State Department halts ‘all frameworks’ to counter foreign misinformation

The State Department has halted “all frameworks” to counter misinformation from foreign countries, it announced Wednesday. 

In April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) office, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC). 

“Through free speech, the United States will counter genuine malign propaganda from adversaries that threaten our national security, while protecting Americans’ right to exchange ideas,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

The GEC was established via a March 2016 executive order signed by then-President Obama intended to counter recruitment propaganda from the Islamic State terrorist group. In December 2016, Congress expanded the GEC’s authority to counter propaganda and disinformation from foreign countries, just months before special prosecutor Robert Mueller began his investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Last December, the Biden administration reorganized the GEC after its mandate was terminated by Congress. Republicans in Congress had criticized the center for alleged First Amendment violations. The GEC’s roughly 50 employees were put under the umbrella of R/FIMI at that time.

In Wednesday’s announcement, the State Department said the foreign misinformation framework had “devolved into tools for political censorship instead of protecting Americans from foreign adversarial propaganda.” 

In his April announcement shutting down R/FIMI, Rubio said the office “spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving” and called its actions “antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding.”

According to the State Department’s Congressional Budget Justification for fiscal 2025, the GEC required $57.1 million in funding. In total, the Biden administration requested $63.35 billion from Congress in funding for the Department of State, foreign operations and related programs.