Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday likened the Department of Homeland Security's new Disinformation Governance Board under President Joe Biden to the ominous "Ministry of Truth" from George Orwell's dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," Breitbart reported.
DeSantis, a Republican, also criticized agency head Nina Jankowicz – a disinformation expert who previously worked for the Wilson Center and whose history includes criticism of the now-confirmed Hunter Biden laptop story, according to the New York Post.
As reported by the Washington Post, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned the creation of the board in multiple congressional hearings this week. In thos hearings, he also described the creation as serving various functions, the Post said: combating misinformation from human smugglers, or countering Russian attempts at cyberspace disruptions and election interference.
While the Post reported that the actual function of the "unfortunately named board" is not entirely clear, the creation of such an entity has already drawn fire from the right as nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to police speech.
Elon Musk, the billionaire who this week announced plans to buy Twitter for some $44 billion, called the board "messed up." And DeSantis was not the only Republican to compare it to Orwell's terrifying creation.
“Rather than police our border, Homeland Security has decided to make policing Americans’ speech its top priority,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said, according to the Post's reporting.
"I honestly thought this was just a belated April Fool's joke," DeSantis told reporters. "It's basically a Ministry of Truth, and 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."
"They want to be able to say things like Russia collusion and perpetuate hoaxes and then have people like us be silenced," he continued.
The Florida governor insisted the Biden administration would use the project to advance things "that are not supported by the evidence."
"We believe it's essential that individual Floridians and Americans are able to speak out against false narratives trying to be jammed down our throats by this regime," DeSantis said.
The governor further claimed that this is just the latest avenue by the White House to "shut up everybody" who opposes their "bad policies."
He noted the growing momentum of speaking truth "to a very decaying and discredited ruling elite in this country," citing Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter on Monday as an example.
"But clearly, our entire principles that the country was founded on, you cannot have a Ministry of Truth in this country," DeSantis added, assuring Florida will not "let Biden get away with this one."
Newsmax's Jeff Rubin contributed to this report.
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