It was Lord Byron who famously observed that reality, while seemingly mundane and predictable, is anything but: 'Tis strange—but true; for truth is always strange; / Stranger than fiction” (Don Juan, 1819-24). Doubtless, then, he’d be unmoved by the recent news that the Biden Administration is forming a “Disinformation Governance Board” as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It appears that, among other things, the DGB will be tasked with educating the public about disinformation by way of social media. As many have pointed out, the very existence of such an agency has Orwellian undertones. But would Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” have used TikTok?
Indeed, in a hotly reported story, author, consultant, and social-media personality Nina Jankowicz has been tapped to direct the Disinformation Governance Board. In the wake of her appointment, there has been a great deal of controversy about Jankowicz herself. Videos of her singing parodic material on TikTok and even on stage have received a great deal of attention, showing, at the very least, that the seriousness of her new position will not be met without a sense of humor.
For my own part, I don’t know enough about Jankowicz (or, for that matter, about the position) to analyze her qualifications. Certainly she has an impressive CV, earning a BA from Bryn Mawr College (just down the road from my office at Villanova) and an MA from Georgetown University, with a specialization in Russia and Eastern Europe—obviously a hotbed of political activity. Moreover, at just 33 years old, she has already published two books, How to Lose the Information War (2020) and How to Be a Woman Online (2022). Jankowicz’s personal website expands on her credentials as follows:
Jankowicz’s expertise spans the public, private, and academic sectors. She has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies; testified before the United States Congress, UK Parliament, and European Parliament; and led accessible, actionable research about the effects of disinformation on women, minorities, democratic activists, and freedom of expression around the world.
It would be unfair, then, to question whether Jankowicz is equipped to do this job. She is well-educated, talented, and experienced.
Still, that doesn’t make the DGB any more intelligible. In fact, a number of questions immediately come to mind. What, exactly, is “disinformation”? And how is Jankowicz supposed to “govern” it? Broadly speaking, it appears that “disinformation” is not just “misinformation.” The Latinate prefix “dis-” indicates “lack” or “opposition,” whereas the Germanic “mis-” means “wrong” or “astray.” Thus misinformation could be true, provided that it is not understood in the wrong way. But disinformation is the opposite of information; it literally has no meaning. So, if I tell a friend that it’s going to be sunny and warm tomorrow but fail to specify that I’m talking about Los Angeles and not Philadelphia, that would be misinformation. But disinformation would be to tell a friend that it will never again be sunny and warm in Philadelphia (though it sometimes seems that way), knowing that I’m only saying this to confuse or upset my interlocutor.
That both forms of deceit flourish online goes without saying. We have all read articles that, ostensibly true when published, turn out to be false. We all know that social-media outlets give public platforms to exaggerations, lies, and pranks. How can Jankowicz and her “governance board” possibly contain such phenomena, particularly when people can set up a plethora of social-media accounts under different names, selectively edit journalistic sources, and even deliberately publish false information? Clearly social networking services themselves will not be shut down—a move that would violate first-amendment rights. Consequently, the DGB will have to use social media to combat social media, telling people that TikTok and Twitter are unreliable…by using TikTok and Twitter. As noted above, this is a tactic that Jankowicz has already employed. In her now viral TikTok video, Jankowicz seeks to warn the public (particularly young people) about disinformation by singing a parody of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins:
Information laundering is really quite ferocious. It’s when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious.
By saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet, so disinformation’s origins are slightly less atrocious.
It’s how you hide a little, hide a little, little, little lie, it’s how you hide a little, little lie, it’s how you hide a little, little, little lie.
When Rudy Giuliani shared bad intel from Ukraine. Or when TikTok influencers say COVID can’t cause pain.
They’re laundering disinfo and we really should take note. And not support their lies with our wallet, voice or vote—oh!
People have decried Jankowicz’s performance as “cringey,” but it’s no more cringey than anything else on TikTok—a platform that hosts short-form user videos, often set to music and accompanied by dancing. Put in those terms, TikTok may sound benign, but controversy has followed the Chinese social networking service ever since its global introduction in 2017. TikTok’s combination of brevity, salaciousness, and violence has proven almost irresistible for young people, so much so that the Chinese version of the app now has an addiction-reduction feature. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. TikTok has been used for terrorist propaganda, data harvesting, and human trafficking. For that reason, it is hard to believe that TikTok can be used to eradicate the problem of disinformation, since, qua digital medium, it is ideally suited to spread disinformation. Indeed, the platform does not and cannot promote sustained conversation or deeper forms of what Simone Weil called “attention.” In the end, TikTok can only divide.
Curiously, and controversially, the New Testament frequently shows Jesus grappling with the problem of demonic possession. In one scene, people even wonder if Jesus is able to heal others by way of diabolical assistance. But Jesus knows that this is impossible:
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? (Matt. 12:22-26, AKJV)
Perhaps Jankowicz and the DGB could learn from this story. Fixing the problem of disinformation is going to entail far more than cautionary skits and digital slaps on the wrist. In truth, it will take a new way of living, one that orients us away from the “common loneliness” of social media.
Yes. I took a community-organizing workshop for clergy in the Chicago area a few years ago, and part of the training was confronting (agitating) us the trainees with the question (shouting): "do you simply want [insert name of political opponent] to have all the power, or do you want to do something about it? Then organize! How many people can you mobilize? How much money can you move?" Like trying to fight social media with social media, is it playing into the same beast when trying to fight power with the exact same strategic instruments only used in reverse and justified because they're used ostensibly for better, more just, purposes. Or, is metanoia and deliverance, more profound.