Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulled no punches in criticizing some of the Biden-era censorship initiatives within the federal government—even saying his agency had secretly created a dossier on a current Trump administration official.
Rubio made the explosive comments during a White House Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he briefed President Donald Trump on ongoing efforts to reform the Department of State. He emphasized the urgency to refocus the department on serving Americans rather than engaging in censorship. Tellingly, the agency’s censorship was so rampant that it had targeted one of the officials present at the meeting.
“We had an office in the Department of State, whose job it was to censor Americans,” Rubio said, likely referring to the controversial Global Engagement Center (GEC). “[B]y the way, I'm not going to say who it is—I'll leave it up to them—[but] there's at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation.”
Rubio’s comments come approximately two weeks after he ordered the closure of this censorship office on April 16, 2025, only months after the Biden administration attempted to rebrand this as the office to Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI). Additionally, Rubio’s remarks followed a detailed report by MRC Free Speech America, which exposed at least 57 censorship initiatives enacted by former President Joe Biden and his cronies.
MRC Vice President for Free Speech Dan Schneider hailed Rubio for his steady defense of free speech, stating that more work remains: “On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order telling his political appointees to end censorship across his administration. Our exposé is the roadmap for the 93 federal agencies to follow so they can root out Biden’s twisted anti-free speech agenda. The administration has been making steady progress, but there is still more work to be done.”
Read It! MRC’s Explosive Report on the Biden Administration’s 57 Censorship Schemes
The GEC, referenced in the MRC report as initiative number 56, claimed on a government website that its mission was to counter “foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing” the United States and its allies.
Yet, it was later revealed that the office instead worked tooth and nail to censor Americans. Among its anti-free speech actions, GEC bankrolled the development of censorship tools to target news organizations, including The Daily Wire and The Federalist, according to a bombshell lawsuit filed by both entities.
GEC also allegedly worked closely with NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, known for their efforts to undermine outlets that do not align with leftist ideologies.
Rubio hinted that some of the dossiers created by the GEC may soon become publicly available: “We have these dossiers, and we are going to be turning those over to these individuals.”
He added, “We are going to turn over these dossiers to the individuals, and they'll decide whether they want to disclose it or not. But just think about that. The Department of State of the United States had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens to identify them as vectors of disinformation, when we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency.”
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