The State Department division, created in 2016, is closing after the U.S. Congress failed to renew funding amid Republican allegations.
A top U.S. government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has ceased operations after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism, according to the State Department.
The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department division created in 2016, was closed Monday, at a time when officials and experts who track propaganda had warned about the danger of disinformation campaigns by U.S. adversaries such as Russia and China.
“The State Department has consulted with Congress on next steps,” it said in a statement when asked what would happen to GEC personnel and its ongoing projects after the closure.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and employed approximately 120 people. After its closure, the State Department will no longer have a dedicated office to track and combat disinformation from U.S. competitors for the first time in eight years.
A measure to expand funding for the center was removed from the final version of the bipartisan federal spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress last week.
The GEC has long been the focus of Republican lawmakers, who accuse it of censoring and surveillance of Americans.
It also came under criticism from Elon Musk, who in 2023 accused the GEC of being the “worst offender in U.S. government censorship (and) media manipulation” and called the agency a “threat to our democracy.”
GEC leaders have rejected these views, describing their work as crucial to countering foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk had been vocal in his opposition to the original budget proposal, which would have maintained GEC funding without singling out the center. The billionaire is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump and has been appointed to lead the new so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose task is to reduce government spending in Trump’s incoming administration.
In June, James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator of the GEC, announced the creation of a multinational group based in Warsaw to counter Russian disinformation about the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The State Department said the initiative, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, would bring together partner governments to coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of the war and expose manipulation of Kremlin information.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars worldwide to spread disinformation, threatening to cause a “sharp decline” in freedom of expression around the world.
