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WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has shut down its office
that sought to deal with misinformation and disinformation that
Russia, China and Iran have been accused of spreading.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday
that he had closed what had been known as the Global Engagement
Center because it had taken actions to restrict freedom of
speech in the United States and elsewhere.
The center has been a frequent target of criticism from
conservatives for calling out media and online reports that it
said are biased or untruthful. At times, it has identified U.S.
websites and social media accounts that it argued were
amplifying misinformation, particularly related to the
Russia-Ukraine war.
“It is the responsibility of every government official to
continuously work to preserve and protect the freedom for
Americans to exercise their free speech,” Rubio said, charging
that the office worked "to actively silence and censor the
voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.”
Rubio said that is “antithetical” to the principles that “we
should be upholding.”
Congress had supported the center's work, as had previous State
Department leadership.
“This is a deeply misleading (and) unserious portrayal of an
organization focused on identifying foreign — primarily Russian
— disinformation ops,” former State Department spokesman Ned
Price said in a post on X.
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