The Department of Homeland Security has officially terminated its Orwellian plans for a Disinformation Governance Board. The action follows MRC Free Speech America, in conjunction with MRC Business, exposing the DGB’s leftist bias — including its connections to liberal billionaire George Soros.
The DHS announced in an Aug. 24 press release that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas terminated the Disinformation Governance Board and rescinded its charter after a recommendation from the Homeland Security Advisory Council. This development follows the DGB pausing operations after mass public backlash.
MRC Business was the first to expose how the DGB’s former co-chair, DHS Principal Deputy General Counsel Jennifer Daskal, previously worked as a fellow for Soros’ Open Society Institute “working on issues related to privacy and law enforcement access to data across borders.”
Daskal was also founding editor of the Just Security blog. Soros’s Open Society Foundations gave at least $675,000 to Just Security between 2017 and 2019.
MRC Free Speech America also found that DGB advisor Michael Chertoff, who directed a review of the DGB following its pause of operations, was Cybersecurity Group ex-officio member of the Soros-funded Aspen Institute. Two organizations within Soros’s Open Society Network — Foundation to Promote Open Society ($2,594,780) and the Open Society Institute ($445,000) — poured at least $3,039,780 into the Aspen Institute between 2003 and 2020.
Any “nonpartisan” veneer President Joe Biden’s administration falsely propped up for the DGB flew out the window after MRC Business exposed this Soros connection.
Make no mistake, Joe Biden's Ministry of Truth was only shut down because they were caught.
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) August 25, 2022
And it's only a matter of time until it comes back in another form.https://t.co/BE0aVdPn6F
Daskal also worked as senior counterterrorism counsel for the anti-Semitic Human Rights Watch, which received at least $32,106,746 from Soros between 2000 and 2014. National Review contributing editor Andrew McCarthy referred to Daskal in 2009 as a “left-wing activist who advocated on behalf of al Qaeda prisoners” while working with Human Rights Watch.
MRC Business also exposed how both Daskal and former “Mary Poppins” DGB Executive Director Nina Jankowicz both donated to Biden. This discovery cast doubt on former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s pledge that the Orwellian DGB would “operate in a nonpartisan and apolitical manner."
Watch below as then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pledged back on May 2 that the Disinformation Governance Board was “nonpartisan.”
DHS appeared to suggest in its press release that it isn’t exactly giving up on its disinformation gambit:
With the HSAC recommendations as a guide, the Department will continue to address threat streams that undermine the security of our country consistent with the law, while upholding the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency in our work.
The push for a censorship apparatus like the DGB is even worse in light of the Biden administration’s active coordination with Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley to police Americans’ speech.
Whistleblower documents obtained by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) showed that DHS explored possible partnerships with Big Tech platforms including Twitter to fight so-called “disinformation” spreading in the U.S. The leaked documents described questions on the validity of the 2020 election, questions on the origins and effects of COVID-19 vaccines and questions on the efficacy of masks as “homeland security risks.”
The documents also revealed that Mayorkas officially approved the DGB to begin work on Feb. 24, which contradicted his May 4 congressional testimony that the DGB had “not yet begun its work.” The DGB functioned and held meetings with Big Tech companies more than two months before Mayorkas informed Congress the DGB had yet to start its work.
Americans have won a clear victory with the demise of the leftist-biased, Soros-tied DGB. However, the DGB saga, taken straight out of the script of George Orwell’s “1984,” should serve as a stark warning of the creeping threat of tyranny.
DHS did not respond to MRC’s request for a copy of the completed DGB review by publication time.
MRC Free Speech America Staff Writer Catherine Salgado contributed to this report.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
