Biden admin recycles DHS disinformation board as economy burns
VP Kamala Harris to head up task force on "Online Harassment and Abuse."
Gas prices continue to break record highs, grocery costs are soaring, baby formula is still in short supply, inflation is at a 40-year high, violence in urban areas is out of control and, as of this past week, all stock market gains since Joe Biden was inaugurated have been wiped out.
What is the White House doing about it?
The Hill is reporting that the Biden administration appears to be focused on social issues and announced this week the apparent resurrection of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) short-lived "Disinformation Governance Board" which was dubbed by social media users as the “Ministry of Truth,” a reference to George Orwell’s “1984” novel.
According to The Hill, Vice President Kamala Harris will be heading up a task force "aimed at combatting online harassment and abuse." The new task force will be co-chaired by the Gender Policy Council and the National Security Council.
A memo released by the White House about the creation of the task force called out "gendered disinformation” and seems to be mainly focused on women and “LGBTQI+ individuals.”
The mission of the task force is “to assess and address online harassment and abuse that constitute technology-facilitated gender-based violence.”
Most of the areas the task force will include in their work point toward monitoring and potentially censoring the online activities of U.S. citizens in the future.
The memo also said Biden’s administration will develop “programs and policies to address online harassment, abuse, and disinformation campaigns targeting women and LGBTQI+ individuals who are public and political figures, government and civic leaders, activists, and journalists in the United States and globally."
Harris won’t be flying solo, she will have a slew of agency heads sitting on the task force with her including the Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Attorney General; the Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Education; the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council; the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council; and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.
Also on the task force are the Counsel to the President and the Counsel to the Vice President.
The new “Online Harassment and Abuse” task force is supposed to deliver its first recommendations, which the memo calls the “Initial Blueprint,” within 180 days or nearly 6 months. That lands well after the midterms and near the end of December.