Government agency, accused of censoring conservatives, closes its doors
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center was established in 2016. Its main objectives was to counter foreign disinformation. However, it joined the ranks of those who engaged in censorship and media influence. Funding for this agency was stripped as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It shut down its operations on December 23, 2024.
From Fox News:
The lawsuit was brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Daily Wire and the Federalist, who sued the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other government officials earlier this month for “engaging in a conspiracy to censor, deplatform and demonetize American media outlets disfavored by the federal government.”
The lawsuit stated that the GEC was used as a tool for the defendants to carry out its censorship.
??”Congress authorized the creation of the Global Engagement Center expressly to counter foreign propaganda and misinformation,” the Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a press release. “Instead, the agency weaponized this authority to violate the First Amendment and suppress Americans’ constitutionally-protected speech.
The complaint describes the State Department’s project as “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.'”
The lawsuit argued that The Daily Wire, The Federalist and other conservative news organizations were branded “unreliable” or “risky” by the agency, “starving them of advertising revenue and reducing the circulation of their reporting and speech–all as a direct result of [the State Department’s] unlawful censorship scheme.”
Meanwhile, America First Legal, headed up by Stephen Miller, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff for policy, revealed that the GEC had used taxpayer dollars to create a video game called “Cat Park” to “Inoculate Youth Against Disinformation” abroad.
Additional Reading:
Phillips, M., & Dorgan, M. (2024, December 26). State Department’s ‘Global Engagement Center’ accused of censoring Americans shuts its doors. Fox News. Link.
Category: Get woke, Government Incompetence, Society
