Will County Gazette

Candidates running to represent Illinois in Congress are speaking out after the White House revealed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had launched a Disinformation Governance Board.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said a bipartisan group of apolitical people will make up the Disinformation Governance Board, Yahoo News reported. 

“The mandate is not to adjudicate what is true or false online or otherwise,” Psaki said, according to Yahoo News. “It will operate in a nonpartisan and apolitical manner. It’s basically meant to coordinate a lot of the ongoing work that is happening, and the focus is on disinformation and threats to the homeland.”

Pskai said the goal of the board is to stop misinformation about human trafficking, extremism, and foreign interference with American elections and politics from being spread, Yahoo News noted. 

Conservative critics are worried about Nina Jankowicz's, Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board, ability to be fair and partial after she previously called the verified New York Post's story on Hunter Biden's laptop false, according to Yahoo News. 

In Illinois, congressional candidates also have questions, especially now that U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Naperville) has thrown support behind the board and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Schaumburg) refused to condemn it.

“It’s explicitly mentioned that they want to police speech in advance of the 2022 election and I think that gives the game away,” Chris Dargis, a retired naval officer told the Center Square. “The Democrats know that they’re in trouble in this election and they want to run the same playbook that they did in 2020 which is to suppress the speech of Americans to express political opinions that they disagree with.”

Earlier this month the DHS issued a "fact sheet" outlining the purpose of the Disinformation Governance Board.

The DHS noted the board was formed with the specific purpose of combatting disinformation, which DHS defines as "false information that is deliberately spread with the intent to deceive or mislead."

DHS indicated that under the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, the Department is working to build public trust in the Disinformation Governance Board by providing transparency through quarterly reports.