Nina Jankowicz Claims 'The So-Called Censorship Industrial Complex Is A Fiction'

2 days ago

At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, former DHS Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board Nina Jankowicz spoke out against claims of a "censorship industrial complex."

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Transcript

00:00Chairman Huizenga and Ranking Member Kamlagar-Dov, I appreciate the invitation to speak with

00:06you today.

00:07I believe it's my patriotic duty to do so because the premise of this hearing, the so-called

00:12censorship industrial complex, is a fiction that has not only had profound impacts on

00:18my life and safety, but on our national security.

00:22More alarmingly, this fiction is itself suppressing speech and stymieing critical research that

00:28protects our country.

00:30I want to acknowledge the irony we're having this discussion as we witness an assault on

00:35the First Amendment we have not seen in decades.

00:39The Trump administration has directed far more egregious violations of our Constitution

00:44than the imagined actions of the Biden administration on which this hearing is premised.

00:50Each one is chilling, but as a Fulbright alumna, the recent arrest of Rumesya Ozturk, a Fulbright

00:56Ph.D. student at Tufts University, especially disturbed me.

01:01The Secretary of State seemingly revoked Ms. Ozturk's visa for publishing an op-ed in Tufts

01:08campus newspaper.

01:10For using her constitutionally protected right to free speech, she was spirited away by plain

01:15clothes ICE officers in broad daylight.

01:19This is what I'm used to observing in authoritarian countries that I study, and if this had happened

01:24in a country in this subcommittee's portfolio, I think you'd issue a statement of concern.

01:30But it happened here.

01:32So yes, we do need some First Amendment protections at the State Department, but not for imagined

01:38transgressions of previous administrations.

01:41We need those protections from this administration today.

01:46In pursuing investigations and hearings on the censorship lie, Congress has punted its

01:52responsibility on national security, opting instead for political theatrics that are

01:57high on fantasy and low on facts.

02:00Congress used government resources to attack disinformation researchers, deliberately misconstruing

02:06their work, burying them with requests for documents and depositions, and stoking the

02:11fires of public rage against them.

02:14These tactics echo the dark days of McCarthyism, but with a chilling 21st century twist.

02:21Even as America faces unprecedented threats in the information space, from our adversaries'

02:26increasing capabilities to the exponential growth of emerging technologies, committees,

02:32including this one, continue to waste valuable time and taxpayer dollars targeting American

02:38citizens who are doing work in the public interest.

02:42I know this intimately.

02:44In my written testimony, I explain in detail the lies that upended my life when my appointment

02:50to lead the DHS Disinformation Governance Board was announced.

02:54As demonstrated by both the Board's founding documents and my five-hour sworn testimony

02:59before your colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, the Board's mission was to protect civil rights,

03:05civil liberties, privacy, and the First Amendment, the very subject of this hearing.

03:11Many continue to lie that the Board was a censorship body because it's politically useful

03:16to them.

03:17That lie was the first chapter in the tall tales about the so-called censorship industrial

03:21complex that have since emerged.

03:24They've been buoyed by the Twitter files, which falsely allege that Twitter executives

03:28were colluding with government to censor disfavored content.

03:32The Twitter files crafted almost endless fiction based on selectively edited email and text

03:38excerpts between researchers, platforms, and federal agencies.

03:42They're riddled with errors and outright falsehoods.

03:46The allegation that researchers are somehow committing acts of censorship by conducting

03:50independent research and sharing it is outlandish and it's harmful.

03:55Research is speech, government-funded or not.

03:59The only reason the censorship lie has been perpetuated is because it's politically and

04:04financially beneficial to those who peddle it.

04:08Actions like this hearing are a dangerous distraction from the real threats we face.

04:13My organization, the American Sunlight Project, has identified plenty of foreign interference

04:18we could be talking about today, including a pro-Russia content aggregation network pushing

04:24out 3.6 million pieces of content a year, poisoning LLM-powered chatbots.

04:30China and Iran are also actively targeting the U.S. as we sit here.

04:34But our capacity to respond to these threats has been eviscerated based on conspiracy theories,

04:42sending a signal to our adversaries that America is weak.

04:45Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow interpret these partisan attacks on counter-disinformation

04:50work as a sign that their interference is likely to succeed.

04:54Our adversaries use information operations to undermine democratic values.

04:59We must act not only as the staunchest defender and guarantor of those values abroad, but

05:04fight just as hard to preserve them at home.

Nina Jankowicz Claims 'The So-Called Censorship Industrial Complex Is A Fiction'

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