The Disinformation Governance Board was a media law-enforcement strategy to push Biden White House propaganda.
QUICK FACTS:
- Documents obtained by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) to regulate “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” (MDM).
- Using the board, DHS believed it had the authority to regulate speech pertaining to “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine” as well as “irregular immigration.”
- One memo recovered from the FOIA request is entitled “Ukraine MDM Playbook,” dated 2022, although its contents are redacted.
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Jen Easterly said, “[T]he most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure, so building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think, is incredibly important,” according to an interim staff report from the Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
- The statement resulted in federal efforts to combat so-called “misinformation” and “malformation,” which is defined as “information that is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
- “In other words, malinformation is factual information that is objectionable not because it is false or untruthful, but because it is provided without adequate ‘context’—context as determined by the government,” the report explains.
- Conservative commentator Jonathan Turley wrote on his website that DHS had concealed its censorship activities under FOIA Exemption 7(E), which protects “techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations.”
- By using law enforcement strategies to enforce censorship, First Amendment-protected public dissent would potentially be compared to criminal acts.
STATEMENT FROM AFPF DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS KEVIN SCHMIDT:
- Americans for Prosperity Foundation Director of Investigations Kevin Schmidt told Fox News Digital, who exclusively reviewed the FOIA documents, “If DHS believes it has the authority to police people’s online speech, it should be open with the public about what those authorities are.”
- “The idea that any agency with such vast political power believes it has the authority to determine what ideas count as good or true upsets the delicate balance of power established by our founding fathers,” he added. “Our Constitution was designed to protect people’s liberties from overreaching authorities. But the documents we’ve uncovered suggest that DHS believes it has overreaching authorities to regulate speech under the guise of countering misinformation even without a Disinformation Governance Board.”
BACKGROUND:
- Last week, Representatives Ronny Jackson (R-TX), August Pfluger (R-TX), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced legislation prohibiting DHS from developing another disinformation board.
- Jackson said in a statement, “The Biden Administration’s relentless fight to censor and control Americans’ speech under the alias of ‘disinformation’ must be stopped.”
- Pfluger issued a similar statement, explaining, “DHS should be focused on securing the border and preventing terrorist attacks, not fact-checking social media, and censoring Americans.”
- “Our government should never censor its own citizens, yet the Biden regime boldly did so until public outrage forced it to be disbanded. I am proud to co-lead this critical legislation to ensure that a ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ never finds its place in our government again,” Greene said.
