Specific problem areas mentioned by the DHS included false information propagated by human smugglers encouraging migrants to surge to the Mexico–United States border, as well as Russian-state disinformation on election interference and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[7] The Disinformation Governance Board was announced and revealed to the public by the DHS on April 27, 2022, during a 2023 budget hearing before the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

The DHS had decided to form the board in 2021 after conducting research that recommended creating a group to "review questions of privacy and civil liberty for online content".

[1] Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called the board a "terrible idea" that "communicates to the world that we're going to be spreading propaganda in our own country", arguing that it should be disbanded.

[18][20] Some critics, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis[21] and former Democratic representative for Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard, compared the board to the Ministry of Truth, from George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

"[22] Representatives Mike Turner (R-OH) and John Katko (R-NY) wrote that "Given the complete lack of information about this new initiative and the potential serious consequences of a government entity identifying and responding to 'disinformation,' we have serious concerns about the activities of this new Board".

[23] Writing for National Review, Jim Geraghty lauded the board's potential to dispel information disseminated by human smugglers on the southern border, as well as monitoring messages from terrorist and extremist groups, but objected to Jankowicz's appointment.

"[28][29] Other criticism came from progressive and civil libertarian voices;[4][6] Benjamin Hart, writing in New York Magazine's Intelligencer, said that "presenting anyone from the government as an arbiter of truth in 2022 — much less defining 'disinformation' in a way that more than 40 percent of the population would agree with — seemed doomed from the get-go.

[32][33] Joe Lancaster, editor of the libertarian magazine Reason, called the board a potential threat to free speech, and also highlighted Jankowicz's comments regarding the Biden laptop story.

[36] Kevin Goldberg, a specialist in the First Amendment at the non-partisan Freedom Forum, said that it was "wrong and concerning" that a government agency with enforcement powers created in response to 9/11 would become involved in decisions surrounding speech.