The State Department has closed its office that was responsible for handling misinformation and disinformation spread by countries like Russia, China, and Iran. 

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he shut down the Global Engagement Centre because it had been involved in limiting freedom of speech in the U.S. and other countries. The centre has often been criticised by conservatives for pointing out media and online reports it believes are biased or false. Sometimes, it has named US websites and social media accounts that, according to it, are spreading misinformation, especially about the Russia-Ukraine war. 

"It is the responsibility of every government official to continuously work to preserve and protect the freedom for Americans to exercise their free speech," Rubio stated, claiming that the office was working "to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving." 

According to Rubio, that is "antithetical" to the values that "we should be upholding." Congress and past State Department leaders had also supported the centre's work. "This is a deeply misleading (and) unserious portrayal of an organization focused on identifying foreign primarily Russian disinformation ops," former state department spokesman Ned Price said in a post on X.