Friday, December 27, 2024

Dismantling the censorship industry

State Department’s Global Engagement Center — accused of pushing censorship to combat online ‘disinformation’ — shuts down

https://nypost.com/2024/12/26/us-news/state-departments-global-engagement-center-accused-of-pushing-censorship-to-combat-online-disinformation-shuts-down/ 

The State Department’s controversial Global Engagement Center (GEC) shut down this week after congressional lawmakers nixed reauthorizing the agency in spending legislation to keep the government open. 

“The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024,” read a message on the agency’s website. 

The GEC came under fire from House Republicans after journalist Matt Taibbi uncovered evidence that it pressured US social media platforms early in the COVID-19 pandemic to censor Americans online, purportedly to counter “disinformation,” such as theories that the virus leaked out of a laboratory in China

“We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation ‘requests’ from every corner of government: the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA,” Taibbi testified to Congress in March 2023, shortly after his “Twitter Files” expose on the GEC.


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