Biden's counter-disinformation adviser resigns after two months on the job

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WASHINGTON - The head of the Biden administration's disinformation-fighting advisory group has resigned and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it had paused the group's activities.

Nina Jankowicz, who started work as the executive director of the DHS's Disinformation Governance Board in March, said she was expecting a baby and "spending time with my family is first priority".

The board's creation and the last month's announcement that Jankowicz had been appointed to run it provoked a fierce reaction from right-wing critics and drew skepticism from some experts in the field.

Far-right figures - many of whom have spread Republican former President Donald Trump's lies about Democrat Joe Biden stealing the 2020 election - accused the administration of setting up a "Ministry of Truth" in the vein of the totalitarian propaganda agency described in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Jankowicz herself became a particular focus of abuse.

The DHS said in a statement that the board was being "grossly and intentionally mischaracterized."

The board was created to advise the government on how to fight lies spread by, for example, foreign countries such as Russia or China, or human traffickers using false assurances to lure migrants into crossing the border into the United States, according to the DHS.

But the message was lost among the backlash from the right, and DHS said it was pausing the board's activity pending a "thorough review."

Although some experts had doubts about the appropriateness of a disinformation board operating out of DHS, they condemned the attacks on Jankowicz.

Agencies