Secret State Department funding of ‘global disinformation index’ accused of censoring conservative views
Republicans are threatening to shut down a taxpayer-funded program they say censors the free speech rights of conservative Americans.
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) leads and coordinates efforts to “counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
But it has come to light because it provides taxpayer money to organizations currently facing charges of First Amendment violations, a move that GOP members of Congress say poses risks to free speech and censorship.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is now questioning why the taxpayer-funded program should continue.
In a letter McCaul wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken this month, first obtained by DailyMail.com, the chairman demands that the GEC be closed by the end of this year.
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center has given grants to organizations that allegedly censored Americans’ freedom of speech. As Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives sought more information about the GEC, agency officials have withheld documents, McCaul says.
He also wants to know why the department has ‘withheld’ information about the effectiveness of the centre.
“To begin with, the GEC is facing increasing scrutiny here in Washington and across the country,” McCaul wrote to Blinken in the letter. “Many of these investigations concern the GEC’s relationships with organizations — primarily U.S. technology companies and NGOs — that engage in global censorship.”
According to McCaul, some of the GEC’s partner organizations that are engaged in censorship practices include the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).
He says the EIP engaged in censorship by “communicating with social media companies to identify and then remove US-originated posts as misinformation or disinformation, much of it during the 2020 election campaign.”
McCaul has also questioned the GEC’s partnership with GDI, which maintains a “blacklist” of US news outlets, claiming that the list is evidence of bias against conservative publications and that GDI therefore does not deserve funding.
The GEC is also a central element in two ongoing federal lawsuits, the chairman notes in his brief. Both have alleged that the federal government has infringed on Americans’ First Amendment rights.
House Speaker Michael McCaul, R-Texas, (center), sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking for more information about the controversial counter-propaganda program Global Engagement Center (GEC).
McCaul and the committee asked Blinken to respond to their questions by July 19.
‘The House Foreign Affairs Committee has repeatedly expressed concern that the GEC: (1) contributes to the censorship of American voices through grants to and other partnerships with private organizations operating both in the U.S. and abroad; and (2) may be effective in identifying, but is not effective in preventing or containing, foreign misinformation and disinformation.’
The letter also highlights that the GEC has been the focus of several congressional investigations and that an internal State Department report found that the group “has suffered from serious internal dysfunction.”
The GEC was created during the global war on terror and was used to combat disinformation about the US and its activities, particularly during the fight against ISIS.
But Republicans argue the harms outweigh the benefits.
McCaul continued to Blinken: “Your Department refuses to acknowledge that these ongoing controversies make an objective assessment of the GEC difficult.”
“Any value the GEC provides is tempered by genuine concerns that the GEC is at best indifferent to, and at worst complicit in, an orchestrated and systematic effort to stretch the term ‘disinformation’ to include positions that, among American progressives, are considered politically distasteful or uncomfortable.”
The GEC has helped disinformation watchdogs censor Americans’ online content, the GOP Texas lawmaker alleged
‘Unfortunately, as we will describe, the Department has withheld from us the information necessary to assess the seriousness of these problems. We therefore have serious reservations about reauthorizing the GEC.’
McCaul asked Blinken to provide additional answers on the effectiveness of GEC by July 19 so the committee can better assess whether to extend the State Department’s program beyond the end of 2024.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Foreign Office for comment.