State Department agency under fire for allegedly censoring and blacklisting American citizens

The State Department agency, which has faced criticism from conservatives for blacklisting Americans and news outlets, is expected to receive funding in the CR bill being negotiated by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The Global Engagement Center is included in page 139 of the CR, although it does not specify its budget allocation. According to a previous Inspector General report, the agency's FY 2020 budget totaled $74.26 million, with $60 million of that amount appropriated by Congress.

The Global Engagement Center will continue to operate, as per the provision in the CR, even though the State Department had previously stated its intention to shut it down by next week.

During the pandemic, the GEC, as reported by Matt Taibbi, funded a clandestine registry of subcontractors and played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of a pernicious and ill-advised form of blacklisting.

Taibbi revealed last year that the GEC labeled accounts as "Russian personas and proxies" based on specific criteria, such as describing the coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon, accusing research conducted at the Wuhan institute, and attributing the virus's appearance to the CIA.

Twitter flagged accounts that retweeted news that it banned ZeroHedge, which had reported that the virus had a lab origin.

Elon Musk previously stated that the GEC was the most egregious in terms of government censorship and media manipulation in the US.

In a tweet, Musk stated that they pose a danger to our democracy.

The GEC, a part of the State Department, collaborates with various government agencies such as the FBI, CIA, NSA, DARPA, SOCOM, and DHS, as well as funds the Atlantic Council's DFRLab.

Twitter employees discovered that the list of accounts suspected of "state-backed coordinated manipulation" provided by the DFRLab and the GEC contained several American citizens with no apparent ties to the foreign entity in question.

Previously, Graham Brookie, Director of DFRLab, denied the allegation that they utilize tax funds to monitor Americans, asserting that their GEC grants have a solely international emphasis.

The Republican-led House Small Business Committee released a 2024 report criticizing the GEC for providing grants to organizations that track both domestic and foreign misinformation and evaluate the credibility of U.S.-based publishers, as reported by the Washington Post.

The State Department, in response to a lawsuit, stated its intention to shut down the agency on Dec. 23. However, the CR provision would allow it to continue operating if passed.

Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Daily Wire, and the Federalist filed a lawsuit against the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other government officials, accusing them of conspiring to censor, deplatform, and demonetize American media outlets that are not favored by the federal government.

The defendants allegedly utilized the GEC to censor through its use.

The Global Engagement Center, created by Congress to combat foreign propaganda, has instead been used to infringe on Americans' First Amendment rights by suppressing their constitutionally-protected speech, according to the Texas Attorney General's Office.

The State Department's project is being criticized as one of the most flagrant government efforts to suppress the American media in the country's history.

The lawsuit claimed that the State Department's censorship scheme targeted conservative news organizations such as The Daily Wire and The Federalist, labeling them "unreliable" or "risky," which resulted in a reduction of advertising revenue and circulation of their reporting and speech.

Stephen Miller, President-elect Trump's pick for deputy chief of staff for policy, disclosed that the GEC utilized taxpayer funds to develop a video game called "Cat Park" to "immunize young people against misinformation" overseas.

According to a memo obtained by America First Legal, the game "inoculates players by demonstrating how sensational headlines, memes, and manipulated media can be used to spread conspiracy theories and incite real-world violence."

According to the Tennessee Star, Mike Benz, the executive director at the Foundation For Freedom Online, stated that the game was "anti-populist" and promoted specific political views rather than safeguarding Americans from foreign misinformation.

The GEC did not respond to Planet Chronicle Digital's inquiry about potential refunding.

Planet Chronicle Nikolas Lanum and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.