Political | Process

A DHS spokeswoman confirmed in a statement that the board had been put on pause as former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who served during the George W. Bush administration, and former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, a Clinton administration official, lead a review of the department’s disinformation work and how to increase public trust in those endeavors.

The review should be completed within 75 days, the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the board had been “grossly and intentionally mischaracterized,” and that “false attacks have become a significant distraction from the department’s vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people.

”Efforts to address disinformation—which largely began prior to the Biden administration—would continue, the spokeswoman said.

The board didn’t convene a single time before being suspended, and the decision to halt its work was made by department leadership, according to a senior DHS official. The Washington Post first reported that the board has been put on hold by DHS.

Some Republicans in Congress raised concerns that the board would seek to infringe on First Amendment protections on free speech, with some drawing comparisons to George Orwell’s state-sponsored, propaganda-pushing Ministry of Truth in his dystopian novel “1984.”

The board also drew negative commentary from a wide spectrum of voices on Twitter and other social media, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it was “eerily named.” Elon Musk, the billionaire currently working to buy Twitter, who has said he wants to lift its restrictions on controversial posts, called the board “messed up.”

Several senior DHS officials privately said the messaging and rollout of the board was flawed and poorly coordinated with other arms of DHS and the rest of the administration, and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas publicly expressed similar shortcomings in interviews.