State Department Hit With Lawsuit Over Biden Administration’s Censorship Outsourcing

America First Legal has instigated a lawsuit against the US Department of State, alleging clandestine activities surrounding the Biden administration’s purported outsourcing of censorship through the Global Engagement Center (GEC). We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here. This legal action is rooted in a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that AFL submitted on December 6, 2022. These requests aimed to expose the details behind GEC’s grant allocations and funding opportunities—mechanisms that AFL argues are employed to enable the outsourcing of the Biden administration’s propaganda and censorship efforts to leftist nonprofit groups. Specific grants awarded to organizations such as The Atlantic Council, National Endowment for Democracy, Moonshot CVE, and Digital Public Square were targeted in the AFL’s requests. Furthermore, the AFL expressed interest in funding allocated for a “New Counter-Disinformation Game” and NATO. Despite these legitimate requests, the Department of State has allegedly refrained from delivering the requested information. AFL contends that the Biden administration has transformed the GEC into a conduit for funneling taxpayer money to a purported leftist “Censorship-Industrial Complex.” The GEC is accused of utilizing these funds to manufacture projects such as “Cat Park,” a video game designed to shield young people from “disinformation.” Through a separate lawsuit, AFL has unveiled evidence of the GEC’s involvement in propagating state propaganda via private media organizations. These actions include releasing a confidential list of journalists who were allegedly disseminating propaganda on behalf of the government. Additionally, AFL cites reports that the National Endowment for…State Department Hit With Lawsuit Over Biden Administration’s Censorship Outsourcing