The US Department of Foreign Affairs has announced that its office specializing in combating disinformation abroad is officially closed. The Republican majority Congress has in fact decided not to grant it a new budget. This organization responsible for combating Russian and Chinese propaganda in particular was widely criticized by conservatives and by billionaire Elon Musk.
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With a budget of $61 million, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) employed 120 people. Opened under the presidency of Barack Obama in 2016, this State Department office specialized in tracking and combating fake news abroad that could harm American interests around the world.
This organization has notably contributed to uncovering major disinformation campaigns in Latin America, Moldova and in Africa. Most recently, he uncovered a large-scale Russian operation which aimed to disseminate conspiracy theories on health programs financed by the United States and the West in several African countries through various channels on the internet.
The organization also opened a multinational branch in Warsaw, Poland, last June to counter Russian propaganda on the war in Ukraine. He was counting on a renewal of his funding to acquire, among other things, new tools capable of detecting photos manipulated byartificial intelligence.
The GEC has long been in the sights of Republican parliamentarians
Believing that the United States was under-resourced in the fight against disinformation and interference, the GEC estimated in its last report that China spent “ billions of dollars to spread disinformation abroad » and reduce freedom of expression around the world. And this, in particular by disseminating surveillance and censorship technologies to authoritarian countries.
This State Department office had long been in the sights of Republican parliamentarians who accused it of censoring conservative points of view. A narrative relayed by Elon Musknow loaded by Donald Trump to make drastic cuts in the federal budget, and who described the GEC as ” threat to democracy “. However, the Supreme Court ruled that there was “no no proof » to support these accusations.
Aware of the importance of the GEC in countering Russian and Chinese influence, Republican senators from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, and Texas, John Cornyn, departed from the presidential camp’s line by proposing a bipartisan amendment to extend the mandate of the GEC. GEC until 2031, in vain.
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