In Williston Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis took aim at the Joe Biden administration’s effort to have the Department of Homeland Security educate the public about disinformation, arguing the new “Disinformation Governance Board” is akin to George Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth.”
DeSantis said the effort really amounts to a war against conservative dissent against a “decaying and discredited ruling elite in this country.”
“You cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to let Biden get away with this one. We will be fighting back.”
The Governor referred to the proposed bureau as a “belated April Fool’s Joke,” but one with a malign intent: to “stifle dissent.”
“What they want to do is they want to be able to put out false narratives without people being able to speak out and fight back,” DeSantis said. “They want to be able to say things like ‘Russian collusion’ and perpetuate hoaxes and have people like us be silenced.”
The Governor called attention to the appointed leader of the agency, Wilson Center disinformation fellow Nina Jankowicz, as an “advocate for COVID lockdowns who herself has put out disinformation about the Hunter Biden tapes, who supported Russian collusion conspiracy theories.”
“This is not acceptable, and in Florida we’re not going to have it,” DeSantis said, going on to add that the “public is sick of this.”
According to Homeland Security Today, the so-called Disinformation Governance Board will work to counter misinformation and disinformation. The Associated Press notes that work will take many forms, ranging from scrutinizing messaging received by undocumented immigrants crossing the Mexican-U.S. border to election disinformation, such as that from Russia. However, conservatives warn the office will be used to chill internal dissent.
“We reject this bureau in the state of Florida,” DeSantis added. “We believe it’s essential that individual Floridians and Americans be able to speak out against false narratives trying to be jammed down our throats by this regime.”
DeSantis also called attention to the President seeming less than robust to some observers, describing Biden as “floundering on the world stage,” and “shaking hands with the air.”
“It’s sad,” DeSantis said over laughter from the crowd, “but it’s also negatively impacting people’s lives.”
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