Nina Jankowicz quits amid free speech backlash as the Disinformation Board has been put on pause as
The decision of the DHS to pull the plug on the Disinformation Board comes amid ire and backlash as Jankowicz faces the music for pushing disinformation.
Over the years Nina Jankowicz has spread her own bit of disinformation while endorsing governments setting speech standards.
Jankowicz commented on the idea during testimony in an online safety hearing in the British Parliament in September 2021.
One British lawmaker asked Jankowicz about her opinion on setting minimum speech standards, such as banning the celebration of misogyny on the internet.
“Yes,” she replied, endorsing the idea, and noted the British Office of Communication (Ofcom) could set the standards.
“For Ofcom to be able to establish the minimum standards that would be applied to all platforms and incur fines would be a useful starting point,” Jankowicz said. “That could be based, again, on the preexisting terms of service.”
She conceded that alternative platforms committed to free speech could be a problem, mocking them for supporting “freedom of expression and fairy dust.”
Nina Jankowicz also endorsed the idea of shadow bans and demoting content.
“This is not only about taking down content. It can be about demoting content too and saying, “You can shout into the black void, but you don’t get a huge audience to do that,” she said.
While she sat in her high tower trying her hardest to determine what the rest of us could say, Jankowicz did her best to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as nothing more than “Trump campaign product” despite the fact it’s been confirmed. During the second presidential debate, Jankowicz posted that President Joe Biden cited “50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op.”
She claimed that the Steele Dossier, which we all know is fake, was funded by Republicans.
While talking with NPR’s Michael Martin she discussed Elon Musk buying Twitter and what would happen if “free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms.”
During a speaking event at The City Club of Cleveland in October 2021 titled “Disinformation and Democracy: Civic Discourse in the Digital Age.”, Jankowicz decided to play up on the divisive ways of liberals and stated that those who are opposed of CRT are spreading disinformation.
“Critical Race Theory has become one of those hot-button issues that the Republicans and other disinformers, who are engaged in disinformation for profit, frankly … have seized on,” Jankowicz said.
Nina Jankowicz also placed blame on media outlets “that are making money off of this (CRT) too.”
“I live in Virginia and in Loudoun County, that’s one of the areas where people have really honed in on this topic,” Jankowicz added at the event. “But it’s no different than any of the other hot-button issues that have allowed disinformation to flourish. It’s weaponizing people’s emotion.”
The Disinformation Board had been the subject of weeks of backlash from Republicans, libertarians and even some liberals, who likened the scheme to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s classic novel “1984.”
The Disinformation Board disinformation spreader was on Twitter’s Birdwatch feature, available to the blue check marked, lamenting that “there are a lot of people who shouldn’t be verified, who aren’t, you know, legit, in my opinion. I mean, they are real people, but they’re not trustworthy”.
“Anyway,” Nina Jankowicz went on. “So verified people can essentially start to edit Twitter, the same sort of way that Wikipedia is so they can add context to certain tweets.”
“So just as an easy example, not from any political standpoint,” she said, before launching into a political example, “if President Trump were still on Twitter and tweeted a claim about voter fraud, someone could add context from one of the 60 lawsuits that went through the court or something that an election official in one of the states said. Perhaps your own Secretary of State and his news conferences, something like that, adding context so that people have a fuller picture rather than just an individual claim on a tweet.”
On Wednesday, Jankowicz, announced her resignation to the delight of so many.
A DHS spokesperson insisted the Board was “grossly and intentionally mischaracterized,” telling The Post: “It was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner. It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland while protecting core Constitutional rights. However, false attacks have become a significant distraction from the Department’s vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people.”
Does a person who wants to forcibly edit the tweets she doesn’t like sound like an individual who is protecting the core Constitutional rights? Or even believes in our Constitutional rights?
“The Secretary has requested the HSAC’s final recommendations within 75 days. During the HSAC’s review, the Board will not convene and its work will be paused, but the Department’s critical work across several administrations to address disinformation that threatens the security of our country will continue,” the DHS spokesperson said.
