The U.S. State Department has reportedly placed all full-time staff who were previously reshuffled to a remnant of what critics call its censorship office on administrative leave as the agency moves to gut the government arm altogether.
Known as the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub, the soon-to-be dismantled small outfit within the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy currently monitors, flags, and counters content deemed “foreign disinformation.”
R/FIMI was created after its predecessor, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), was forced to sunset in December 2024 following a number of First Amendment lawsuits. GEC, which was established by then-President Barack Obama via executive order, had a history of awarding grants to groups accused of censoring conservatives and trying to demonetize right-leaning media outlets in the U.S.
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U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed the impending closure of R/FIMI’s office in a Wednesday statement on “Protecting and Championing Free Speech at the State Department.”
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today. Under the administration of President Trump, we will always work to protect the rights of the American people, and this is an important step in continuing to fulfill that commitment.”
State Department official Darren Beattie, the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy, announced R/FIMI’s shutdown and the eventual termination of all remaining positions at a meeting Wednesday morning, sources told MIT Technology Review. R/FIMI employees reportedly received an email inviting them to an 11:15 a.m. conference with Beattie where they were informed that the office, as well as their jobs, are being eliminated.
Now, the remaining 40 staffers, which had fallen from 125 employed at GEC, will be put on administrative leave until they are terminated within 30 days, sources told MIT Technology Review.
As for the office’s $50 million annual budget allocated by Congress, pursuant to a provision of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the State Department has 15 days to notify Congress of funding reassignments, which it must do in advance of any programming shake-ups that exceed $1 million. The appropriations committees can then respond, ask questions, and challenge the changes accordingly.
On X, the Foundation For Freedom Online’s executive director Mike Benz reported that the State Department delivered advance notice to Congress.
According to Benz, this move will permanently end the positions at R/FIMI, so there is no more restructuring or rebranding of the office to carry out the same “malign censorship efforts.”
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Prior to President Donald Trump taking office, the Washington Examiner uncovered the State Department’s secret plans to resurrect GEC and shoehorn its operations into the newly “realigned” R/FIMI hub.
In December 2023, The Federalist and The Daily Wire sued the GEC for funding media moderators, such as NewsGuard, which rate the so-called “misinformation” levels of news outlets. According to the complaint, the GEC facilitated state-sponsored censorship of the American press, specifically voices on the Right, allegedly as part of a scheme to suppress disfavored speech.