The British novelist George Orwell (1903-1950) surely never in his life imagined that his novel ‘1984’ would inspire a ‘class B’ application of that dystopia in Argentina. He devised in the work a Ministry of Truth that imposes a galvanized version of reality,
Well, in Argentina there is now a public truth body: the Official Response Office, created by the president Javier Mileywho perceives himself as anarcho-capitalist while calling for the founding of a Right-Wing International.
The task, according to the official presentation message on social network “Fight misinformation – he added – by providing more information.”
“Quite the opposite of what political sectors linked to the left do when they govern, where they seek to censor opponents both in traditional media and on social networks,” he indicated.
If in ‘1984’ the character Winston Smith He is the head of the Ministry of Truth, here that position is held by Juan Carreiradirector of Digital Communication of the Presidency, active participant in the networks as “JuanDoe”, and former editor-in-chief of The Right Diaryowned by the Spanish journalist Javier Negre.
For now, the office has limited itself to reproducing news and reports that appeared in the media that it considers questionable and has cataloged them in different ways. “False”, “incorrect”, “engineered lies”, although without giving details or explaining the foundations of said judgments.
The office poster copies to the verified account in Donald Trump and the White House use to spread official messages and criticize journalists and opponents. Both are red and have drawings of government headquarters and national flags.
Milei, who never gave a press conference and only gave friendly interviews, carries out his own ‘war’ against journalism in general and often repeats: “We don’t hate journalists enough.” He calls them “enveloped” because he presumes that they receive envelopes with money from politicians and businessmen.
The president prefers to communicate directly with the public himself by messaging several times a day on X and Instagram. Refers to Clarionthe most read newspaper, as “the great Argentine scam.” In addition, he set up a network of trolls in the Casa Rosada who post provocative and offensive messages.
The president’s anger was exacerbated after Clarion He would uncover his confidential agreement with American businessman Hayden Davis in 2025. Shortly after, Davis launched the Libra cryptocurrency, advertised by Milei on his “X” account, which ended in a scam worth millions of dollars.
It also did not sit well with him that some media reported that the inflation statistics are doctored. Disinflation is the main economic achievement: from 211.14% annually in 2023 it collapsed to 31.5% annually in 2025. But many warn that this figure was manipulated downwards.
From the IMF and the Bloomberg agency to unions and economic consultants, they assure that the calculation formula is obsolete (from 2004) and demand that it be updated. Days ago, Marco Lavagna, head of statistics, resigned because he could not get the CPI honest. But the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced that it will remain the same, without changes.
The creation of the Official Response Office has unleashed a wave of criticism and unfavorable opinions. The PRO party – conservative, equivalent to the PP and partner of Milei – stated that “the State should not fabricate the truth.” The associations of newspapers, ADEPA, and journalists, FOPEA, also spoke out against it.
“Chequeado.com”, a website dedicated to information verification, considered that “governments cannot verify” news and reports because they are one of the parties involved, they are not independent of the case in question.
Likewise, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned about “institutional deterioration” in Argentina as a result of the official discourse “to stigmatize journalists.” And the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) noted that Argentina fell 47 positions – to 87th overall – in its Press Freedom classification.