Election Wizard 🇺🇸
@Electionwiz
BREAKING: Biden admin to ‘pause’ Disinformation Governance Board after backlash
May 18, 2022, 08:51
https://truthsocial.com/@Electionwiz/108323740074622432
Nina Jankowicz may be out.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
SCOOP: Just 3 weeks after its announcement, the Disinformation Governance Board is being "paused" and intra-departmental DHS working groups focused on disinformation have been suspended.
Nina Jankowicz is considering leaving. Read my full story: https://t.co/rLi3FvUNMw— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 18, 2022
The ‘pause’ of the newly-created Disinfo Governance Board comes as its head, Nina Jankowicz, has been the target of vicious, coordinated right-wing attacks, which govt officials have failed to effectively counter
Interviews w/ sources inside the DHS, on the Hill, along w/ disinfo experts, show how Jankowicz was set up to fail by an admin unsure of its messaging & unprepared to counteract the coordinated, far right online campaign against her
The decision to "pause" the Disinfo Governance Board caps a wild back-and-forth week of decisions that changed during the course of reporting of this story.
On Monday, the DHS decided to shut down the Disinformation Governance Board entirely, and Jankowicz drafted a resignation letter in response to the Board’s dissolution.
Then, late last night, they decided it would simply be "paused."
Last night, Jankowicz was pulled into an urgent call with DHS officials who gave her the choice to stay on, even as the department’s work was put on hold due to the backlash it faced.
Intra-departmental working groups within DHS focused on mis-, dis- and mal-information have been suspended. The board itself could still be shut down permanently pending a review from the Homeland Security Advisory Council
Jankowicz is currently evaluating her position within the department. After attempting to defend herself and her reputation online, she was told by the administration to stay silent while enduring unrelenting attacks and violent threats
A 15 yr veteran of the DHS called the dept's response to the controversy “mind boggling.”
“I’ve never seen the Department react like this before,” he said. Its failure to protect Jankowicz shows admin's inability to counter far right disinfo campaigns
Jankowicz’s experience is a prime ex. of how the right-wing Internet operates, where far-right influencers set the discourse cycle & pick vulnerable targets to hurl into a feedback loop w/ the aim of discrediting and attacking them
A 52 pg report by @AdvDemocracy outlines the massive scope of the far right campaign against Jankowicz
Every single day, right wing media & far right influencers flood the internet w/ smears and lies about her and her work. My story details those attacks.
What Nina Jankowicz has been put through over the past 3 weeks is a horrifying cautionary tale. Legacy institutions, including the govt, media orgs, & academic institutions, are largely unprepared for countering these right-wing online attack campaigns
Dozens of websites including Breitbart, the Post Millennial & the New York Post have mined thousands of Jackowicz’s past social media posts, publishing articles that mischaracterize her comments. Each post has been misrepresented to spark maximum outrage
DHS staffers have grown frustrated with the Department’s suspension of all intra-departmental working groups focused on mis-, dis-, and malinformation.
Staff felt it was an overreaction that gave way too much credence to bad faith actors.
The week following Jankowicz's announcement, approximately 70% of Fox News’ one-hour segments mentioned either Jankowicz or the Board. Fox News coverage was referenced in some of the most popular posts on Facebook and Twitter attacking Jankowicz.
Far right harassment & smear campaigns all follow the same playbook and it’s critical that the public and leaders in government, the media and educational bodies, start to learn how these cycles operate and how to effectively counter them.
“They try to define ppl by these single, decontextualized moments,” @etbrooking said. “In Nina’s case it’s a few comments out of thousands.. They fixate on these small instances & they define this villain. Then, they start building a mythology around them"
LOL...Mary Poppins has turned in her resignation.
Now, THAT is something to sing about 😂 🎶
Dems "pause" but never give back anything. They operate like a ratchet, never backing up form anything they have gained while Republicans give up their beliefs over and over.