MRC Free Speech America update summary: On March 14, 2025, Trump signed an executive order taking an ax to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), eliminating it "to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law" and reducing "the performance of [its] statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.".
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #17: Resilient Media
Type of Censorship: Partnership
Agencies Involved:
- Department of Homeland Security
- Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- Department of State
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
- Global Engagement Center (GEC)
- United States Embassy to Ethiopia
- United States Embassy in Addis Ababa
- United States Embassy to Ivory Coast
- United States Embassy to the Netherlands
- United States Embassy in the Hague
- United States Embassy to Uganda
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
- Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS)
Summary:
The Biden administration labored to build more public, international support for censorship by producing elaborate propaganda pieces rebranding the silencing of others as “media literacy” or “resilient media.” This work necessitated frequent, covert partnerships with so-called “media literacy” outfits, which used increasingly elaborate messaging strategies to a “whole-of-society approach” to push their anti-American agenda.
A March 2025 MRC report documented five of these “media literacy” programs. These included:
- Two separate censorship video games, created with the United Kingdom government and disseminated by the U.S. State Department (the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency was also involved in this censorship endeavor).
- A National Science Foundation-funded propaganda piece, "Pandemic Communication in Time of Populism: Building Resilient Media and Ensuring Effective Pandemic Communication in Divided Societies,” decrying President Donald Trump and other “populist” leaders for implementing “no systematic policies” to block “misinformation,” while praising “digital platforms” for censoring anyway.
- A State Department-funded media literacy program in Ivory Coast on so-called “digital sorcerer[s],” which threatened people with criminal sanctions for their speech.
- Institute of Museum & Library Services-funded escape rooms created by racially-segregated teams that targeted “Black-identified” individuals for “information literacy” reeducation.
Key Individuals:
- Elizabeth Allen, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs
- Natalie E. Brown, U.S. Ambassador to Uganda
- Jessica Davis Ba, United States Ambassador to Ivory Coast
- Jen Easterly, CISA Director
- Crosby Kemper III, IMLS Director
- Chris Krebs, CISA Director
- Sethuraman Panchanathan, NSF Director
- Geeta Pasi, United States Ambassador to Ethiopia
- James Rubin, GEC Special Envoy & Coordinator
- Marja Verloop, United States Charge d’Affaires to the Netherlands
- Brandon Wales, Acting CISA Director
