US State Department closing office aimed at countering foreign disinformation
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday he was shutting down a State Department office that had sought to counter foreign disinformation, accusing it of censorship and wasting U.S. taxpayer money, Americandiary24 reports citing Reuters.
Rubio in a statement said he was closing the State Department's Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, previously known as the Global Engagement Center. The GEC had already shut down in December 2024 under former Democratic President Joe Biden after Congress did not extend its mandate that was set to expire. It was reorganized to create a different public diplomacy office known as R/FIMI.
On Wednesday, Rubio said the office formerly called the GEC cost American taxpayers more than $50 million per year and "spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving."
"This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America," Rubio said.
He did not provide details in the statement of how the effort had silenced the voices of Americans.
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