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CISA advisory committee's misinformation (MDM) subcommittee

CISA's Cybersecurity Advisory Committee formed a subcommittee on 'Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation & Disinformation' that convened in December 2021 and issued recommendations in June and September 2022. House Republicans said its records showed concern about public scrutiny; a member of the subcommittee says it was purely advisory and never flagged content.

Dec 1, 2021
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Whose side it served: Democrats

An advisory body convened by CISA under the Biden administration.

What the record shows

The House Judiciary Committee's June 26, 2023 interim staff report quoted a subcommittee member warning it was 'only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist and starts asking about our work,' and said CISA wanted a nonprofit to act as its public voice to 'avoid the appearance of government propaganda.' The report also said CISA removed references to its MDM work from its website after scrutiny. University of Washington researcher Kate Starbird, a subcommittee member, responded that the group was advisory only, did not alert platforms to content, and did not discuss or recommend switchboarding, which she said predated it and ended in 2022. She said the subcommittee published its recommendations publicly and dropped proposals on social media 'monitoring' as beyond its scope.

In their words

“only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist”— CISA MDM subcommittee member, as quoted by House Judiciary Committee · source
“avoid the appearance of government propaganda”— CISA record, as quoted by House Judiciary Committee · source
The other side

Starbird said the June 2022 recommendations explicitly considered the government's limited role in regulating speech. The House findings were described by the committee itself as preliminary and came from the Republican majority's staff.

Sources

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