Biden's Disinformation Governance Board faces conservative attacks after messy rollout, but experts say it's no 'Ministry of Truth'

• The DHS' newly announced Disinformation Governance Board has sparked backlash from the right.
• Right-wing politicians and pundits have misleadingly framed the group as a propaganda arm.

The Department of Homeland Security's recently announced "Disinformation Governance Board" has faced intense backlash from right-wing politicians and pundits, who have misleadingly claimed that the Biden administration is attempting to form an Orwellian "Ministry of Truth."

Although the initiative's stated mission is to combat malicious information from abroad, including misinformation targeting migrants and Russian disinformation, conservative influencers and politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have framed the board as a dystopian attack on free speech.

Other Republican representatives such as Lauren Boebert, Andrew Clyde, and Ben Cline have similarly piled on. Numerous other conservative influencers—from Fox News host Tucker Carlson to far-right conspiracists like Jordan Sather and Jim Watkins—have also attacked the board using similar rhetoric.

Sara Aniano, a disinformation and extremism researcher, told Insider that right wing politicians and pundits have previously called a variety of anti-misinformation initiatives "Orwellian," including against "arguments for content moderation on the platform level." The scrutiny and criticism that the initiative already faces is likely to put additional pressure on its operations.

If the board doesn't "do a stellar job," Aniano said, "then the initiative will fail, because people are already very wary on the right of government oversight and overreach" related to free-speech.

In a CNN interview on Sunday, DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attempted to refute the criticism and said the board is a "small working group" with no "operational authority or capability." He acknowledged that the rollout was contentious and said "we probably could have done a better job of communicating" the board's purpose. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also defended the initiative on Monday and said it was an extension of work previously done by the DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The DHS released a statement on Monday clarifying the group's role, and said the "DHS is exploring additional ways to enhance the public's trust in this important work."

But that hasn't quelled the attacks. Boebert, who has expressed support for conspiracies including QAnon, led 61 other House representatives in introducing a bill to terminate the working group and block federal funds from being used to establish any similar kind of operation on Tuesday. Boebert alluded to Orwell's book in a statement about the bill and called the initiative a "Department of Propaganda."

Kayla Gogarty, an Associate Researcher Director at Media Matters, told Insider that it's "no surprise that right-wing media and personalities responded to news of the board" with baseless criticism.

"Conservatives push bad-faith attacks under the guise of 'free speech' in response to anything that they perceive will stymie their ability to push falsehoods and conspiracy theories," Gogarty said. "Fearmongering about the board is just a page out of conservatives' playbook."

The right-wing critics have especially honed in on Nina Jankowicz, the researcher and author appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the working group.

Many conservative influencers and politicians are claiming without evidence that Jankowicz would act with bias or censor right-wing speech. Some have spread a clip of Jankowicz singing an edited version of a "Mary Poppins" song she posted on TikTok in early 2021.

"They are just pulling out everything and anything they can," Aniano said of the attack on Jankowicz.

Aniano said the initiative could be valuable if it can get off the ground and make a positive impact, but that it's unclear as of now how the working group will take shape. Aniano is also curious to see if the working group will deal with average American citizens who are spreading dis- and misinformation, because "the focus is almost always on foreign interference, but we do have to look at how it's manifested at a local and nationwide level."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Aniano said of the board. "Once meaningful change happens, then maybe we'll say that it was a successful endeavor."