State Department documents reveal secret plans to route ‘censorship’ office to new hub
EXCLUSIVE — The State Department has crafted plans to distribute staffers from a shuttered office accused of censoring conservatives to a new internal “hub” that will coordinate its activities, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The Global Engagement Center, the office that Republicans accused of working with groups aiming to demonetize right-leaning media outlets in the United States, shut down in late 2023 upon lawmakers agreeing to no longer fund it. However, in a non-public letter to members of Congress on Dec. 6, the State Department outlined its plans to "realign" more than 50 GEC officials and tens of millions of dollars in funding to a hub purporting to counter foreign interference, documents show.
The plans, which have not been reported on until now, will likely lead to investigations from Republicans into the State Department's handling of the GEC's closure. That's because, according to senior GOP staffers who reviewed them, they appear to indicate that the Biden administration is merely rebranding the GEC under a different name — forming a new body that could be poised to engage in work akin to that which landed the office in hot water over the last two years.
Formed in 2016, the GEC claimed to only counter foreign disinformation, but came under intense criticism for backing the Global Disinformation Index and other groups pressuring advertisers to defund media outlets in the U.S. deemed to peddle disinformation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/state-department-documents-reveal-secret-plans-to-route-censorship-office-to-new-hub/ar-AA1wS0xA?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=e2d02922c0df4ff6b024d62cf7c3f39f&ei=105
