Nina Jankowicz, former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, has returned in the left’s fight against “disinformation” in cofounding a a new nonprofit organization, the American Sunlight Project. The project’s mission, as outlined on its website, is to increase “the cost of lies that undermine our democracy” and working to “expose the infrastructure and funding behind the disinformation campaigns” that seek to distort reality and manipulate public opinion.
Jankowicz along with her co-founder Carlos Àlvarez-Aranyos, stated that the U.S. has faced a number of “concerning developments” since the start of the 2024 primaries in the information space. They state that AI-fueled misinformation and deepfakes pose a major threat to elections around the world.
In 2022, Jankowicz garnered national attention for being slated to head the Biden administration’s proposed Disinformation Governance Board, a Homeland Security Department off-shoot intended to root out “lies” that threatened national security. The proposal was blasted by conservatives for being akin to a “Ministry of Truth,” with Nina herself having previously labeled the Hunter Biden laptop story as fake news.
While the project pledges transparency in its investigations, including making open-source investigations accessible, it is not required to disclose the sources of its donations under its IRS designation. Jankowicz told reporters that the project has received $1 million in “initial commitments” to support its endeavors.
The initiative has been described as bipartisan, although its leadership and advisers have predominantly Democratic affiliations. The non-profit is staffed with former members of federal agencies, D.C. think tanks consultants from the left-leaning Brookings Institution and Wilson Center, and social media executives from Facebook and X. A co-creator of American Sunlight, Eddie Vale, was formerly a member of American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC that gathered opposition research on Republicans.
INBOX: Nina Jankowicz is now leading something called the American Sunlight Project, and is pushing out press releases about her interviews on “disinformation” (she pushed the ohony Steele dossier and falsely claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinfo) pic.twitter.com/PfGguAdmZ4
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 24, 2024
Despite this slanted staffing, the organization called itself “bipartisan” in a letter sent to the House Republican chairs of the Judiciary, Oversight, and Homeland Security committees. They criticize GOP committee chairs in the letter for “using government resources to attack” and are “deliberately misconstruing” the work of what they describe as independent technology researchers and for intimidating federal agencies into seizing their efforts to combat “information that seeks to threaten, undermine, or disenfranchise American citizens.”
