The State Department unit established in 2016 is closing after the US Congress failed to extend funding amid accusations from Republicans.
A key US government agency that monitors foreign sanctions has ended its work, the State Department has said, after Congress failed to extend its funding after years of criticized Republicans.
The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department unit established in 2016, closed on Monday at a time when officials and experts who monitor propaganda have been warning of the risk that campaigns disengagement from US adversaries such as Russia and China.
“The State Department has consulted with Congress regarding next steps,” she said in a statement when asked what would happen to the GEC staff and its ongoing projects after the closure.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61m and a staff of about 120. Its closure leaves the State Department without a dedicated office to detect and counter disinformation from US competitors. for the first time in eight years.
A measure to extend funding for the center was removed from the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill that passed through the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who accused it of censoring and monitoring Americans.
He also came under fire from Elon Musk, who in 2023 accused the GEC of being the “worst offenders in US government censorship (and) media manipulation” and called the group a “threat to democracy” us”.
GEC leaders have pushed back on these comments, saying their work is vital to countering foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had been strongly opposed to the original budget bill that would have kept the GEC funding, although without singling out the center. The billionaire is an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump and has been tapped to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), known to reduce government spending, in Trump's next administration.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator for the GEC, announced the launch of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation about the war in neighboring Ukraine. .
The State Department said the initiative, called the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting on the war and expose the Kremlin's manipulation of information.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatened to cause a “sharp curtailment” of freedom of speech around the world.
