The Backlash to DHS’s Anti-Disinformation Board Shows How US Law Is Falling Behind the Problem – By Patrick Tucker (Defense One) / April 29, 2022
Legal ambiguity may have crippled DHS’s new board from the start.
The swift backlash to a new federal anti-disinformation board shows how quickly misconceptions can spread—and also how the slow evolution of federal law is hampering efforts to counter them.
On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security leaders announced the formation of a Disinformation Governance Board to counter harmful false information aimed specifically at migrants. Such disinformation has “has helped to fuel sudden surges at the U.S. southern border in recent years,” according to an AP article on the new board.
Some were quick to complain. “Rather than protecting our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority. This new board is almost certainly unconstitutional and should be dissolved immediately,” wrote Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who last year encouraged rioters at the U.S. Capitol.
Of course, there’s nothing in any of the statements from DHS or other officials to suggest that the new board will suppress constitutionally protected speech.
