Nina Jankowicz, the Integrity Initiative, and the British Foreign Office

May 16, 2022 (EIRNS)—The bizarre head of Biden’s frightening Disinformation Governance Board claimed earlier this month that there is no such thing as a deep state; the idea that “there is this secret cabal here in Washington working to undermine the American people couldn’t be further from the truth.”

But Jankowicz herself is a product of the Integrity Initiative, founded in 2015 through the U.K.-funded NGO known as the Institute for Statecraft. The Integrity Initiative had what Darren Beattie accurately calls “a precociously fashionable motto”: “Defending Democracy Against Disinformation.”

The Integrity Initiative coordinated its activity through what it called “clusters” of “well-informed people from the political, military, academic, journalistic and think-tank spheres.” These clusters would have the mission of tracking “disinformation” and to “inform decision-makers and other interested parties about what is happening.”

In reviewing leaked Integrity Initiative documents, Beattie noted the presence of Nina Jankowicz in a 2018 leak, which names her as a member of the “inner core” of the Integrity Initiative’s U.K. Cluster. Another member of the “inner core” of the U.K. cluster dealing with Russia was Anne Applebaum, who played a role in the Hunter Biden laptop coverup.

(About that laptop, disinformation maven Jankowicz tweeted in October 2020 that “Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads believe the laptop is a Russian influence op.”)

Another member of the U.K. Inner Core Russia cluster, Ben Nimmo, used to work for the Digital Forensics Research Lab, a subsidiary of the Atlantic Council—a think tank funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, NATO, and the U.S. State Department. He now works at Facebook and describes his role as “helping to lead global threat intelligence strategy against influence operations.”

(This background provides better context to understand the hysterical responses to Elon Musk’s threat to purchase Twitter.)

Ever since the leaks of Integrity Initiative material began in November 2018, it has essentially closed up shop, wiping its web page, Facebook page, and Twitter account.

The parent to the Integrity Initiative, the Institute for Statecraft, is Chris Donnelly. He spent 12 years as an advisor to four consecutive NATO secretaries general.

The idea that censorship is occurring under the auspices of private companies exercising their First Amendment rights to choose what to allow is shown to be absurd. Government influence—including in particular U.K. government influence—is an enormous and growing factor in the operation of social media companies and the legacy media.

A victory for free expression and the ability to think requires a defeat of the Disinformation-Industrial Complex.