In a bombshell report, America First Legal (AFL) alleged that released documents obtained through ongoing litigation against the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), exposing what they alleged to be a vast, government-supported censorship operation designed to silence American citizens under the guise of combating misinformation, disinformation, and misinformation.
The documents unveiled what appeared to be a network of parties involved in the scandal, including the GEC, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and media censorship organizations. These entities allegedly worked together to systematically manipulate public narratives, control information flow, and restrict free speech, representing a direct assault on Americans’ constitutional rights.
Initially intended to combat foreign disinformation abroad, the GEC shut down in December 2024 after revelations of widespread domestic interference, including state-sponsored propaganda and collaborating closely with private media firms to censor content and narratives unfavorable to government agendas. The disclosed documents reveal that GEC coordinated with USAID to censor what they considered COVID-19 misinformation, blinding Americans to the truth during the pandemic.
Additionally, documents released by AFL show close collaboration between the GEC and prominent media censorship organization NewsGuard; they are notorious for rating websites based on their perceived misinformation and worked directly with former Obama Administration personnel and GEC to develop AI-driven tools designed to identify and flag content deemed misinformation, further raising concerns over political biases infiltrating supposedly neutral censorship operations.
A particularly troubling revelation involved the GEC and USAID sharing information with the British government through emails from January 2021, revealing GEC officials distributed alleged misinformation about American citizens directly to the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, indicating an unprecedented international effort to suppress dissenting American voices.
The viral post first was released by the America First Legal X account, dropping a series of screenshots of the documents. The opening remarks of the post read, “BREAKING — Explosive new documents expose a massive government-backed censorship operation orchestrated by USAID, the Global Engagement Center, the UK government, and media firms to manipulate public discourse and silence Americans.” Here’s the image posted by AFL on their X feed:
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Public reaction has been swift, highlighting deep concerns over government overreach. One user on X who commented on the stunning documents and their alleged revelations of government censorship wrote, “If this doesn’t rip the mask of legitimacy off gov’t, then nothing does. The US Gov’t is barred from violating First Amendment rights, yet did so in a deep and ugly way. Yet we’re conned into seeing judges as being willing to stand up and protect those rights. Pathetic.”
Other users noted how unsettling it is that government agencies collaborated to conjure censorship. Another user took to X and raised concerns about the blatant lack of transparency saying, “This is definitely eye-opening. While fighting misinformation is important, coordination between agencies like USAID and the GEC raises real concerns about transparency and overreach. Who decides what counts as ‘misinformation’? That line feels dangerously blurry.
These explosive findings underscore an alarming trend of government overreach and censorship masquerading as efforts to combat misinformation. Few understand the dangers of this better than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently issued a dire warning about government censorship during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. Watch the clip here:
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video