The Trump administration has officially shut down a controversial State Department office accused of acting as a taxpayer-funded censorship operation under the guise of fighting “foreign disinformation.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office (formerly the Global Engagement Center), declaring that the government has “no business policing speech” or silencing American voices.
“This office spent millions to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans it was supposed to serve,” Rubio said in a statement. “That’s not countering foreign propaganda—it’s trampling on the First Amendment.”
The office, originally created to combat foreign disinformation, morphed into a domestic surveillance and censorship machine under the previous administration. Critics say it operated with little oversight, targeting U.S. journalists, social media users, and independent outlets that questioned official narratives on topics ranging from COVID to the war in Ukraine.
Despite bipartisan efforts in Congress to rein in the operation—culminating in defunding the office in December 2024—the Biden administration rebranded and revived it under a new name, R/FIMI, and kept much of the same staff and structure in place. That effort has now been fully dismantled.
Under the new directive, all remaining staff—roughly 30 full-time employees—have been placed on leave, and their positions eliminated. The administration has also made it clear the office will not be reconstituted in any form.
Supporters of the move, including free speech advocates and civil liberties groups, say it’s a long-overdue correction to years of unchecked government overreach. They argue that agencies like the State Department should never be in the business of labeling dissent as “disinformation” or colluding with tech platforms to suppress viewpoints.
“Washington’s disinformation warriors weren’t fighting foreign influence—they were blacklisting Americans,” said one senior official. “We’ve shut it down, and we’ve salted the earth.”
Not everyone agrees. Former State Department officials and some establishment figures have warned that eliminating the office could weaken efforts to push back against real foreign propaganda from adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran. But the administration maintains that fighting foreign influence must not come at the expense of domestic freedoms.
The office’s closure sends a clear message: government-funded censorship—no matter how it’s packaged—has no place in a free society. Under the Trump administration, the era of bureaucrats using national security as a pretext to silence Americans is over.