Oh, (Big) brother!
President Biden was criticized Thursday for setting up an “anti-utopian” disinformation bureau set up within his home security department, which critics described as simply a way for the government to control freedom of speech online.
Conservatives have criticized Homeland Security’s new Disinformation Management Council, with some suggesting the time is right, as Elon Musk has vowed to turn Twitter into a refuge for free speech following its $ 44 billion takeover. on the social media platform, known for the selective censorship of right-wing biases.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called the new board a “disgrace” designed to “watch the speech of all Americans.”
In a letter to Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas, Hawley said he initially thought Wednesday’s announcement was “satire”.
“Certainly no American administration would ever use the power of government to judge the speech of the First Amendment to its own citizens. “Unfortunately, I was wrong,” Hawley wrote.
“Instead of defending our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make the American police speech your priority.
Biden elected Nina Jankovic to head the Interior Ministry’s Disinformation Management Council. wiczipedia / Twitter
The Republican Congressman candidate from Florida, Dr. Willie J. Montague tweeted, “Is there anything more anti-utopian than the Federal Government’s Disinformation Management Council?”
And Texas Republican Congressman Troy Nels was outraged: “They didn’t need the Disinformation Management Council until @elonmusk threatened to control their story.”
Republican Congressman Lauren Boubert has accused Democrats of “spending the last few weeks planting seeds for the backup plan in case the Twitter deal really happens.”
She also called the news “anti-utopian” and said that the left “cannot afford the truth to be anything other than what they say”.
The hashtag “Ministry of Truth” was also a trend on Twitter, as critics compared the new board to George Orwell’s 1984 novel.
“Adolf Hitler had a ministry of truth. Josef Goebbels had a ministry of truth. Joseph Stalin had a ministry of truth. “Joseph Biden has the Ministry of Truth,” tweeted Erol Weber, a Republican candidate for the Republican Congress in California.
Georgia’s Andrew Clyde added: “Biden’s dystopian disinformation management council is seriously dangerous and completely unconstitutional. I urge Congress to investigate the DHS Ministry of Truth – NOW.
The newly formed panel will focus on alleged misinformation targeting key vulnerabilities for Biden and Democrats, such as migrants from the southern border, and will monitor and prepare for Russian disinformation threats as this year’s midterm elections approach, DHS said.
“Spreading misinformation can affect border security, the safety of Americans in times of disaster, and public confidence in our democratic institutions,” the department said in a statement.
DHS said the board would “protect privacy, civil rights and civil liberties” as part of its responsibilities.
Conservatives call the creation of the Disinformation Management Council a “disgrace.”
The board will be led by Nina Jankovic, a disinformation expert who has been criticized for repeatedly questioning The Post’s report on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she had no details on the role of the board or its executive director during a press briefing Thursday, but said President Biden supported the effort.
“We know that there is a lot of misinformation on a number of topics – I mean, including COVID, for example, as well as elections and eligibility,” Psaki said. “But I’ll check and see if there are more details.”
The reaction to the board came when the Biden administration also unveiled an international “Declaration on the Future of the Internet” with 50 other countries on Thursday, endorsing efforts to curb online “misinformation” and “harassment.”
The document outlines ideas for “regaining the promise of the Internet” and is described by US officials as an effort to counter the practices of countries, including China and Russia.
In particular, there is no mention of US internal struggles for Internet freedom, such as politically motivated censorship of news materials by private companies and alleged illegal mass surveillance by the government.
The creation of the team comes against the backdrop of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Andrew Harnick / AP
The term misinformation was used to censor content that later gained widespread acclaim, such as the Post’s report on documents from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which Twitter blocked and Facebook suffocated, and speculation that COVID-19 had leaked from a Chinese lab. which Facebook previously banned. The US intelligence agencies later discovered the scenario as one of two “plausible” theories about the origin of the pandemic.
The vague document does not describe a specific means of protection against misinformation, but calls on governments to “[f]provide greater exposure to diverse cultural and multilingual content, information and news online. ”
“Exposing diverse content online should contribute to pluralistic public discourse, promote greater social and digital inclusion in society, strengthen the resilience of misinformation and misinformation, and increase participation in democratic processes,” the document said.
The new document has been signed by many US allies, including the governments of France, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom, but the list does not include many of the largest but relatively weak democracies, such as Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.
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