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Twitter Explodes With Memes And Discussions On 'Ministry Of Truth' After Biden Administration Announces 'Disinformation Governance Board'

April 29th, 2022 - 5:53 PM EDT by Aidan Walker

12 comments

An anon being touched by hands, and Tweets discussing free speech.
(Twitter / @ihadtodoittoem0, @elonmusk, @johncardillo)

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced in a Congressional hearing yesterday the formation of a Disinformation Governance Board meant to monitor and prevent the spread of disinformation online — with Nina Jankowicz as executive director of the board.

Critics, including many in conservative circles, rapidly dubbed the new board a “Ministry of Truth” in a reference to George Orwell’s famous novel 1984.

Based on publicly released information, the board’s first priority will be to combat disinformation from abroad, specifically at the southern border, such as false rumors about the U.S. border being open that circulated on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook that have helped to cause surges of migrants in the past. People from places like Haiti have traveled to the southern border after being misled by smugglers posting online that the United States would let them enter the country. Another stated objective of the Disinformation Governance Board is to counter a possible Russian cyberattack in the upcoming 2022 or 2024 elections.

The hashtag "#ministryoftruth" trended broadly across Twitter on Wednesday and Thursday, but picked up even more steam following a Tucker Carlson segment last night, in which he criticized U.S. aid to “the neoliberal government of Ukraine,” played clips from Mayorkas’ testimony and shared a TikTok made by Nina Jankowicz. Many of the memes about the Ministry of Truth were centered around Jankowicz herself.

Many also linked the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, with some Republicans arguing that Democrats are afraid of what the oligarch will do to deregulate speech on the social media platform.

Elon Musk, who has discussed “free speech” as a potential reason for his purchase of Twitter, has yet to comment on the Ministry of Truth. But, in a purportedly radical centrist turn, he has shared memes and tweets suggesting that while he thinks the left has gone too far, he is also “no fan of the far-right” and wants “less hate and more love.” Musk has also said free speech for him is “that which matches the law” (presumably federal American law) but has not gone into depth about how he interprets the law or if/how he plans to apply it.

The Ministry of Truth story circulated heavily in right-wing circles, with Fox News even publishing an editorial asking why less conservative outlets weren’t covering the news. Republican politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) also made comments and promised action against the board.

The memes about the Ministry of Truth continued to roll in, as many right-leaning users across social media expressed concern about “free speech,” fearing the disinformation board might censor their speech. Striking the balance between national security concerns and individual liberties has been an issue in American politics for centuries, and the disinformation board seems to be another chapter in this long discussion.

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Comments 12 total

MarkXT9000

May 01, 2022 at 03:50PM EDT

While the execution of this kind of "Ministry of Truth" sucked ass in this country, the concept for it would be better done in counties like Philippines, in which corrupt politics is mainly fueled with misinformation.

The most infamous example of these are the Ferdinand Marcos (or Marcos family in general) loyalists. People are still making up disinformation on this guy saying that how the Philippines during his "Martial Law" extended ruling was the "Golden Age" of that country's era. When they glossed over the massacres that happened there (one of which is the Palimbang Massacre, that has 1500 Muslims in a Mosque got killed and the women got raped altogether), the silence of journalists who criticizes his ruling back then, the flawed projects he promotes, Infrastructures that are made from loan and overspending (to the point that in 1986, the country's debt amassed in $26 Billion compared to 1968's $600 Million), and torturing of criminals and people who oppose him (The Archimedes Trajano case is a tragic example of this). Its just sickening that people would go on make fake news that a tyranical dictator "improved" this country.

As of today, similar Marcos family misinformation campaign still exists, though in a form of promoting Ferdinand Jr. to be the president of this country.

0

KoimanZX

Apr 29, 2022 at 10:59PM EDT

I assume it's meant to be a sort of fact-checking board (which probably would not be entirely trustworthy anyway.) The Biden Administration really bungled the reveal by not being very clear about the board's functions and allowed for interpretations that ended up hurting its image. Of course, my knowledge about this thing is pretty limited, so I cannot say anything about it with 100% certainty.

3

IfYaDVote-ReplyToWhy

May 14, 2022 at 11:19AM EDT KoimanZX

This article actually concerned me, so I actually did spend the next couple of weeks researching into this. In short, the main purpose of the board is to improve accuracy of social media and news stations. The primary target will be against known misinformation actors found in Russia, China, and Iran. Who have been previously been found as posting false content such as lying about drinking water in Hurricane Sandy. Leave it to right-wingers to spin this itself as misinformation like an "attack on free speech"

0

Phhase

Apr 29, 2022 at 09:24PM EDT

Yeah, this disagrees with me.

1

Speedster243

Apr 29, 2022 at 07:53PM EDT

I understand there are people online who post genuine disinformation, but this disinformation board thing might as well be helping those people since its just going to invoke the streisand effect and bring more attention to their disinformation.

9

lecorbak

Apr 30, 2022 at 04:57PM EDT Speedster243

which makes people believe in them more.

1

Revolvenant

Apr 29, 2022 at 07:46PM EDT

"I don't understand why people bring up George Orwell's 1984 all the time."

…This shit right here is exactly why.
Imagine thinking you are the arbitrator of truth, you have to be one giant ego maniac and narcissist to think so and even worse when actually trying to make it a thing, thinking it's a good idea for a government to decide what is and isn't truth.

20

IfYaDVote-ReplyToWhy

May 14, 2022 at 11:32AM EDT Revolvenant

This article greatly concerned me so I spend the next couple of weeks looking into this and actually reading 1984.

Now I'm more concerned about the reactions to this article.

The primary goal of the Disinformation Governance Board(DGB) was publicly put out there detailing the goals and motives for what they're doing. It's a part of the cyber security in the DHS. It's objective that we do have disinformation coming from malicious actors. One notable example referenced was linked interference of the 2016 and 2020 election, as well as found records showing that part of the strategy by these foreign actors is to attack demographics that are largely left-winging(This includes making racist and sexist slurs to POCs and women).

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IfYaDVote-ReplyToWhy

May 14, 2022 at 11:34AM EDT Revolvenant

It's surprising the high-level complexities that go into behavioral manipulation we have been subjected to by foreign influences. It's something that has been heavily investigated by DHS for over a decade now. The most compelling influence was Hurricane Sandy, which had many people resort to social media for updates during this natural disaster. The lack of fact-checking opened it to a large array of problems such as false locations for shelter, false safety information on drinking water, and false reports of people in need of aid.

So to really help prevent this in the future, I do think we need to do better to make sure false information so quickly posted in the News, Social Media, and online and general needs to be mitigated. Your comment is a great example of the problem. Where you, and many other right-wing outlets(As seen through the many conservative politicians and news outlets that keep rallying this as "1984"), have a very warped understanding of what DGB is. Instead of properly presenting the info or even bothering to look it up, it is turned into a way to just be anti-DGB and further encourage misinformation. Way to go, kid.

0

mandrac

Apr 29, 2022 at 07:13PM EDT

If it's only a ministery meant to monitor social media and actively fight disinformation with properly exposed fact in order to defuse conspiracy theories befor they spread sure why not but if it's another thing like in russia where you go to jail if you say "war" instead of "special operation" then that's a big no no

5

Gone

Apr 29, 2022 at 08:52PM EDT mandrac

Even if it was the first, it doesn't take a lot of corruption for it to mutate into the second.

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mandrac

Apr 29, 2022 at 09:47PM EDT Gone

Well there quite a gap between an organisation charged with monitoring and comunicating and an actual law that could lead to actual charges. If it was the first i think there's little chance it would derive into what russia has right now however i do feel the slope would be slipery enough for it to easily fall into a ministry of propaganda saturating every media with its bullshit. Here in europe i doubt it could happen as there are very strict rules set to prevent coruption and and maintaining agencies and organisation under control with lots of failsafe so that might be why i might be a bit too optimistic regarding that kind of stuff but yeah i can clearly see that kind of shit slipping off the cliff quickly in the US.

1

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