Disinformation board on hold after GOP backlash

Expert quits as DHS issues pause amid criticism, questions on free speech rights

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security paused its new disinformation governance board Wednesday and the board’s director will resign, following weeks of criticism from Republicans and questions about whether the board would impinge on free speech rights.

While the board was not formally shuttered, it will be reviewed by members of a DHS advisory council that’s expected to make recommendations in 75 days.

Nina Jankowicz, picked to lead the board, wrote in her resignation letter that the board’s future was “uncertain,” according to her letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Federal and state agencies treat disinformation as a national security threat. But the new board was hampered from the start by questions about its purpose and an uneven rollout that further confused its mission. The phrase “Ministry of Truth — a reference to George Orwell’s “1984” — has repeatedly trended online in discussions about the board.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the decision in response to the cumulative negative reaction and growing concerns that it was distracting from the department’s other work on disinformation, according to two department officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The Board has been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner,” the department said in a statement. “It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting core Constitutional rights.”

Conservative pundits and right-leaning media have often focused directly on Jankowicz, a researcher on Russian disinformation named to lead the board. Critics have pointed to statements made by Jankowicz that questioned the provenance of a laptop said to belong to Hunter Biden, the president’s eldest son, and replayed a TikTok video she taped about disinformation to the tune of a song from “Mary Poppins.”

Some attacks on Jankowicz used sexist and antisemitic slurs. A Fox News personality recently questioned whether Jankowicz should have agreed to lead the board while pregnant.

“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 in her resignation letter.

DHS officials have described the board as an internal working group intended to study definitions of disinformation across the department.

Russia has tried to influence the last two presidential elections by boosting false stories and using social media to inflame divisions in American society on issues like race and the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. intelligence officials have also accused China and Iran of orchestrating campaigns to peddle disinformation to Americans.