7 May 2023 10:28 am
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has stood up a new office to oversee the intelligence community’s efforts to combat “disinformation” and foreign influence campaigns in the United States, Director Avril Haines announced Thursday.
“Congress put into law that we should establish a foreign malign influence center in the intelligence community. We stood that up and it encompasses our election threat executive work essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, and deals with disinformation more generally,” Haines (pictured) told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing.
She said the office would support the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) monitor threats from China, Russia, Iran, and others so that policymakers can counter them.The office is meant to coordinate efforts of the many government agencies that have sprung up in the wake of the 2016 election, when Democrats blamed Russia for Donald Trump’s presidential win.The center will be focused on “foreign malign influence” aimed at U.S. elections but also at “public opinion within the United States,” according to the law that established the FMIC.
The new center comes amid House Republicans’ efforts to reduce the countering disinformation bureaucracy over concern they are aimed at targeting conservatives and free speech.Last week, a group of Republicans demanded more information from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the GEC, which they say has expanded well beyond its primary mission of fighting terrorism to funding groups that hound conservative media outlets under the guise of diminishing disinformation, Breitbart News’ Sean Moran reported.
“Congress put into law that we should establish a foreign malign influence center in the intelligence community. We stood that up and it encompasses our election threat executive work essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, and deals with disinformation more generally,” Haines (pictured) told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing.
She said the office would support the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) monitor threats from China, Russia, Iran, and others so that policymakers can counter them.The office is meant to coordinate efforts of the many government agencies that have sprung up in the wake of the 2016 election, when Democrats blamed Russia for Donald Trump’s presidential win.The center will be focused on “foreign malign influence” aimed at U.S. elections but also at “public opinion within the United States,” according to the law that established the FMIC.
The new center comes amid House Republicans’ efforts to reduce the countering disinformation bureaucracy over concern they are aimed at targeting conservatives and free speech.Last week, a group of Republicans demanded more information from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the GEC, which they say has expanded well beyond its primary mission of fighting terrorism to funding groups that hound conservative media outlets under the guise of diminishing disinformation, Breitbart News’ Sean Moran reported.