State Department Eliminates Key Office Tasked With Fighting Foreign Disinformation

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the agency’s hub for fighting foreign disinformation campaigns — the final nail in a yearslong effort to shut down the office accused by GOP lawmakers of censoring conservative voices.

In a statement, Rubio claimed the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office at the State Department, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center, had “spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving." According to Rubio, the relatively modest federal office expended "more than $50 million per year."

“This is antithetical to the very principals we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America,” Rubio said. “That ends today. Under the administration of President Trump, we will always work to protect the rights of the American people, and this is an important step in continuing to fulfill that commitment.”

The center came under fire from leading Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year for allegedly silencing conservative voices through its efforts to clear up disinformation and misinformation online. Elon Musk, who now heads up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, described the office in 2023 as "the worst offender in U.S. government censorship."

But the center's supporters, including Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), have asserted that it plays a critical role in combating Russian and Chinese disinformation.

Funding for the center was stripped out of the final government funding deal signed into law by President Joe Biden in December, when its congressional authorization was set to expire. Previously, the center exposed a major Russian disinformation campaign in Africa, and last year put together an international agreement — now removed from the State Department’s website —to counter foreign disinformation that had the backing of around two dozen other nations.

A current State Department official, granted anonymity out of fear of retribution, said Wednesday that “the Kremlin and Chinese Communist Party are cheering today.”

“Our adversaries spread disinformation, deliberately meant to deceive and divide communities and nations and to attack the foundations of democratic societies,” the former official said. “Yet another fissure has been created in our national security that makes America even more vulnerable.”

Robbie Gramer contributed to this report.