Trump Admin Shuts Down Agency That Drove Online ‘Censorship’

The Trump administration announced it is closing an agency that funded and participated in “censorship” of disfavored viewpoints online.

The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) is shutting down almost a decade after its creation due to “free speech” concerns, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Wednesday press release. The GEC faced criticism from Republicans in Congress as well as a lawsuit for funding groups that allegedly created “blacklists” for right-leaning media outlets to stave off their profits.

“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said. “This is antithetical to the very we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation.

Former President Barack Obama first established the GEC via executive order in 2016 supposedly to counter foreign terrorist propaganda. The agency later moved toward funding entities such as the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a Europe-based group that