The government is watching the evolution of Twitter into a free speech platform and making some plans of its own to curtail disinformation. Within 48 hours of the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the Department of Homeland Security announced it is creating what the Biden Administration calls a “Disinformation Governance Board,” designed to fight disinformation and misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Others are calling it a “ministry of truth.”
Earlier in the week, the Open Markets Institute said the FCC, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission should block Musk’s purchase of social media giant Twitter.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr responded to the institute’s request: “The FCC has zero authority to block Musk’s purchase of Twitter. And it is particularly frivolous to ask the agency to do so in the name of protecting free speech and open debate.”
The focus at the outset of the new Disinformation Governance Board project will be on what the government calls “irregular migration” (also known to regular Americans as illegal immigration) and Russia.
Heading up the governance board is Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center. She previously advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as part of the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship and oversaw Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute.
Jankowicz has a social media history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about former British spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier that led to the Durham report.
Jankowicz has also on social media distorted information about Hunter Biden’s missing laptop and his dealings in Ukraine.
In addition to the new “ministry of truth” board, the federal government is taking other steps relating to the internet. The State Department and White House’s National Security Council is launching on Friday a “Declaration for the Future of the Internet.” The virtual launch will be broadcast from the White House with more than 50 partners from around the world.
“The Declaration is a political commitment among partners to advance an affirmative vision for the Internet and digital technologies,” the State Department says. The launch will be livestreamed to the public on www.whitehouse.gov/live. Following the launch, the Declaration of the Future of the Internet will be posted at www.state.gov.
The document has goals of opposing discrimination based on gender identity, quashing state-sponsored cybercrime and disinformation, and condemning Internet outages that are meant to block access to information. Also, there are references to human rights, rule of law, child exploitation, and creating a safe internet that is free from “discrimination based on race, ethnicity, political beliefs, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Online safety should include forbidding gender-based attacks and child sexual exploitation,” according to a leaked draft of the document.
The declaration has gained traction in recent months as Russia and China threaten to disconnect from the internet. Signatories include the U.S., European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and South Korea. Ukraine may also participate in the announcement.
The declaration is also supportive of the principles of net neutrality and opposes “misusing or abusing the Internet or algorithmic tools or techniques for unlawful surveillance, oppression, and repression that do not align with international human rights principles, including developing social scorecards or other mechanisms of domestic social control or pre-crime detention and arrest.”
It’s fascinating watching the left meltdown over Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Railing against a billionaire daring to purchase their favorite social media outlet is really rich. Where was this concern when Bezos bought the Amazon Post? Another example of the left being so concerned about the censuring that they themselves routinely do.
Ministry of Truth? WHO’s Truth? Joe Biden is one of the biggest liars ever. That is, besides Hillary Clinton. And the media covers for all the Democrats.
“Disinformation Governance Board”!!?!?!! Wow! These people are revealing their true fascist core. The volume which they are squealing at the removal of Twitter from their arsenal reveals the truth of extensive use of it to control public conversation.
A very dangerous and un-American group of people for sure.
Thought police is now a reality. Hypocrisy on a level only the “liberals” can achieve.
Twitter engaged in election meddling on an unprecedented level when they blocked any reference of Hunter Biden’s laptop which contained incriminating evidence of Joe Biden’s influence peddling while Vice President. Now, the Biden Cartel is frantically trying to reign in social media before the midterms. Don’t be fooled by their lies. #impeach46!
Who gets to decide what is information and what is not information? Last time I checked, it was the reader, not the Government. Do you want some random stranger working in a cubicle in DC deciding what is OK for you to read?
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This is government overreach defined.
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Controlling the information available is the tactic of petty tyrants and tin pot dictators. Not the purview of a Constitutional Republic.
People had better wake up and stand against this stuff. Truth cops, social rank system and pre crime detention all looks like communism in control. Last time I looked this was a free country.
Stalin would be proud.
Grandpa Sniffy -or more accurately the people running him- want to bring down this nation as founded.
Musk is absolutely the wrong guy to jack with. He has the money and disposition to fight back.
Since there is not, and cannot be, any objective definition of the words “misinformation” and “disinformation”, it is undeniable that any official actions and programs to counter either is wholly political and authoritarian in nature.
The Matrix had free internet.
You know what the world can safely live without??? Facebook, Twitter.. Any social media platform.. There is zero truth on any of it! Just a bunch of whiny idiots yelling at each other digitally because one doesn’t agree with what the other said. Dump it all! It is not necessary!
All it has done is revert people to thinking they can say anything to anyone without consequences like a punch in the mouth. Real life is not Facebook nor Twitter. Do yourself a favor and extract yourself if you are still part of it. Otherwise you are part of the problem!
Funny thing is, Musk is no hero for freedom or humanity, but he certainly has the leftist nut bags on edge.
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One has to wonder how the Biden administration survived this long without an official Disinformation Minister. Not that we wondering if they were serious about trying to outdo anything Orwell was able to dream up…
Biden did have Disinformation Ministers: MSNBC, CNN, ABC & maybe CBS (not personally sure of that last one). Also, Twitter & Facebook. The DNC just lost one of their ministers via Twitter, so now they’re trying to break other rules.
Is Mis – Dis -Mal information free speech? Or does the biden government think it is not? Who is the judge of Mis- Dis- Mal information, the biden admin? Is it except for them? Is it ok for the biden admin to lie gaslight and propagandize Americans citizens?
Question: What ever happened to the trucker protest in the US?
Orwell was an optimist.
Illegal group activity is acting without express authority as stated within the US Constitution. Such a Commission is not mentioned within the US Constitution. One must have authority first to delegate that authority to a “Commission”. Such authority is not cited anywhere. An agent does not have more authority than the agent’s principal the free American and never ascends to a star chamber overcoming the principal’s liberty to choose what he believes or this nation becomes foreign.
Welcome to North Venezuela.
Those in control of the Government in Washington today will do everything they can get away with to block free speech and retain control of the general population and what it can see and hear..we have a good dose of it with our own home town Anchorage assembly members…with an evil assembly chair guiding the process..
The president of a bankrupt and settled corporation is not equal to the King of Siam. A King ? has control of all assets of his kingdom and may appoint overseers of his kingdom in any unfettered fashion. Is that what we have? A king? What a lustrous surprise.
It’s evident that “this government” is monitoring CNN and to their liking.
We are just a few years behind the Chinese in the way our government treats their people, but we are catching up. If you want to see our future, just watch what is going on in China. Or North Korea for that matter.
Trump bad, Biden good. Musk bad, Zuckerberg good.
Ah. So when the ‘Leftist Cabal’ controls the narrative, it is perfectly fine, but when any other entity not of their ilk possibly allows various narratives, inclusive of free speech, said narratives must be governmentally overseen…hmmm
Fascist, much?
I remember reading Orwell’s 1984 when I was at home quarantining with Chicken Pox as a high school freshman. I also read Animal Farm. Never in my life did I think these things would happen here at that time. Look’s like I was way too optimistic. This new “Ministry of Truth” has joined the group revising history to suit their political agenda, manufacturing new “facts” to support their war agenda, and preparing to disarm the populace so no one will be left with anything to fight back with. All in one lifetime. Just like Orwell predicted. Add the way we are all being monitored via our smart phones and internet and there you have it. Big Brother is watching you. And now they are also thinking of locking up people for “thinking the wrong thoughts.” And if you are searching for any sites opposing their agenda, many have “lost their certificates.” In other words, they are being blocked. Totalitarian government has arrived. Totally unbelievable but true.
Well, the government has created a generation of knuckleheads, so it has to do their thinking for them, and the knuckleheads that have allowed it to happen.
Someone has to tell you if The Emporer has new clothes.
While clinging to their face mask
The board puts the Twitter flag at half-mast
The Libs of Tok are raising a fuss
While the based crowd yells “in Musk we trust”
We now have Elon to take you to task
“Ministry of Truth”?! In related news, Biden thanks the American people for his 100% approval rating and announces he will now go by the title “Dear Exalted Leader who provides and protects the freedoms of the People’s Democratic Republic of America”. Just because you say it and name it so don’t make it true.