The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent years targeting free speech, but its reign of error is ending, as the new president abruptly told employees not to show up to work.
President Donald Trump just announced his decision to temporarily shut down USAID’s headquarters while he and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) decide whether to axe the corrupt agency altogether. One key fact that has not been as widely reported is that USAID was indirectly pushing censorship initiatives, targeting free speech online under the guise of targeting “hate speech” and “misinformation.” And as recently as 2023, USAID reportedly announced grants to entities for “countering disinformation,” while in 2025, it reaffirmed its commitment to suppressing certain free speech. The censorship is coming back to bite the censors.
In 2020, USAID was already touting its activities to silence speech. On its website, USAID published “ACCOUNTING FOR RISKS: A NEED FOR SAFEGUARDING IN DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS.” The release detailed some of the agency’s censorship goals and activities, asserting that “existing inequalities and conflict dynamics” can be worsened without government interference.
USAID further whined about the supposed “digital divide” between different classes or groups in Marxist-type terms, including between “indigenous and non-indigenous” people and between men and women. These divides allegedly necessitated USAID funding and assistance for “[m]arginalized populations,” according to the agency.
In fact, despite highlighting “internet freedom” and condemning “censorship,” USAID openly admitted that its initiatives included efforts to crush “hate speech,” which is often a leftist term for dissenting speech. Just after criticizing “digital authoritarianism” that resulted in restrictive online surveillance and censorship, USAID calmly declared that its partner organizations “counter online hate speech.”
USAID stated that as far back as 2015 it “funded partners in Southeast Asia to reduce the impact of hate speech on underlying community tensions … USAID’s partner organizations produce and distribute messages to raise awareness about hate speech, both locally and with relevant authorities on global platforms. Our implementers also work closely with local leaders to build their awareness of hate speech and tailor online and offline interventions to community dynamics.” This appears to be an admission of direct coordination of online censorship. Indeed, the Twitter Files cited USAID as funding The Aspen Institute, which pressured Big Tech to censor.
USAID further bragged that it was “implementing programs to counter violent extremism … and an explicit call to understand how to counter violent extremism and hate speech.”
Using more terms that are often applied to free speech to justify censorship, USAID continued, “USAID and our interagency U.S. Government partners are committed to coordinating efforts to counter misinformation and disinformation generated by state and non-state actors and funding supply- and demand-side interventions to reach those ends.” Thus USAID specifically stated that it was coordinating efforts to silence online speech!
GovCon Wire reported that the agency also continued these activities, as USAID issued $800 million in grants in 2023 to multiple entities, partly for the purpose of “countering disinformation and hate speech.” And in the very start of 2025, right before Trump came into office, USAID published a fact sheet on U.S.-Nigerian relations that stated, “USAID supports efforts to mitigate election-related conflict through community-based early warning systems and local campaigns to counter misinformation and hate speech.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
