Govt. Censors Violated Mandate To Fight Only Foreign 'Disinfo'

The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) served as one cornerstone of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, colluding with nongovernmental organizations and tech giants to silence disfavored speech during the 2020 election cycle. An investigation by The Federalist now indicates GEC violated its congressional mandate by financing activities and organizations that targeted the speech of Americans.

The Global Engagement Center is a multi-agency center housed in the State Department that originated in 2011 as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), which the Obama administration established by executive order to support federal agency communications in targeting “violent extremism and terrorist organizations.” 

In 2016, the Obama administration issued a second executive order, morphing the CSCC into the GEC but leaving “its counterterrorism mission largely unchanged.” However, when Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, statutorily establishing the GEC, the center’s purpose was expanded beyond its original mandate of countering the influence of international terrorists such as the Islamic State, al-Qaida, and other foreign extremists.