The State Department eliminates unit countering foreign disinformation

The State Department removed on Wednesday a key government agency that tracked foreign disinformation, portraying the move as an effort to preserve "free speech."

The closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), comes at a time when several federal agencies have reduced their staffs, their budgets, or shut down for good.

Rubio: "The State Department will no longer spend taxpayer money to censor Americans"

In a statement, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced the closure of the unit, saying it was the responsibility of government officials to "preserve and protect the freedom of Americans to exercise their freedom of speech."

The chief US diplomat added that "under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million a year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of the Americans they were supposed to serve."

Of the entity's actions Rubio said, "That ends today."

The announcement comes just as the State Department has hinted at an unprecedented dismantling of Washington's diplomatic outreach to cut the budget by nearly 50 percent, according to US media.

It also comes after leading experts who monitor propaganda have warned of the risk of disinformation campaigns by countries such as Russia and China.

In December, just weeks before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the US Congress did not extend funding for the agency after years of Republican accusations that it censored conservative views.

GEC accused of censoring and surveilling Americans

The GEC, established in 2016, had long come under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and surveilling Americans. Its closure leaves the State Department without an office dedicated to tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in more than eight years.

The unit has also been criticized by Trump's billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, who accused the GEC in 2023 of being the "worst offender of US government censorship and manipulation of the media" and called the agency a "threat to our democracy."

Musk has overseen the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), charged with radically reducing government spending.