Rubio Announces Closure of Office Tracking Foreign Disinformation Over Censorship Concerns

‘The best way to counter disinformation is free speech,’ says the secretary of state.

Marco Rubio, at the time the nominee for secretary of state, testifies before the Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 16 announced the closure of an office in the State Department that tracked foreign disinformation, saying it had censored Americans.

Rubio, writing in an op-ed in The Federalist, accused the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, previously known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), and its staff of using taxpayer dollars to enforce censorship, particularly of conservative voices online.