'Silenced Americans': Rubio shuttering disinfo office amid surge in foreign influence ops

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday the government is shutting down a State Department office meant to fight foreign disinformation, alleging it "spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans," according to a new report.

Rubio accused the office, called the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, or R/FIMI, of censoring Americans, particularly on social media, as well as targeting foreign lies, The Washington Post reported. He also claimed it used taxpayer dollars to kick people off platforms over activities such as questioning the origin of COVID-19.

Rubio said the State Department will probe how Americans were "deplatformed," a common complaint of right-wing voices.

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“We had government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department,” Rubio told conservative activist Mike Benz in a live interview promoted by his department.

Benz wrote on X that 50 full-time jobs at the office would be eliminated and that the State Department told Congress it cut $65 million in funding.

The move comes as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to slash trillions out of the federal budget. It also comes as foreign influence campaigns, or information operations, have become widespread. Such campaigns are large-scale efforts to shift public opinion, push false narratives or change behaviors among a target population.

Russia, China, Iran, Israel and other nations have launched such campaigns by exploiting social bots, influencers, media companies and generative AI.