MRC Free Speech America update summary: Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the closure of the State Department censorship office (Global Engagement Center) on April 16, 2025, only months after the Biden administration attempted to rebrand it as the office to Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI).
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #56
The GEC Deception
Type of Censorship: Policy or rulemaking
Agencies Involved:
- Department of State
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
- Counter Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference (FIMI) Hub
- Global Engagement Center (GEC)
- Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor (DHRL)
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for DHRL
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
Summary:
In the lame duck period before Biden left office, his administration acted in contravention of Congress to hide career bureaucrats doing censorship work in various sub-cabinet agencies. This means that while Biden is gone, his censorship initiatives remain.
For example, after Congress refused to reauthorize the Global Engagement Center (GEC), the State Department agency suffered years of censorship scandals (see Initiatives #1, #11, #17 and #23), the Biden administration covertly defied this order to disband. Instead, the State Department devised a plan to send most of GEC’s leaders to a new Counter Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference (FIMI) Hub within the Bureau of Global Public Affairs. Others were moved to do “information integrity” analysis (i.e. censorship) in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor (DHRL).
Key Individuals:
- Antony Blinken, Secretary of State
- Adela Levis, Information Integrity Advisor at the Bureau for Democracy Human Rights & Labor (DRL)
- Carrie Goux, GEC Acting Deputy Coordinator
- James Rubin, GEC Special Envoy & Coordinator
- Stephanie Sutton, Acting Assistant Secretary of Global Public Affairs
