Key US agency that fights foreign influence in jeopardy after funding snub
Source: The Guardian
Tue 10 Dec 2024 15.04 EST
Last modified on Tue 10 Dec 2024 20.11 EST
The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a state department unit critical to combating foreign disinformation, will not receive a multiyear extension in the latest National Defense Authorization Act, putting its future operations in jeopardy.
The next chapter of the GEC – which only addresses foreign influence operations outside the United States – now relies on Congress to come up with an extension some other way by 24 December, or the United States will face a potential gap in its international disinformation response capabilities.
In response to the NDAA snub over the weekend, a state department spokesperson told the Guardian: “As our adversaries continue to ramp up their efforts globally, it’s counterintuitive – and dangerous – to weaken or worse yet dismantle, the US’s leadership in this critical mission.”
The GEC is the latest institutional target to get hit by congressional Republicans, who have grown increasingly skeptical of the center and other US agencies for allegedly censoring conservative viewpoints. Last year, the Republican-led House judiciary committee labelled the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as “the nerve center” of a social media censorship apparatus of the government.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/10/state-department-foreign-disinformation
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