the Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Foreign Disinformation Center, which conservatives accuse of censoring American citizens, closed its doors this week due to a lack of funding.
Elon Musk The Global Engagement Center (GEC), founded in 2016, was deemed “the worst offender in US government censorship and media manipulation,” and its funding was stripped as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Pentagon’s annual policy bill.
“The Global Engagement Center will expire under the law (by the end of today) on December 23, 2024,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The State Department has consulted with Congress on next steps.”
Lawmakers had originally included GEC funding in their bill Continuous resolution (CR)or a bill to finance the government after the deadline on Friday. But this iteration of the funding bill was rejected by Conservatives, and it was rewritten without money for GEC and other recipients of the funding.
The agency has a budget of about $61 million and employs 120 people.
At a time when opponents such as Iran And Russia As disinformation has been planted around the world, Republicans have seen little value in the agency's work, arguing that much of its disinformation analysis is already provided by the private sector.
The State Department's Foreign Disinformation Center, which conservatives accuse of censoring American citizens, closed its doors this week due to a lack of funding. (Graphic from Fox News with originals from Getty Images)
GEC, according to reporter Matt Taibbi, “funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer a new, insidious and stupid form of blacklisting” during the pandemic.
Tibi wrote last year when exposed Twitter files That the GEC “labeled the accounts as ‘Russian figures and agents’ based on criteria such as ‘describing the coronavirus as a designer bioweapon’, blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan Institute’, and ‘attributing the emergence of the virus to the CIA’.” “”
“The State Department also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter had banned popular US website ZeroHedge, claiming it ‘led to another wave of disinformation narratives.’” ZeroHedge filed reports speculating that the virus had a laboratory origin.
GEC is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but is also a partner with Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Special Operations Command, and the Department of Homeland Security. GEC also funds the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Laboratory (DFRLab).
A spending bill to fund a State Department agency accused of censoring and blacklisting Americans
DFRLab director Graham Brockie has previously denied the claim they use tax money to track Americans, saying its GEC grants have an “exclusively international focus.”
A 2024 report by the Republican-led House Small Business Committee criticized the Small Business Committee for awarding grants to organizations whose work includes tracking domestic and foreign misinformation and assessing the credibility of U.S.-based publishers, according to The Washington Post.
Elon Musk had considered the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was founded in 2016, “the worst offender in US government censorship and media manipulation.” (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Journalist Matt Taibbi wrote last year, when he exposed twitter files, That GEC “labeled the accounts as ‘Russian figures and agents’ based on criteria such as, ‘describing the coronavirus as a designer bioweapon,’ and blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan Institute’.” (Daniel Zochnick/WireImage)
The lawsuit has been filed before Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonand The Daily Wire and The Federalist, which sued the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other government officials earlier this month for “engaging in a conspiracy to censor, deplatform, and demonize U.S. media disfavored by the federal government.”
The lawsuit stated that the GEC was used as a tool for the defendants to implement censorship.
“Congress authorized the establishment of the Center for Global Engagement expressly to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a press release. “Instead, the agency has weaponized this power to violate the rules of international law First Amendment Suppressing Americans' constitutionally protected speech.
State Department Funds 'Disinformation' Index Targets Illiberal, Conservative Media: Report
The complaint describes the State Department's project as “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the nation's history.”
The lawsuit alleged that The Daily Wire, The Federalist and other conservative news organizations had been labeled “unreliable” or “risky” by the agency, which “deprived them of advertising revenue and reduced the circulation of their reports and speeches — all as a direct result of ( Department of State) illegal surveillance plan.”
Meanwhile, America First Legal, headed by Stephen Miller, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for deputy chief of staff for policy, revealed that GEC used taxpayer money to create a video game called “Cat Park” to “vaccinate young people against misinformation.” ” outside.
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The game “immunizes players…by showing how sensationalist headlines, memes and manipulated media can be used to advance conspiracy theories and incite real-world violence,” according to a memo obtained by America First Legal.
Mike Benz, executive director of the Freedom Online Foundation, said the game was “anti-populist” and pushed certain political beliefs rather than protecting Americans from foreign disinformation, according to the Tennessee Star.
