US halts Biden-era agency accused of 'censorship'
The U.S. government has officially disbanded the agency that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims was employed by the Biden administration to censor American voices. The Global Engagement Center (GEC) was established by former President Joe...
TroibNews 
The U.S. government has officially disbanded the agency that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims was employed by the Biden administration to censor American voices.
The Global Engagement Center (GEC) was established by former President Joe Biden in 2016 to “recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation,” as stated in its mission.
On Wednesday, Rubio announced the closure of the GEC, which had been functioning as the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office since December.
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio stated. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”
In a recent interview with conservative activist Mike Benz, Rubio remarked that the GEC was initially intended to combat extremism, such as propaganda from Al-Qaeda and ISIS, but later shifted its focus to “going after individual American voices.”
“We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department,” he asserted.
The Biden administration was noted for supporting organizations that were “literally tagging and labeling voices in American politics – Ben Shapiro, The Federalist, others – tagging them as foreign agents,” Rubio said.
With an annual budget of $61 million, the GEC employed approximately 120 individuals. However, in December, congressional Republicans chose not to renew its funding.
Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have frequently accused Democrats of utilizing government power to suppress conservative viewpoints online. In 2023, tech billionaire Elon Musk criticized the GEC, labeling it the “worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation,” and declared it “a threat to our democracy.” Journalist Matt Taibbi asserted that the agency attempted to stifle discussions related to Covid-19 under the pretext of combating “Russian personas and proxies.”
Last year, a group of House Republicans addressed a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, alleging that the GEC showed bias in favor of “American progressives” and was working to silence opinions “deemed to be politically disfavored or inconvenient.”
Mathilde Moreau for TROIB News
The Global Engagement Center (GEC) was established by former President Joe Biden in 2016 to “recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation,” as stated in its mission.
On Wednesday, Rubio announced the closure of the GEC, which had been functioning as the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office since December.
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio stated. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”
In a recent interview with conservative activist Mike Benz, Rubio remarked that the GEC was initially intended to combat extremism, such as propaganda from Al-Qaeda and ISIS, but later shifted its focus to “going after individual American voices.”
“We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department,” he asserted.
The Biden administration was noted for supporting organizations that were “literally tagging and labeling voices in American politics – Ben Shapiro, The Federalist, others – tagging them as foreign agents,” Rubio said.
With an annual budget of $61 million, the GEC employed approximately 120 individuals. However, in December, congressional Republicans chose not to renew its funding.
Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have frequently accused Democrats of utilizing government power to suppress conservative viewpoints online. In 2023, tech billionaire Elon Musk criticized the GEC, labeling it the “worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation,” and declared it “a threat to our democracy.” Journalist Matt Taibbi asserted that the agency attempted to stifle discussions related to Covid-19 under the pretext of combating “Russian personas and proxies.”
Last year, a group of House Republicans addressed a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, alleging that the GEC showed bias in favor of “American progressives” and was working to silence opinions “deemed to be politically disfavored or inconvenient.”
Mathilde Moreau for TROIB News
