Tulsi Gabbard (D), a former US representative for Hawaii, argued that former US President Barack Obama–not President Joe Biden–is behind the federal effort to establish a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB).
“Biden is just a front man," Gabbard said on Twitter Sunday. "Obama, April 21: social media censors 'don’t go far enough,' so the government needs to step in to do the job.”
She then compared the planned DGB to George Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth,’ one of four ministries of the government of Oceania in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
“Six days later, Homeland Security rolls out the 'Ministry of Truth' (aka Disinformation Governance Board),” Gabbard tweeted.
Biden and Gabbard were two of several presidential candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 US presidential election.
Gabbard’s post included a video of Obama’s speech at Stanford University late last month, which included a rebuke of the current influx of mis- and disinformation, as well as Big Tech’s current fight to moderate such content.
“Now the good news is that almost all the big tech platforms now acknowledge some responsibility for content on their platforms, and they're investing in a large team of people to monitor it,” the former US president said, noting that the “sheer volume” of content needing moderation “can feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole.”
"But while content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly dangerous content, it doesn't go far enough," Obama emphasized.
The board, set to be led by Nina Jankowicz, has come under fire for criticisms of its future executive director, who once described the trove of information on Hunter Biden’s laptop as “a Trump campaign product.”
Gabbard previously likened the Biden administration to a dictatorship over the board’s formation.
“Every dictatorship has a propaganda arm—a 'Ministry of Truth.' The Biden Administration has now formally joined the ranks of such dictatorships with their creation of the so-called 'Disinformation Governance Board,” the former US representative for Hawaii said.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) also made an Orwellian reference in response to DGB rollout, calling the move “unconstituional.”
“The Federal Government has no business creating a Ministry of Truth," said Sen. Tom Cotton. "The Department of Homeland Security's 'Disinformation Board' is unconstitutional and unamerican, and I'll be introducing a bill to defund it.”