US State Department closes foreign disinformation office
On April 17, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would close a State Department office that specializes in dealing with foreign disinformation, citing censorship and waste of American taxpayers' money.
In a statement, Mr. Rubio said he would end the operations of the Office of Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC).
The GEC essentially ceased operations in December 2024, under former Democratic President Joe Biden, after Congress failed to renew its expiring mandate. It was then reorganized into another public diplomacy office called R/FIMI.
The GEC has faced criticism from some Republicans, who say it has strayed from its original mission and is biased toward conservative media. But Democrats and some Republicans have supported the center, highlighting its important role in countering Russian and Chinese disinformation. The center has a budget of $61 million and a staff of more than 120 people.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a close associate of President Donald Trump — who has been pushing to shrink the federal government since Trump took office on January 20 — once called the center “the single worst offender” in the US government’s censorship and manipulation of media, according to a 2023 post on the X platform.
Efforts to downsize the federal government have also resulted in thousands of layoffs and the dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Trump administration has accused the previous administration of censoring free speech among Americans to silence views that are not in line with the government. However, since taking office, Mr. Trump has pushed to deport foreigners who participated in pro-Palestinian protests against ally Israel’s war in Gaza following a Hamas offensive in October 2023, accusing protesters of vandalism and harassment.
Mr. Rubio said the office, formerly known as the GEC, costs more than $50 million a year in taxpayer dollars and “spent millions of dollars to intentionally silence and censor the voices of the very Americans it was supposed to serve.” However, in the statement, he did not provide specific details about how those voices were silenced.
In an April 16 online chat with former State Department official and conservative activist Mike Benz, Mr. Rubio said that the mainstream media “spreads misinformation every day,” but countering with facts is more effective than using the government to silence others.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the role of the Global Engagement Center and its successor office remains critically important. She warned that closing agencies like the GEC and Voice of America means the Trump administration is “completely ceding the global information space to adversaries who are willing to fill the void with anti-American propaganda.”
