Disinformation For Dummies

The internet is filled with misinformation. This post will give you some basic tips for identifying and avoiding fake news that can be found online.

On April 27, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee in Washington.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Kevin Dietsch/G

We understand that the classics are no longer taught in Public Schools but has anybody in the Biden administration read George Orwell? Apparently not, since the establishment of a new Disinformation Governance Board is the only reason.

We must confess that when we initially heard about it, we mistook it for misinformation from the Administration’s political foes. In this era of divisiveness and popular distrust of institutions, no one would consider it prudent to establish a government shop tasked with informing Americans about the truth.

We were mistaken. In a recent appearance before Congress, no less an authority than Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, revealed the existence of the board. He said that the goal of this new bureaucracy would be to alert Americans against misleading information coming from foreign foes such as Russia, China, and migrant smuggling groups.

“It tries to guarantee that the way we treat threats, the connections between threats and acts of violence are dealt without infringing on free speech—protecting civil rights and civil liberties, as well as the right to privacy,” Mr. Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

This isn’t comforting. It isn’t that the board will snoop on Americans that is causing worry. The issue is that this new body might decide to operate as a national fact checker, akin to the government’s PolitiFact. They’ll gaze down from Mt. Washington at this or that statement and declare what is true and what is untrue to the public.

There’s no question some usefulness in warning Haitian migrants that they will be deported if they attempt to cross the Mexican border into the United States Also, someone in government may be required to monitor and counter Russian or Chinese propaganda.

But does anybody believe this board will be limited to foreign lies? The temptation to address problems that are part of America’s tumultuous internal political discussion will be strong. The fact that the misinformation board’s first executive director is Nina Jankowicz, whose political fingerprints are all over Social Media adds to the confusion. On TikTok, she may be heard singing her own partisan altered lyrics to the tune of a “Mary Poppins” song. (What did Julie Andrews do to earn such a reputation?)

Mr. Mayorkas’ intentions may be apolitical, but it is not the government’s role to arbitrate political debates. That is something that should be left to the free exchange of ideas in the public arena. The Disinformation Governance Board will increase distrust rather than reduce it.

It is an insult to the millions of people who have paid back their loans, according to the Journal Editorial Board. We The 45 Million was photographed by Getty Images Mark Kelly’s composite

The print issue of the May 2, 2022, was published.