国土安全部长梅奥卡斯本周大部分时间都在为国务院新成立的虚假信息治理委员会辩护，以回应共和党议员对联邦执法中党派影响的担忧。
根据DHS的说法，该委员会实际上是为了解决当信息在部门之间共享时虚假信息运动引起的隐私问题，以及确保它得到适当的处理。但奥威尔式的名字和公认的笨拙的首次展示立即引起了人们的惊讶，并点燃了一场关于言论自由和党派偏见的辩论——特别是考虑到负责领导董事会活动的人。
众议院国土安全委员会(House Committee on Homeland Security)的共和党领袖迈克·特纳(Mike Turner)和约翰·卡特科(John Katko)上周在给马约尔卡斯的一封信中写道，“鉴于完全缺乏关于这项新举措的信息，以及政府实体识别和回应‘虚假信息’的潜在严重后果，我们对这个新委员会的活动感到严重关切，特别是在扬科维奇的领导下。”。
在周一发布的一份情况说明书中，国务院承认“对工作组、其作用和活动一直存在困惑”，并发誓要努力建立更大的公众信任。
对该委员会工作的困惑源于马约卡斯上周向国会发表的评论，即该委员会将被用来“更有效地打击”虚假信息的威胁。DHS现在表示，该机构将不会参与管理部门的运作，马约尔卡斯表示，该小组将“汇集我们部门的专家，以确保我们正在进行的打击虚假信息的工作不会侵犯言论自由，这是宪法第一修正案中的一项基本权利，也不会侵犯隐私权或其他公民权利和公民自由。”
白宫周五承诺，该委员会将以“非党派和非政治的方式”运作
但是肯塔基州共和党参议员兰德·保罗并不相信。
“我认为你不知道什么是虚假信息，我不认为政府有能力这样做，”他在参议院国土安全委员会的听证会上说。
国防部长反驳了共和党参议员约翰·肯尼迪的说法。董事会将成为“真相警察”
“国土安全部不会成为真相警察，”马约尔卡斯说。“这是最远离真相的事情。我们保护国土安全。”
凯文·迪奇/盖蒂图片社
2022年5月4日，国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯在国会山参议院国土安全拨款小组委员会面前作证。
共和党的批评也集中在Nina Jankowicz身上，这位前威尔逊中心研究员被任命为董事会主席。Jankowicz经常在Twitter上直言不讳，他公开批评共和党人，并对媒体报道批评乔·拜登总统的儿子亨特的准确性表示怀疑。
美联社(Associated Press)在2020年引用Jankowicz的话，驳斥了一个关于发现新电子邮件的故事，据报道，新电子邮件将亨特·拜登和一名乌克兰能源高管与总统联系起来。
“我们应该把它视为特朗普的竞选产品，”Jankowicz在那年10月告诉美联社。
她后来在推特上表示，这些邮件是“影响运动的一部分。”
“选民应该有这样的背景，而不是一个关于笔记本电脑维修店的童话，”Jankowicz写道。
《纽约时报》和《华盛顿邮报》今年3月在安全专家的帮助下确认了与亨特·拜登有关的电子邮件的真实性。美国广播公司新闻尚未独立证实这些电子邮件的真实性，这些电子邮件最初由《纽约邮报》在一篇文章中报道，该文章在Twitter上被标记为虚假信息。这家社交媒体公司要求小报删除帖子，但最终在拒绝后让步。
围绕新董事会的辩论是在监管言论(尤其是网络言论)的长期分歧背景下展开的。在不受监管的公共领域的自由主义信仰的推动下，右翼领导人支持埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)等人物，他最近对Twitter的收购遭到了那些认为社交媒体公司有责任消除其平台上的恶意骚扰、虚假信息和错误信息的人的怀疑和担忧。
“你的优先事项是建立一个董事会，并雇用一个去抖音谈论停止她不喜欢的言论的人，他嘲笑上一任总统的选民，这一直是你的优先事项，说你的优先事项错位是一种戏剧性的轻描淡写，部长先生，我认为你辞职的时候到了，”参议员乔希·霍利说。，告诉马约尔卡斯。
俄克拉荷马州共和党参议员詹姆斯·兰克福德(James Lankford)表示，詹科维兹过去曾发表过“政治声明”，这将使她失去担任董事会职务的资格。
“我认为这是一个可怕的想法，”犹他州共和党参议员米特·罗姆尼说。
马约卡斯则反驳说，他不知道抖音邮报的事，而且作为国务卿，他对DHS发生的事情负有最终责任。他也拒绝透露是谁雇佣了Jankowicz，但强调她必须以非党派的方式完成她的工作。
DHS前代理情报局长约翰·科恩(John Cohen)帮助建立了虚假信息委员会，并于上月离开该部门，他说，该委员会只是解决了该部门内部的沟通问题。
现为美国广播公司新闻撰稿人的科恩说:“它没有协调业务活动，没有管理情报业务，也没有对组织如何收集情报或信息提供任何意见。”。“它只是一个临时召集起来处理政策问题的工作组。”
DHS plays defense over Disinformation Governance Board
Homeland Security SecretaryAlejandro Mayorkashas spent much of this week defending the department's newly established Disinformation Governance Board in response to Republican lawmakers' concerns about partisan influence in federal law enforcement.
The board, according to DHS, was actually created to address privacy concerns that arise with disinformation campaigns when information is shared between departments as well as to ensure it's done appropriately. But the Orwellian name and an admittedly clumsy rollout immediately raised eyebrows as well as ignited a pre-existing debate about free speech and partisanship -- especially given the person tasked with leading the board's activities.
"Given the complete lack of information about this new initiative and the potential serious consequences of a government entity identifying and responding to 'disinformation,' we have serious concerns about the activities of this new Board, particularly under Ms. Jankowicz's leadership," Mike Turner and John Katko, Republican leaders of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote in a letter to Mayorkas last week.
In a fact sheet released Monday, the department admits that "there has been confusion about the working group, its role, and its activities" and vows to work on building greater public trust.
That confusion over the board's work stemmed from a comment Mayorkas made to Congress last week that it would be used to "more effectively combat" the threat of false information. DHS has now said the body will not be involved in managing department operations and Mayorkas said the group would "bring together the experts throughout our department to ensure that our ongoing work in combating disinformation is done in a way that does not infringe on free speech, a fundamental constitutional right embedded in the First Amendment, nor on the right of privacy or other civil rights and civil liberties."
The White House on Friday pledged the board will operate in a "nonpartisan and apolitical manner."
But Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, was not sold.
"I think you've got no idea what disinformation is, and I don't think the government is capable of it," he said during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.
The secretary pushed back on the assertion from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that the board will be the "truth police."
"The Department of Homeland Security is not going to be the truth police," Mayorkas said. "That is the farthest thing from the truth. We protect the security of the homeland."
The GOP criticisms also center on Nina Jankowicz, the former Wilson Center fellow tapped to lead the board. Jankowicz, who is routinely outspoken on Twitter, has publicly criticized Republicans and sowed doubt about the accuracy of press reports critical of President Joe Biden's son Hunter.
Jankowicz was quoted by the Associated Press in 2020 refuting a story about the discovery of new emails that reportedly linked Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy executive with the president.
"We should view it as a Trump campaign product," Jankowicz told the AP that October.
She later suggested on Twitter that the emails were "part of an influence campaign."
"Voters deserve that context, not a fairy tale about a laptop repair shop," Jankowicz wrote.
The New York Times and Washington Post confirmed the authenticity of the emails related to Hunter Biden with the help of security experts in March. ABC News has not independently confirmed the veracity of the emails, which were first reported by the New York Post in an article that was flagged as disinformation on Twitter. The social media company demanded the tabloid delete the posts but eventually backed down when it refused.
The debate over the new board takes place against the backdrop of a long-standing divide over regulating speech, especially online. Fueled by libertarian beliefs in an unregulated public sphere, leaders on the right have championed figures like Elon Musk, whose recent acquisition of Twitter was met with skepticism and concern from those who believe social media companies have a duty to remove vitriolic harassment, disinformation and misinformation on their platforms.
"Your priority is setting up a board and hiring someone who has gone to TikTok to talk about stopping speech she doesn't like, who has mocked voters of the last president, that has been your priority, and to say your priorities are misplaced is a dramatic understatement, and the time I think has come, Mr. Secretary, for you to resign," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Mayorkas.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said Jankowicz has made "political statements" in the past that would disqualify her from holding the position on the board.
"I think it's a terrible idea," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said.
Mayorkas, for his part, pushed back, saying he didn't know about the TikTok posts and, as secretary, he is ultimately responsible for what occurs at DHS. He also declined to say who hired Jankowicz but stressed she must do her job in a nonpartisan way.
John Cohen, the former acting intelligence chief at DHS who helped stand up the disinformation board and left the department last month, said the board simply addresses a communication issue within the department.
"It didn't coordinate operational activities, it wasn't governing intelligence operations, it had no input on how organizations collect intelligence or information," Cohen, now an ABC News contributor, said. "It was simply intended to be a working group that would gather on an ad hoc basis to address matters of policy."
