Disinformation has become another untouchable problem in Washington
Many federal agencies agree that widespread lies threaten national security. Doing something about them is another matter.
WASHINGTON — The memo that reached the top of the Department of Homeland Security in September couldn't have been more clear about his plan to create a board of directors to oversee national security threats caused by the spread of dangerous disinformation. the public arena."
Yet when Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced the disinformation board in April, Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators denounced it exactly like that, calling it an Orwellian attempt to stifle dissenting opinion. So have some critics on the left, who have questioned what powers such an office could wield in the hands of future Republican administrations. /p>
Within weeks the new council was dismantled - put on "pause", officially - canceled in part by the forces it was supposed to fight, including the warps of the intent and powers of the council.
government that has coordinated disinformation campaigns threatens to exacerbate public health emergencies, fuel ethnic divisions and racial lines and even to undermine democracy ate herself. The fate of the board, however, underscored how deeply partisan the issue has become in Washington, making it nearly impossible to even consider tackling the threat.
Inaction, experts say, has left openings for new waves of disinformation ahead of November's midterm elections — and even violence like the racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket in May, motivated by a baseless conspiracy theory that global forces were aiming to "replace" white Americans with immigrants.
"I think we're in a really grim spot here in this country," said Nina Jankowicz, who briefly served as a board director before stepping down when the controversy boiled over.
A leading author and researcher in the field of misinformation, which once advised the Ukrainian government, Ms Jankowicz has become the center of fury, targeted online by false or misleading information about her role in what critics have denounced as a Ministry of Truth.
"It's hard to imagine how we recover from this," she said in an interview, "when this is how our elected officials behave - while we can't agree on, you know, what the truth is."
The threats of disinformation today involve issues that not so long ago might have transcended partisan politics. Instead, misinformation has become mired in the country's growing partisan and geographic divisions over issues such as abortion, weapons and climate change recognized the threat. The agency, along with the director of national intelligence, commissioned a study in 2019 that concluded that misinformation could, among other things, "aggravate existing societal fissures" and "cause a panic which reverberates on the financial markets".
The Federal Bur Water of Investigation, the State Department and the Pentagon have repeatedly warned against threats from foreign sources...
Many federal agencies agree that widespread lies threaten national security. Doing something about them is another matter.
WASHINGTON — The memo that reached the top of the Department of Homeland Security in September couldn't have been more clear about his plan to create a board of directors to oversee national security threats caused by the spread of dangerous disinformation. the public arena."
Yet when Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced the disinformation board in April, Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators denounced it exactly like that, calling it an Orwellian attempt to stifle dissenting opinion. So have some critics on the left, who have questioned what powers such an office could wield in the hands of future Republican administrations. /p>
Within weeks the new council was dismantled - put on "pause", officially - canceled in part by the forces it was supposed to fight, including the warps of the intent and powers of the council.
government that has coordinated disinformation campaigns threatens to exacerbate public health emergencies, fuel ethnic divisions and racial lines and even to undermine democracy ate herself. The fate of the board, however, underscored how deeply partisan the issue has become in Washington, making it nearly impossible to even consider tackling the threat.
Inaction, experts say, has left openings for new waves of disinformation ahead of November's midterm elections — and even violence like the racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket in May, motivated by a baseless conspiracy theory that global forces were aiming to "replace" white Americans with immigrants.
"I think we're in a really grim spot here in this country," said Nina Jankowicz, who briefly served as a board director before stepping down when the controversy boiled over.
A leading author and researcher in the field of misinformation, which once advised the Ukrainian government, Ms Jankowicz has become the center of fury, targeted online by false or misleading information about her role in what critics have denounced as a Ministry of Truth.
"It's hard to imagine how we recover from this," she said in an interview, "when this is how our elected officials behave - while we can't agree on, you know, what the truth is."
The threats of disinformation today involve issues that not so long ago might have transcended partisan politics. Instead, misinformation has become mired in the country's growing partisan and geographic divisions over issues such as abortion, weapons and climate change recognized the threat. The agency, along with the director of national intelligence, commissioned a study in 2019 that concluded that misinformation could, among other things, "aggravate existing societal fissures" and "cause a panic which reverberates on the financial markets".
The Federal Bur Water of Investigation, the State Department and the Pentagon have repeatedly warned against threats from foreign sources...
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