Nina Jankowicz’s fingerprints on report cited by Kamala Harris's on-line activity power

The fingerprints of former Disinformation Governance Board Director Nina Jankowicz are throughout a brand new report repeatedly cited by the White Home when establishing a brand new on-line activity power led by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Biden marketing campaign introduced in 2020 it could convene such a activity power, and on Thursday, it fulfilled that promise with the institution of the White Home Activity Pressure to Tackle On-line Harassment and Abuse.

The “truth sheet” accompanying the announcement, together with statements by senior administration officers, pointed to a State Division-commissioned report that Jankowicz was interviewed as an knowledgeable for and that repeatedly cited her 2021 report “Malign Creativity: How Gender, Intercourse, and Lies Are Weaponized Towards Ladies On-line.” It additionally pointed to her 2022 ebook Be a Girl On-line: Surviving Abuse and Harassment and Combat Again.

The themes outlined within the White Home’s launch announcement are practically an identical to these within the new report and in Jankowicz’s cited writings.

The brand new report was titled “Technological Threats: How On-line Harassment of Feminine Political Figures Undermines Democracy.”

It was launched by Texas A&M College’s Program on Ladies, Peace, and Safety, with the Bush College’s “consumer” listed because the Workplace of International Ladies’s Points on the State Division. The report listed seven “staff members,” together with one who personally thanked Jankowicz on LinkedIn final month. The report consists of sections centered on defending Harris in opposition to on-line assaults.

Jankowicz has a historical past of labeling claims as disinformation that have been later discovered to have credibility and giving credence to discredited claims. She solid doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop computer story, touted Christopher Steele as a disinformation knowledgeable, downplayed Iranian election meddling within the 2020 election, critiqued the promotion of the Wuhan lab leak speculation, pushed debunked claims of Trump-Russia collusion, and extra.

The brand new report offered a “Thank You to Our Consultants” part together with Jankowicz that stated: “Our staff had the chance to interview a number of famend researchers who work inside this area and whose time and perception considerably impacted the route of our analysis. … Our conversations with these consultants contributed to our understanding of terminology, present atmosphere, and coverage approaches.”

The report added: “Nina Jankowicz emphasised the significance of understanding gendered disinformation, contemplating this phenomenon grants a holistic understanding of the net and offline impacts that feminine political figures expertise.”

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The “Record of Consultants” famous Jankowicz was the writer of Be a Girl On-line. The ebook appears largely primarily based on the "Malign Creativity" report that she co-authored and is repeatedly cited within the new report. The ebook laments the mistreatment of Harris on-line and asserts that “to be a lady on-line is an inherently harmful act.”

The brand new report listed the “key subjects mentioned” with Jankowicz, which have been “Use of ‘On-line Harassment’, Impacts on Democracy and Ladies, Gendered Disinformation, Present Worldwide Framework Legal guidelines, and Applicability to On-line Harassment.”

“Throughout the 2020 presidential marketing campaign, Kamala Harris was focused by gendered disinformation campaigns regarding her sexual previous in an try to discredit or humiliate her, a typical goal for a lot of perpetrators of on-line harassment,” the brand new report cited by the White Home concluded. “Vice President Harris’s sexual previous, like different feminine political figures, turned a basic goal for on-line abusers of their campaigns of social stigmatization. Rumors unfold about ladies’s characters as ‘homewreckers’ who make use of intercourse to attain their profession objectives, regardless of circumstances demonstrating the alternative.”

The report added: “For Vice President Harris, this narrative that she makes use of intercourse to advance her profession instantly targets her perceived legitimacy to carry workplace.”

That part alone cited Jankowicz’s prior report 5 occasions.

Dr. Valerie Hudson, director of the Bush College’s Program on Ladies, Peace, and Safety, was the coed staff’s supervising school member.

“A few dozen subject material consultants have been interviewed for the report. Jankowicz is the writer of a ebook entitled Be a Girl On-line, which instantly addresses the problem of on-line harassment of girls,” Hudson advised the Washington Examiner. “Because the capstone mission's primary focus was the net harassment of feminine political figures, Jankowicz was recognized as somebody who would have related data on the topic.”

Hudson added: “The one interplay with Jankowicz was one interview performed by members of the capstone staff in February or March of 2022.”

The memorandum signed by Biden establishing the duty power stated it will likely be co-chaired by the Gender Coverage Council and the Nationwide Safety Council and that its membership will embrace Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland, and Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who had launched the Disinformation Governance Board and employed Jankowicz.

The disinformation board was briefly placed on maintain following the controversy surrounding Jankowicz, who later resigned. Republican senators have pointed to whistleblower disclosures and inner paperwork from the board that they are saying present Mayorkas misled concerning the goal and actions of the board.

The day earlier than the duty power launch, a senior administration official famous that the Nationwide Safety Council can be co-chairing the duty power, saying, “The explanation for that's the apparent connections. Two issues — one is the apparent connection between on-line harassment and abuse and extremism, hate, and violent acts, and the risk that has triggered. … We're completely centered on the position of platforms and social media extra typically.”

The Bush College staff offered its findings to the State Division via the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C., earlier this 12 months.

“We didn't have any interplay with the White Home in any respect. Our solely level of contact was the State Division's Workplace of International Ladies's Points. We offered our analysis to them in April,” Hudson advised the Washington Examiner. “We do know that the State Division's Workplace of International Ladies's Points has been taking a look at this challenge very intently, which is why they wished our capstone staff to carry out some analysis on the subject.” Hudson stated the State Division gave them a “heads up” a number of days earlier than the White Home announcement “that our report is perhaps footnoted in a forthcoming announcement."

The State Division didn't reply to a request for remark.