Creepy-Sounding 'Disinformation Board' Faces Heavy Criticism; Elon Musk Calls it 'Discomforting'

Wednesday, RedState brought you the story of the creepy-sounding “Disinformation Governance Board,’ and by Thursday, criticism of the Biden Administration’s plan was heating up. Rep. Jim Jordan blasted the idea Thursday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, while Elon Musk called the move “discomforting” on Twitter.

Discomforting

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022

The board was ostensibly set up to combat misinformation that causes “irregular migration,” Russian disinformation concerning our elections, and COVID misinformation. Many don’t buy the explanation, and believe at least one of its purposes is to censor conservatives and tamp down any criticism of the CDC or the Biden Administration.

Jordan took DHS Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to task:

Secretary, yesterday you announced the formation of Disinformation Governance Board at DHS. You put out a bulletin two months ago, a big fancy bulletin here, red, white and blue. You said that misleading narratives, mis-, dis-, and mal-information, MDM, as you call it, misleading narratives undermine the trust in government. I was just wondering, when the head of the CDC, Miss Walensky, said that the vaccinated can’t get the virus, did that undermine trust in government?

Jordan didn’t let up, listing several other incidents where the government put out information that turned out to be false, including that Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” was Russian government disinformation. Mayorkas fired back:

“Congressman, the disinformation board addresses disinformation that imperils the safety and security of our homeland. And one of the primary areas that we are focused on is the dissemination of disinformation and its potential connectivity–,” he said, but was quickly cut off by Jordan

“But that’s not what your bulletin talked about. It talked about COVID,” Jordan said. “It talked about COVID.”

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley piled on, with a letter addressed to Mayorkas:

I confess, I at first thought this announcement was satire. Surely, no American administration would ever use the power of government to sit in judgment on the First Amendment speech of its own citizens. Sadly, I was mistaken. Rather than protecting our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority. This new board is most certainly unconstitutional and should be dissolved immediately.

Executive director of the new board Nina Jankowicz is also facing criticism that she herself has peddled misinformation in the past, including blaming the Hunter Biden Laptop story on Russian disinformation. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson wasn’t impressed, calling Jankowicz on Wednesday a “beacon of misinformation.” Hawley, meanwhile, called her a “leftist radical.”

Jankowicz defended herself, saying, “For those who believe this tweet is a key to all my views, it is simply a direct quote from both candidates during the final presidential debate. If you look at my timeline, you will see I was livetweeting that evening.” Yes, livetweeting obvious falsehoods, Nina.

Here’s Nina in 2020 pic.twitter.com/u0oy72QuO5

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022

She certainly doesn’t sound like she’s a friend of free speech. Before Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter she said in an interview:

I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities

We don’t know yet how this board will operate and what punishment it will be able to mete out to those spreading information the government doesn’t like, but we do know that all this criticism is deserved. It’s one thing to be censored on social media for your views, it’s quite another to have the full force of the federal government come after you. You don’t need the “disinformation” police to solve “irregular migration”; you need this administration to do its job and stop the flood of illegal immigrants. If anyone should be fighting Russian disinformation, it’s the intelligence community and our military, not Biden’s new thought police. And if you want to stop COVID misinformation, tell the CDC to stop issuing inconsistent advice.

This new board is creepy, and is a clear threat to free speech. It seems designed to police thought, not protect the homeland. Words can’t sum it up as well as this very scientific chart: