State Dept.’s Fight Against Disinformation Comes Under Attack

James P. Rubin, the coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, disputed the allegations that his organization censored Americans’ comments online.

Photo by: Tayfun Salci/Zuma Press Wire

New York Times
A Republican-led campaign against researchers who study disinformation online has zeroed in on the most prominent American government agency dedicated to countering propaganda and other information operations from terrorists and hostile nations.

The agency, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, is facing a torrent of accusations in court and in Congress that it has helped the social media giants — including Facebook, YouTube and X — to censor Americans in violation of the First Amendment.

The attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, and two conservative digital news outlets last week became the latest plaintiffs to sue the department and its top officials, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. The lawsuit said the center’s work was “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.” MORE