The May 4 editorial “2022 is not ‘1984’” was right to push back against the Republicans’ characterization of the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), the Department of Homeland Security’s latest initiative to combat threats of misinformation and disinformation, as an Orwellian judge of truth. The narrative of the DGB as the “Ministry of Truth” is in itself disinformation, and we should reject it as such.
We should instead welcome another resource to combat disinformation, especially campaigns targeting colored communities. Voto Latino, for example, recently polled 2,464 Latinos, and two-thirds reported seeing false allegations of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. False allegations of electoral fraud erode confidence in the electoral system and threaten to suppress voter turnout.
Secretary for Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, acknowledged the problem of Spanish-language misinformation during his testimony to Congress and mentioned pooling Homeland Security resources to address the threat of disinformation in minority communities as one of the DGB’s operational goals.
We welcome Mr Mayorkas’ commitment to combat all threats to our democracy from disinformation and to provide Congress with quarterly progress reports. We need greater transparency around efforts to address non-English disinformation and invite technology platforms to join him.
Liz Lebron, Charleston, SC
The author is the research leader at Voto Latino’s Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab.