Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard criticized the Department of Homeland Security's Disinformation Governance Board, comparing it to the Ministry of Truth from the novel "1984."
The Department of Homeland Security recently revealed the creation of the board, which is designed to slow the spread of and censor domestically propagated false information, a decision that has been widely criticized by both left- and right-wing politicians, CBS News reported.
"Every dictatorship has a propaganda arm—a 'Ministry of Truth,'" Gabbard said in a tweet. "The Biden Administration has now formally joined the ranks of such dictatorships with their creation of the so-called 'Disinformation Governance Board.'"
The board will operate for all organizations under the DHS — such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Customs and Border Protection, and Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency — as an outlet to report any suspected disinformation using standard protocols to censor those different types of information from circulation, CBS News reported.
Since the announcement of its creation, the board has faced harsh criticism from Republicans, with many conservative politicians, as well as Gabbard, comparing the board to the government propaganda committee in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984," the Ministry of Truth, The Associated Press reported.
"We don't have definitions of what [the Disinformation Governance Board] is," Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said during a Senate hearing. "We don't have boundaries on what it does. Why should we not have suspicions on this?"
Another concern regarding the board lies with its executive director, Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, Fox News reported. Jankowicz has publicly supported the Democratic Party, posted videos on TikTok criticizing Republicans and faced accusations of personally disseminating disinformation herself.
A number of legislators have already challenged the board, CBS News reported. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) recently said that the board directly violates the Antideficiency Act, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a bill that would prevent the board from using federal funds.
