White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the Disinformation Governance Board recently launched by the Department of Homeland Security will be run “in a nonpartisan and apolitical manner.”
Satirically dubbed “The Ministry of Truth” by some conservatives, in reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the board is intended to counter disinformation with regards to violent extremism, human trafficking, and foreign meddling in American institutions and politics, Psaki said.
“The mandate is not to adjudicate what is true or false online or otherwise,” Psaki said during a White House press briefing. “It will operate in a nonpartisan and apolitical manner. It’s basically meant to coordinate a lot of the ongoing work that is happening . . . and the focus is on disinformation and threats to the homeland.”
Some Republicans have focused on the board’s executive director, Nina Jankowicz, whose record and online behavior have raised questions about her ability to preside over the body with impartiality and fairness. Past tweets indicate that she rejected the now-verified New York Post story about a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. She also endorsed the work of Christopher Steele, the author of the discredited dossier on former president Donald Trump that precipitated the Mueller probe into his 2016 campaign.
Asked about Jankowicz on Thursday, Psaki claimed not to “have any information about this individual.”
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the board on CNN’s “State of the Union,” assuring viewers that it will operate in a way that keeps First Amendment rights in mind.
“It works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence are addressed without infringing on free speech — protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy,” he said.
Last month, the agency told the Associated Press that a large part of its mission is to “monitor and prepare for Russian disinformation threats as this year’s midterm elections near and the Kremlin continues an aggressive disinformation campaign around the war in Ukraine.”