Source: Politics<\/p>\n
It started the way all Washington\u2019s spiciest scandals start \u2014 with a departmental working group.<\/p>\n
Over just a few days last week, the creation of a new board in the Department of Homeland Security generated an outcry on the right, from genteel retiring lawmakers to the loudest hosts on Fox News. It found its way to congressional Republicans\u2019 oversight to-do lists. The secretary of Homeland Security was forced to address the allegations on multiple Sunday shows. And the board\u2019s new executive director went very, very viral<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was dramatic. But it didn\u2019t start that way.<\/p>\n \u201cThe irony is that this board is really kind of boring,\u201d said a DHS official who was not authorized to address the topic on the record. \u201cIt was designed to protect against the very thing that we\u2019re being accused of doing \u2014 that is, it was designed to protect the free speech, privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t even convened its first meeting, but already the Disinformation Governance Board \u2014 a small group created to work on a complicated problem \u2014 has become a big headache.<\/p>\n The Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as DHS secretary on Feb. 2, 2021. In his confirmation hearing, held just two weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, he promised to take on domestic violent extremism, calling it \u201cone of the greatest challenges that the Department of Homeland Security confronts.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in Mayorkas\u2019 tenure at DHS, his team saw that malicious internet activity fed virtually every problem the department faced, according to John Cohen, a top counterterrorism official in the department at the time who helped stand up the board. This activity took a host of shapes: domestic violent extremists threatening members of Congress, human smugglers enticing migrants by spreading lies about U.S. border policies to entice migrants, Russian intelligence officers posting false claims about U.S. elections, and so on.<\/p>\n DHS leadership stood up a working group on the issue, said Cohen, who left the department last month. That group was helmed by the Office of Policy and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Its members concluded last year that there wasn\u2019t a mechanism to address the policies governing how these activities are coordinated across the sprawling department, Cohen said.<\/p>\n One particular concern was that some DHS components \u2014 like Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2014 can legally go undercover online (for instance, to infiltrate a human smuggling organization\u2019s chat group). But for others, like I&A, going undercover is prohibited. Were there policies in place to make sure that when different agencies within DHS shared information with each other, it was all done appropriately?<\/p>\n It\u2019s Washington, so the working group concluded that there needed to be another new group working on these issues. Cohen wrote a memo describing a board that would do just that. He noted it\u2019s no secret that the department has long grappled with how to fight disinformation, going as far back as Hurricane Sandy<\/a> in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not sitting there saying, \u2018Hey, what should we be doing about Russian disinformation focusing on X, Y, and Z?\u2019\u201d he told POLITICO. \u201cThey\u2019re focusing on, \u2018Hey, information is being gathered and collected under different sets of legal authorities. What is the appropriate way to share that information so we\u2019re not in conflict with those legal authorities?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a good use of time to be angry about the creation of a policy coordination group,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, department leadership decided to stand up the disinformation board, according to the DHS official. The pick for director was disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz, who managed programs for Russia and Belarus for the National Democratic Institute and has advised the Ukrainian government, according to her biography<\/a> at the Wilson Center. She\u2019s also written two books: How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict; and How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back.<\/p>\n The DHS official told POLITICO that Jankowicz started at the department on March 2. In mid-April \u2014 after she started at DHS but before her hiring became public \u2014 she did an interview with NPR promoting her second book, which focuses on harassment women face online. A transcript of the interview<\/a> dated April 16 describes her only as a \u201cdisinformation researcher,\u201d and does not note that she works for DHS on internet-related issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need the platforms to do more, and we frankly need law enforcement and our legislatures to do more as well,\u201d she told NPR.<\/p>\n An NPR spokesperson did not provide comment on its disclosure policies for guests.<\/p>\n On April 27, POLITICO\u2019s Playbook newsletter broke the news of Jankowicz\u2019s hiring<\/a>, and of the board\u2019s existence. That same day, in congressional testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Mayorkas talked up the board as a major new step in the department\u2019s fight against disinformation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have just established a mis- and disinformation governance board in the Department of Homeland Security to more effectively combat this threat, not only to election security but to our homeland security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It was an odd comment, given that DHS now says the board does not run or manage any department operations.<\/p>\n Jankowicz, meanwhile, immediately drew condemnation and guffaws on Twitter \u2014 mostly, but not entirely<\/a>, from conservatives \u2014 for her commentary on disinformation, which included a cringe-worthy parody of a Mary Poppins song<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mayorkas and White House press secretary Jen Psaki both defended Jankowicz\u2019s work.<\/p>\n DHS was already playing defense. On May 2, the department released a brief fact sheet<\/a> saying the board was set up \u201cwith the explicit goal\u201d of ensuring that protections for Americans\u2019 rights and privacy are \u201cappropriately incorporated\u201d across DHS\u2019 disinformation-related work. The fact sheet noted the board also aims to help coordinate DHS\u2019 work with other government agencies and \u201ca diverse range of external stakeholders.\u201d Reached for comment on this story, a DHS spokesperson pointed POLITICO to the fact sheet.<\/p>\n Republicans assumed the worst. Sen. Ron Johnson<\/a> (R-Wis.), a member of the Senate Homeland Security committee, said the board<\/a> \u201cshould frighten anyone who values liberty.\u201d Sen. Rob Portman<\/a> (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the same committee, said he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by the move. And Reps. John Katko<\/a> (N.Y.) and Mike Turner<\/a> (Ohio) \u2014 the top Republicans on the House Intelligence and House Homeland Security committees \u2014 fired off a letter<\/a> to Mayorkas asking for a host of documents related to the board.<\/p>\n This weekend, Mayorkas made the rounds of the Sunday shows and tried to do some clean-up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could have done a better job of communicating what it is and what it isn\u2019t,\u201d he said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n That was a bit of an understatement.<\/p>\n \u201cThey only have themselves to blame for this firestorm,\u201d said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU\u2019s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. \u201cThey announced something with a creepy name and provided no information about the scope or authorities of the board.\u201d<\/p>\n DHS officials will have ample opportunities to answer more questions in future Congressional hearings. Republicans plan to make the board a major focus if the House flips in November.<\/p>\n \u201cEfforts are afoot to begin serious oversight of this,\u201d said a Congressional Republican aide who works on investigations. \u201cWe see it as fundamentally un-American.\u201d<\/p>\n The board\u2019s defenders, meanwhile, plead innocence. The DHS official said nobody there expected the outcry against the board, and that they would have put more thought into its name if they\u2019d had better foresight.<\/p>\n And, Cohen said, protecting Americans\u2019 rights while combating disinformation is of paramount importance.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no area of national security that isn\u2019t impacted by this,\u201d he said. \u201cNone.\u201d<\/p>\nExtremely online problems<\/h5>\n
A controversial pick<\/h5>\n