DHS Still Policing Disinformation Despite Dissolving Disinformation Governance Board

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created an internal board dedicated to combating misinformation and disinformation. Despite scrapping it after facing criticism, new reporting indicates that the agency is still pursuing the constitutionally dubious project.

The DHS announced the Disinformation Governance Board in April specifically to address Russian disinformation and false information spread by border traffickers. Nina Jankowicz, a Wilson Center fellow and "disinformation expert," was put in charge.

The board immediately garnered controversy, both for its "Orwellian" overtones as well as Jankowicz's then-recent statements decrying "free speech absolutists" and advocating for more countries to criminalize "'awful but lawful content.'"

Within days, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas clarified that the board had no regulatory power and was simply meant to determine "best practices" for dealing with misinformation and disinformation. Less than three weeks after the initial announcement, the DHS "paused" the board's rollout, and Jankowicz resigned. After DHS advisers indicated no need for such a board in the first place, Mayorkas dissolved it in August.

After resigning, Jankowicz told NPR that "everything you may have heard about the Disinformation Governance Board is wrong or is just a flat out lie" and that "we weren't going to be doing anything related to policing speech."