Obama's Global Engagement Center — the 'worst offender in US government censorship' — is officially dead

The Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity housed within the U.S. State Department that has been credibly and repeatedly accused of working with domestic and foreign organizations to silence conservative voices, is officially dead.

The website for the now-closed agency — deemed the "worst offender in U.S. government censorship & media manipulation" by Elon Musk in the wake of the Twitter Files and found to be internally dysfunctional in a 2022 State Department Office of Inspector General report — states, "The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024."

Although the agency was the focus of multiple congressional investigations as well as a defendant in a pair of damning federal lawsuits — across which the censorship of conservatives was a common theme — there was a bipartisan effort in Washington until the end to keep the GEC alive with its annual $61 million budget.

Democratic Sen. Christopher Murphy (Conn.) unsuccessfully pushed an amendment, which was co-sponsored by Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), to get the GEC extended through 2034.

Murphy told the Washington Post earlier this month, "I'm pursuing every avenue to ensure the GEC authorization does not expire and their critical work can continue."

'One of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.'

Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), similarly keen to keep the GEC alive, introduced tweaks to Murphy's proposed amendment, including a requirement that the State Department could not knowingly fund partisan political activities carried out by the GEC domestically. These evidently failed to sweeten the deal.

The State Department filed a notice on Dec. 9 informing the court overseeing Daily Wire v. U.S. Department of State — a lawsuit brought in December 2023 by Texas, the Daily Wire, and the Federalist in hopes of kneecapping the GEC and halting "one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation" — indicating that the agency was not long for this world.

Sure enough, there was no mention of a reauthorization for the agency in an early draft 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

The State Department told Blaze News at the time that it was "hopeful that Congress extends this important mandate through other means before the ... termination date."

Although House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked him in a June 3 letter to defund the GEC and other governmental outfits "engaged in speech suppression," House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) introduced a continuing appropriations measure on Dec. 17, which included a one-year extension for the agency.

"This CR funds the censorship of conservative speech for the entire first year of the Trump administration. Unacceptable!" tweeted Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).

Matthew Peterson, editor in chief of Blaze News, which was among the publications targeted by a GEC-backed censorship outfit, stated, "Oh, hell no. Unconscionable."

Sean Davis, CEO of the Federalist — an organization that sued the GEC over alleged censorship — stated, "In their abominable omnibus, Republicans are set to fund the illegal government censorship cartel that is attempting to shut down and destroy conservative news outlets like @FDRLST and @realDailyWire. This is unforgivable insanity. What on earth is going on?"

The bloated 1,547-page funding bill containing Cole's measure died, and the GEC's hope of survival with it. A slimmer, GEC-free continuing resolution was ultimately passed on Dec. 20.

Among the many critics who celebrated the GEC's closure this week was Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt (R), who tweeted, "Big win."

The GEC, originally the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, was established by a 2011 Obama executive order and tasked with "using communication tools to reduce radicalization by terrorists and extremist violence and terrorism that threaten the interests and national security of the United States."

The agency was renamed and assigned additional objectives under a 2016 Obama executive order.

The agency would work with organizations at home and abroad to counter potentially radicalizing content and also work to advance favorable "alternative narratives and to diminish the influence of such international terrorist organizations and other violent extremists abroad."

'The GEC, which almost earned a lifeline under the first CR version, is already scattering its employees to other agencies.'

After its codification into law in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, the GEC broadened the scope of its narrative curation and suppression such that it would tackle content generated by state actors like China and Russia in addition to the usual extremist propaganda spun out by the likes of jihadists. The NDAA also provided the agency with grant-making authorities as well as the ability to "build a decentralized network of private sector actors and allow the integration of capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process."

According to a House Small Business Committee report, the GEC ditched its "whole-of-government" approach and embraced "whole-of-society" support, and "its methodologies changed from using social media platforms to create and spread counterpropaganda materials to directing public opinion by trying to get social media platforms to suppress content."

The agency, juiced up and emboldened in subsequent years, increasingly developed relationships with various censorship operations.

The GEC is accused of helping governmental and nongovernmental groups suppress the lawful speech of American citizens, including online discussions of the COVID-19 lab-leak theory, as well as backing efforts to neutralize information sources unfavorable to the powers that be — such as Blaze News, the Federalist, the Daily Wire, the New York Post, and other conservative publications.

Although the agency is now dead, its work and hundreds of staffers may end up haunting other federal agencies.

A State Department spokesman told Politico in October that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was committed to "preserving the GEC's critical work."

"No matter what, combatting foreign information manipulation overseas will continue as a critical part of the Department's mission," said the spokesman.

Gabe Kaminsky of the Washington Examiner, a publication that also appeared on the blacklist of the Global Disinformation Index, a group funded by the GEC, noted, "The GEC, which almost earned a lifeline under the first CR version, is already scattering its employees to other agencies after congressional subpoenas and lawsuits targeting its funding of entities aiming to thwart alleged disinformation in the U.S., despite the GEC's mandate to act internationally."

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