U.S. Shuts Down Center Meant to Counter Foreign Disinformation

The United States has officially shut down the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department unit created in 2016 to counter foreign disinformation, including from Russia and China. The announcement was made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, The Gaze reports, citing the Department of State.

“Freedom of speech and expression have been a cornerstone of what it means to be an American citizen,” said Rubio in a statement. “Over the last decade, individuals in America have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions.”

Rubio emphasized that preserving free speech is a duty of every government official and cited this responsibility as the reason behind the closure of the office formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), later renamed the Bureau of Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI). According to him, the GEC, which cost over $50 million annually, was used to “silence and censor” American voices — an approach he called “antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding.”

In fact, the GEC quietly ceased operations at the end of 2024 after its funding was omitted from the State Department’s budget. This marks the first time in eight years that the U.S. Department of State has operated without a dedicated agency for tracking and countering foreign disinformation campaigns.

As previously reported by The Gaze, on March 28 the U.S. Department of State and USAID notified Congress about a significant internal restructuring, which included the dismantling of several offices and programs, including the GEC.