Nina Jankowicz

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Nina Jankowicz
Nina Jankowicz DHS portrait.jpg
Official portrait, 2022
Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board
In office
April 27, 2022 – May 18, 2022
PresidentJoe Biden
DHS SecretaryAlejandro Mayorkas
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Personal details
Born1988/1989 (age 33–34)
EducationBryn Mawr College (BA)
Georgetown University (MA)
WebsitePersonal website

Nina Jankowicz (born 1988/1989) is an American researcher and writer. She is the author of How to Lose the Information War (2020), on Russian use of disinformation as geopolitical strategy, and How to Be a Woman Online (2022), a handbook for fighting against online harassment of women. She briefly served as executive director of the newly created United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s Disinformation Governance Board, resigning from the position amid the dissolution of the board by DHS in May 2022.

Career[]

A double-major in Russian and political science, Jankowicz graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 2011 and spent a semester at Herzen State Pedagogical University in Russia in 2010.[1][2] In 2017, she was a Fulbright fellow in Kyiv, working with the foreign ministry of Ukraine.[3] She has also served as a disinformation fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and as supervisor of the Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute.[4]

Jankowicz is the author of two books, in 2020 publishing How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict.[5][6] In The New Yorker Joshua Yaffa called it "a persuasive new book on disinformation as a geopolitical strategy."[3] Jankowicz examines Russian influence operations aimed at weakening democratic nations and thereby strengthening its own standing in international order.[7] This proceeds via six case studies, one per chapter: Estonia, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine together with the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and the United States.[7] She argues for media literacy, public awareness, and an educated electorate as the best means to guard against a disinformation campaign.[6]

In 2022, Jankowicz published How to be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back.[8][9] In it, she draws on statistics on online sexism and harassment of women, as well as on her own experience and that of journalist Nicole Perlroth, Guardian columnist Van Badham, and video game designer Brianna Wu.[8] It is organized in five sections, dealing with online security, handling trolls, developing supportive communities, navigating social media, and repelling online harassment.[9] A review in Publishers Weekly called it "strategic, focused, and eminently usable ... an essential guide for women interested in standing up for a fairer, safer online world."[8] Writing in The Diplomatic Courier, Joshua Huminski said that in addition to its usefulness as a how-to guide, reading about the experiences the book sets out to address also serves a second purpose: "forcing the reader to confront these very real and very uncomfortable questions" of why women face a "torrent of online abuse directed at them for the crime of ... having their gender."[9]

Jankowicz has also contributed to The Washington Post and The New York Times.[10]

In September 2022, Jankowicz announced the launch of The Hypatia Project, which she conducts at the Center for Information Resilience. The project aims to combat gendered abuse and disinformation online.[11]

Disinformation Governance Board[]

In April 2022, Jankowicz was selected to head the newly formed Disinformation Governance Board of the United States Department of Homeland Security.[12][4] The appointment drew primarily right-wing criticism of Jankowicz;[13][14][15] National Review, the Washington Examiner, and the libertarian magazine Reason negatively evaluated her criticism of the Hunter Biden laptop story[16][17][18][19] and her August 2020 praise of Christopher Steele (author of the Steele dossier, which the Examiner deemed "discredited").[17][16] Republican senator Josh Hawley criticized Jankowicz's "leftist radical" views on Twitter,[20] and Republicans also criticized her past support of Democrats and her negative response to Elon Musk's then-standing offer to purchase of Twitter.[18][21] In response, Jankowicz said that at least one of her tweets was "taken out of context".[17] On CNN's State of The Union, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called Jankowicz "eminently qualified, a renowned expert in the field of disinformation", and "neutral".[22] Progressive media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting criticized mainstream media for focusing on right-wing criticism without considering potential left-wing objections to Jankowicz's appointment.[23]

On May 18, The Washington Post reported that the board and its working groups would be shut down, pending review, citing failures by DHS to communicate with relevant Congressional entities, to respond to criticism of the board's name and its unclear mission, and to defend against a right-wing backlash targeting Jankowicz.[13] On May 17, 2022, DHS shut down the board, and Jankowicz officially resigned her DHS post the following day.[13] A DHS spokesperson said, "Nina Jankowicz has been subjected to unjustified and vile personal attacks and physical threats."[13] Robby Soave of Reason argued that Jankowicz's "faulty record" "doomed" the board.[24]

On July 10, Jankowicz appeared on Brian Stelter's Reliable Sources, during which she claimed that the board's purpose had been misrepresented by "Republicans" and the "far-left", calling the board a "victim of disinformation." She also complained of receiving "disproportionate" attention from the media.[25]

Personal life[]

Jankowicz has an interest in musical theatre.[3] She tweeted in 2021, "You can just call me the Mary Poppins of disinformation," and linked to a TikTok video of her singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with lyrics modified to fit the topic of disinformation.[26] She is a former member of the Wizard Rock band The Moaning Myrtles.[27]

References[]

  1. ^ "Nina Jankowicz — The Cosmopolitan Review".
  2. ^ "Nina Jankowicz '11 Publishes Book on the Information War". Bryn Mawr College. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Yaffa, Joshua (September 3, 2020). "Is Russian Meddling as Dangerous as We Think?". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Daniels, Eugene; Bade, Rachael; Lizza, Ryan. "POLITICO Playbook: Fauci pulls out of WHCD. Is Biden next?". POLITICO.
  5. ^ Fadel, Leila (August 16, 2020). "Author Nina Jankowicz On Disinformation And Her New Book". All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Gamberini, Sarah. "How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict". Joint Force Quarterly. National Defense University Press. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Gentile, Michael (September 21, 2020). "How to lose the information war – Russia, fake news and the future of conflict". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 63 (3): 446–449. doi:10.1080/15387216.2020.1825982. ISSN 1538-7216. S2CID 224872983.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Nonfiction Book Review: How to be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back by Nina Jankowicz". Publishers Weekly. April 1, 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Huminski, Joshua (April 9, 2022). "Being a Woman Online & the Absence of Decency". Diplomatic Courier. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  10. ^ "Nina Jankowicz". www.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  11. ^ Jankowicz, Nina. "Announcing The Hypatia Project: Combating Gendered Abuse and Disinformation". Centre for Information Resilience. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  12. ^ "DHS Standing Up Disinformation Governance Board Led by Information Warfare Expert". Homeland Security Today. April 28, 2022.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Lorenz, Taylor (May 18, 2022). "How the Biden administration let right-wing attacks derail its disinformation efforts". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  14. ^ Lyngaas, Sean; Alvarez, Priscilla; Bertrand, Natasha. "Expert hired to run DHS' newly created disinformation board resigns". CNN. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  15. ^ "Disinformation head Nina Jankowicz resigns after DHS board is paused". NBC News. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b "Biden 'disinformation' chief a Trump dossier author fan and Hunter Biden laptop doubter". Washington Examiner. April 28, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Meet Nina Jankowicz, Biden's New Disinformation Czar". National Review. April 29, 2022.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b Blake, Aaron (April 29, 2022). "The tempest over DHS's Disinformation Governance Board". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  19. ^ Lancaster, Joe (April 29, 2022). "New DHS Board Seeks To Counter What It Thinks Is Disinformation". Reason.
  20. ^ Miller, Andrew Mark (April 28, 2022). "Biden's disinformation director referred to Hunter's laptop as a 'Trump campaign product'". Fox News. Fox News. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
  21. ^ Sganga, Nicole (May 6, 2022). "What is DHS' Disinformation Governance Board and why is everyone so mad about it?". CBS News. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  22. ^ "Transcripts, State of the Union Poland Welcoming Ukrainian Refugees; Interview With Fmr. Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX); Interview With U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Interview With Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR). Aired 9-10a ET". CNN. May 1, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  23. ^ Tveten, Julianne (May 13, 2022). "Media Ignore Criticism of DHS's New 'Disinformation' Board—Unless it's from the Right". FAIR. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  24. ^ Soave, Robby (May 18, 2022). "Nina Jankowicz's Faulty Record, Not Her Critics, Doomed the Disinformation Board". Reason.com.
  25. ^ Schorr, Isaac; Bernstein, Brittany (July 11, 2022). "Biden's Disinformation Czar Breaks Silence after Would-Be Unit Crashes and Burns". National Review. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  26. ^ The Editorial Board (May 18, 2022). "The Disinformation Governance Board, Disavowed". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  27. ^ "Se vi manca Harry Potter, ascoltate il wizard rock" (in Italian). November 4, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2022.

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