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Former ‘Disinformation Czar’ is back with a new campaign to police speech

April 25, 2024 | | Print Article

Former Biden administration “disinformation” czar Nina Jankowicz is back with a new effort to silence dissenting speech.

The effort is called the American Sunlight Project, and it’s focused on fighting back against the narratives being pushed by “elected officials, conservative media, attorneys, paid-for ‘journalists,’ and online influencers.”

“The campaign against counter-disinformation work is the greatest threat to freedom of expression and academic integrity since the McCarthy era,” Jankowicz said in a press release, vowing that the American Sunlight Project won’t “allow it to continue.”

“Once researchers are free to conduct their essential work, the American people will gain a better understanding of the nature and severity of the disinformation threats we face,” she said. “Disinformation knows no political party. Its ultimate victim is our democracy.”

The group was recently formed as an ostensibly “bipartisan” organization “to expose and oppose efforts to weaponize disinformation in the United States.”

“The organization will investigate the networks and money driving disinformation and educate the public about the threats disinformation poses to their daily lives,” according to the group’s website.

“The first step in the group’s program will involve countering the organized campaign currently challenging the work of disinformation researchers,” the description continues.

Speaking with The New York Times, Jankowicz claimed that the reason this group is needed is because the work by so-called “disinformation researchers” is being silenced through lawsuits and subpoenas.

“More and more researchers were getting swept up by this, and their institutions weren’t either allowing them to respond or responding in a way that really just was not rising to meet the moment,” she said. “And the problem with that, obviously, is that if we don’t push back on these campaigns, then that’s the prevailing narrative.”

As to what exact “work” she intends to do, Jankowicz said her group will allegedly mainly just try to inform the public.

“Ms. Jankowicz said her group would run advertisements about the broad threats and effects of disinformation and produce investigative reports on the backgrounds and financing of groups conducting disinformation campaigns — including those targeting the researchers,” according to the Times.

“She has joined with two veteran political strategists: Mr. Álvarez-Aranyos, formerly a communications strategist for Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan group that seeks to counter domestic authoritarian threats, and Eddie Vale, formerly of American Bridge, a liberal group devoted to gathering opposition research into Republicans,” the Times notes.

The fact that she’s recruited blatant leftist propagandists for her cause probably isn’t a good look.

All this comes two years after Jankowicz became a household name in conservative homes when the Biden administration installed her as the head of the so-called Disinformation Governance Board, a veritable “Ministry of Truth” designed to censor speech.

She was admittedly a perfect fit for the job given her history of claiming that virtually every single Republican talking point is a form of “disinformation”:

Both the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board and Jankowicz’s appointment to it prompted massive backlash, with conservatives, libertarians, and others accusing the administration of trying to silence dissenting speech.

While grilling Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at the time, Republican Sen. Rand Paul noted that the government is in no position to determine what is or isn’t truthful given its own record of promoting disinformation.

“Do you know who the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The U.S. government. Are you familiar with McNamara, the Pentagon Papers? Are you familiar with George W. Bush and the weapons of mass destruction? Are you familiar with Iran Contra? … I don’t trust government to figure out what the truth is,” he said.

Vivek Saxena
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