Recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decisions to monitor trucker protests and link domestic terrorism to misinformation have prompted backlash from some conservatives and civil libertarians, but DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator John Cohen defended his department’s actions at a Feb. 15 online event.
The DHS’s Feb. 7 bulletin warned of a heightened terrorism threat because of “false and misleading narratives,” misinformation, and “conspiracy theories.”
“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors,” the bulletin said.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) reportedly accused the DHS of “policing” speech in a Feb. 15 letter, while Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is probing the department over its methodology for crafting the bulletin, according to the Washington Times.
Cohen defended the bulletin at the Feb. 15 online event, hosted by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. He said the DHS now has “hard analysis” linking violence to narratives about government’s response to COVID-19, the 2020 election, immigration, and race.
“We have tied those narratives specifically to the overwhelming majority of domestic violent extremism incidents,” he said.
“These narratives have, in fact, inspired violence.”
According to Cohen, the threats of information are coming from all directions.
Hellbound and Down 