- The State Department shut down an office that was created to combat misinformation from terrorist organizations and authoritarian regimes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it had been used to hinder American’s freedom of speech.
- President Obama created the center in 2016 via executive order. Rubio said it cost $50 million a year to run.
- The center had been the subject of lawsuits regarding First Amendment violations. A Biden administration spokesperson said the accusations are misleading and unserious.
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The State Department shuttered an office created to combat misinformation from terrorist organizations and authoritarian regimes. In his announcement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it had been used to hinder Americans’ freedom of speech during the Biden administration.
“[The center] spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said in a statement. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”
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The department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), was created by President Barack Obama in 2016 via executive order. According to Rubio, it costs more than $50 million per year to run.
Obama’s executive order stated the center’s purpose would be to “diminish the influence of international terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al Qa’ida, and other violent extremists abroad.”
Was the center limiting free speech?
Conservatives contend it censored the free speech of Americans.
“For centuries, the United States served as a beacon of hope for millions of people around the world. Over the last decade, though, individuals in America have been slandered, fired, charged and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions,” Rubio said. “That is not an America our Founding Fathers would recognize.”
Conservative organizations, including America First Legal, filed lawsuits and FOIA requests, accusing the GEC of silencing legitimate political speech on issues of great public interest, including COVID-19, vaccine mandates and election integrity.
The GEC was also accused of partnering with non-governmental organizations and social media companies which led to suppression of speech.
Support for the center
Ned Price, who was the State Department spokesperson during the Biden administration, responded to Rubio’s announcement and accusations against the GEC, saying “This is a deeply misleading & unserious portrayal of an organization focused on identifying foreign — primarily Russian — disinformation ops.”
The GEC was officially closed in December 2024, but a report in the Washington Examiner revealed the Biden administration reopened it as the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information and Manipulation and Interference office using the same employees.
