and prevent any future President who doesn’t believe in the Constitution from ever trying it again https://t.co/nLhZbKyzpe
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 2, 2022
“Congress must act now to abolish this censorship board and prevent any future President who doesn’t believe in the Constitution from ever trying it again,” he tweeted.