The Trump administration closes an important office. The fight against disinformation is limited
“It is the duty of every government official to constantly work on the behavior and protection of the Americans' freedom. That is why today I am announcing the closing office for preventing foreign interference and manipulation of information (r/fim) of the State Department, formerly known as Global Engagement Center (GEC)” – he wrote in Rubio's statement.” During the previous administration it was an office that cost taxpayers over $ 50 million a year, spent millions of dollars on active silence and censorship of the voices of Americans, which it was to serve ” – he added.
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As he assessed, such actions are “unthinkable”. Rubio promised that “under President Trump, he would always work on protecting the rights of the American people.”
The GEC launched in 2016 has long been criticized by some of the Republicans, conservative environments and Elon Musk, who accused the censorship of right -wing votes on the network. Although Rubio did not give examples of the alleged silence of conservatives, it probably includes For the list of potential accounts selected by GEC as related to Chinese, Indian or Iranian influence operations. This case was disclosed after the takeover of Twitter (currently X) by Elon Musk. According to journalist Matt Taibbi, who analyzed the content of revealed emails, some of them belonged to ordinary American Twitter users.
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In June last year, GEC concluded with the Polish agreement on “Cooperation to counteract information manipulation by third countries”. As part of it, a team for the fight against Russian disinformation on Ukraine was created in Poland, in which representatives of 12 other countries participated in the work. In 2024, the office also participated in disclosure how representatives of Kremlin television paid, on the order of Russian intelligence, right -wing influencers for promoting Russian narratives.
