“I do not think government should be in that business,” she announced during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
Jankowicz, who has since argued for a solid government part in pushing back against “disinformation,” was questioned by Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), who announced that his experience growing up in tyrannical nations in Latin America had made him “violently allergic” to governments that claimed to be regulating the flow of information.
“We start going down that path, and we are not just ‘breaking democracy,’ we are breaking classical, enlightened liberalism,” he stated. He continued that he thought that it was “pretty lame” that the government appeared to be outsourcing the attempt to deal with disinformation to Silicon Valley tech companies.
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Himes challenged Jankowicz: “I actually want to see the evidence that people are seeing this information, and are in a meaningful way, in a material way, dismantling our democracy through violence or through political organizations.”
He stressed that there were also instances of Democrats using “disinformation,” like then-President Barack Obama, “that if they wanted to keep their private insurance plan, they could do it. That turned out not to be true.” He asked whether social media companies should therefore pursue the former President as well for breaking his promise to the voters.
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Jankowicz replied: “I totally understand your aversion to the idea that government would fight back against disinformation, in fact — the use of that term has been basically the foundation to some very draconian fake news laws in places like Russia, or even Singapore. I do not think government should be in that business, either.”
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As proof that disinformation was leading to violence, she cited two familiar Democratic Party talking points. One was the claimed kidnapping plot against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). Jankowicz insisted that social media “played a huge role in allowing that group to organize.”
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The trials of the alleged kidnappers ended in two acquittals and two hung juries last month, amid evidence of entrapment by the FBI. Then-candidate Joe Biden falsely accused President Trump of the plot, circulating disinformation that the kidnappers had been inspired by him to commit alleged acts of violence.
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Jankowicz also cited allegations by a British TV channel that Cambridge Analytica had used data to “selectively target Black voters with voter suppression ads.” These were negative ads regarding Hillary Clinton, allegedly designed to encourage Black voters to stay home during the 2016 presidential election. However, Jankowicz did not actually cite any “disinformation” in the ads.
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