Ministry of Truth?

[Dill]

(05-02-2022, 05:34 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: You seem to be operating on the assumption that the people involved will perform their job in a fair and equitable fashion.  Given the background of the person picked to head it I'd say that's not a safe assumption to make.  Honestly, it would be a poor assumption to make regardless of the person hired.  I just find it odd that anyone would put such blind trust in this board and its "mission."

Thanks for the response. One's understanding of "equitable" is the key here. How is Jankowics' appointment different from appointing a judge or a Secretary of the Treasury, in terms of risk to "equity"? 

What is the problem with her background? She has been researching Russian disinformation in the Ukraine, Holland and Czech Republic for years, working with their governments to draft policies which address this problem, as well as the European Parliament. She has quite a bit of experience with defensive measures which don't work, as well as problems of defining "disinformation." Recognition of her competence by Europeans lead to a chair at the Wilson Center her in the U.S., where she has also done a deal of research on how Russian disinformation has continually adapted to our efforts to thwart it in the US, and written a book on the subject. 

And what "blind trust" is being accorded this person? Is it your assumption that Jankowics' job won't be under any kind of control or review? What enforcement power do you believe is entrusted to her position?

At the moment, it looks like the board will busy itself with publicizing best practices for recognizing disinformation, and with monitoring, perhaps investigating, foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections. Distinguishing that kind of disinformation from home grown varieties won't be as easy as it was six years ago. E.g., Republicans who believe that Putin is justified in invading Ukraine to protect Russia from the biological weapons harbored there will not likely agree they have been targets of Russian disinformation, and very likely to see their free speech under partisan attack by any DHS dept. which says otherwise. That's how effective and difficult to counter such disinformation has become.

Seems to me that the administration should have anticipated what would happen if they did not clearly define the goals of the Disinformation Board and its limitations. Into that vacuum has come all manner of the very thing the board was designed to identify; the narrative of an all powerful Biden partisan calling balls and strikes on all manner of domestic policy issues is fast becoming another Fox Truth.

How valuable this seems probably depends upon how seriously one takes the threat of disinformation to functioning democracy in the U.S.