The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The spread of disinformation can affect border security, Americans’ safety during disasters, and public trust in our democratic institutions,” the department said in a statement Wednesday. It declined The Associated Press’ request for an interview.
A newly formed Disinformation Governance Board announced Wednesday will immediately begin focusing on misinformation aimed at migrants, a problem that has helped to fuel sudden surges at the U.S. southern border in recent years. Human smugglers often spread misinformation around border policies to drum up business.
In its March 2020 final report, the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission called on the U.S. government to promote digital literacy, civic education, and public awareness in order to build societal resilience to foreign malign cyber-enabled information operations. As the scourge of disinformation swept across the globe and expanded its scope beyond elections, the Commission decided to conduct a deeper examination of cyber-enabled disinformation and propose steps that the United States could take to begin building greater resilience to disinformation, particularly from foreign actors. While many facets of the Commission’s original strategy of “layered cyber deterrence” can be applied in the context of combating cyber-enabled disinformation, further action is needed from policymakers and lawmakers to enable the United States to better prevent, withstand, and respond to disinformation.
The white paper is the result of research and deliberation by Commission staff and commissioners and specifies seven recommendations to both diminish the prevalence of disinformation in the information ecosystem and build greater individual and societal resilience to disinformation and malign foreign influence:
Recommendation 1: Congress should establish a Civics Education Task Force, enable greater access to civics education resources, and raise public awareness about foreign disinformation.
Recommendation 2: Congress should ensure material support to non-governmental disinformation researchers
Recommendation 3: Congress should fund the Department of Justice to provide grants to nonprofit centers seeking to identify, expose, and explain malign foreign influence campaigns to the American public
Recommendation 4: Congress should create a capability within DHS to actively monitor foreign disinformation
Recommendation 5: Congress should create a grants program at the Department of Homeland Security designed to equip SLTT governments with the personnel and resources necessary to identify foreign disinformation campaigns and incorporate countermeasures into public communications strategies
Recommendation 6: Congress should reform the Foreign Agents Registration Act and direct the Federal Communications Commission to introduce new regulations in order to improve media ownership transparency in the United States
Recommendation 7: Congress should grant a federal entity the authority to publish and enforce transparency guidelines for social media platforms
It is so surprising the GOP which has many leaders with close ties to Putin are trying to frame a crackdown on Russian influence as an attack on American freedom.
This seems pretty normal and a reasonable step given the known focused disinformation campaigns put into the US by Russia and other actors.
Of course it could be abused, like the CIA and the NSA. We’ll have to see. Currently their role doesn’t seem nearly as expansive, but it’s very early.
The existence of a new three-letter agency with ostensibly good goals doesn’t change our existing departments that are sometimes horrifically abused. If it stays roughly on track with its stated purpose, seems like a good thing.
I don’t see the issue with a counter-disinformation team within our national security organizations.
Foreign agents threaten invasion on land, we make an army.
Foreign agents threaten invasion by sea, we make a navy.
Foreign agents threaten invasion by air, we make an air force.
Foreign agents threaten cyberattacks, we make a cybersecurity force.
Foreign agents threaten disinformation campaigns, we make a counter disinformation team.
Seems like what we have done repeatedly throughout history.
I don’t think there is any reason to think obama is personally behind it. It’s the sort of thing trump would try to do, but no other president, i think. liberal groups were invested too, although fewer of them. i don’t think the groups were being targeted because they were conservative.
i consider it more conspiracy theory stuff, kind of like benghazi.
I was being silly… Basically… the IRS is supposed to stop political groups from getting 501-C status, since they’re not really charities. So some random people in the IRS had a spreadsheet that had names to look out for, like “Tea Party”. This is a no-no, because it implied not treating each group equally. More importantly, more conservative groups were on the list than progressive groups.
This came out during the Obama Administration so dishonest people like to say that Obama was targeting conservatives.
I think you need to teach them about the values shared in the scientific community, chief among them curiosity about answers that conform with the facts. NOAA is going to be composed of people with different values than, say, the defense department, who will place a much larger value on keeping us safe.
Key item in science, replication. People outside of the control of the government can make measurements of CO2 locally, scientists in other countries can observe as well. Scientists love a puzzle. If one found that one’s measurements were different than average (or in the case of a nefarious government, reported), the question becomes why?
This is a good one. Since they’re kids, of course don’t tell them about the replication crisis. Certainly don’t tell this kid they are in fact mostly correct, that science was long ago co-opted by government and industry and that many entire “scientific” disciplines are impossible to take seriously anymore.
Its like the conspiracy theories just build on top of each other until you can be convinced of anything, as long as it didn’t come from the government.
Meanwhile, stuff like Lake Mead drying up, stronger hurricanes, more wildfires, rising waters, are all happening just like they have been warning us for 25 years.