Accusing it of targeting Americans, Rubio shutters office that tracks disinfo from Iran, Russia, China

WASHINGTON — The US State Department has shut down its office that sought to deal with misinformation and disinformation that Russia, China and Iran have been accused of spreading.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday that he had closed what had been known as the Global Engagement Center because it had taken actions to restrict freedom of speech in the United States and elsewhere. He also accused it of wasting US taxpayer money.

The center has been a frequent target of criticism from conservatives for calling out media and online reports that it said are biased or untruthful. At times, it has identified US websites and social media accounts that it argued were amplifying misinformation, particularly related to the Russia-Ukraine war.

“It is the responsibility of every government official to continuously work to preserve and protect the freedom for Americans to exercise their free speech,” Rubio said, charging that the office worked “to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.”

Rubio said that is “antithetical” to the principles that “we should be upholding.”

The center was first established in 2016 by executive order during the administration of US president Barack Obama. It remained operational during Trump’s first term when it released a special report on Russian disinformation and propaganda.

The Global Engagement Center had already shut down in December 2024 under former Democratic president Joe Biden after Congress did not extend its mandate that was set to expire. It was reorganized to create a different public diplomacy office known as R/FIMI.

“This is a deeply misleading (and) unserious portrayal of an organization focused on identifying foreign — primarily Russian — disinformation ops,” former State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday in a post on X.