Prompted by NCLA’s Suit, State Dep’t Comes Clean and Ends Scheme that Censored American Media

The Daily Wire, The Federalist, State of Texas v. Department of State, et al.

Washington, DC, Sept. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. State Department is officially dismantling the remaining aspects of its former Global Engagement Center used to finance the development and promotion of censorship technology and enterprises that blacklisted domestic news organizations. Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Darren Beattie announced this development to The Daily Wire. His statements further confirm that the claims made in the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s Complaint about the GEC censorship apparatus at issue in The Daily Wire, The Federalist, Texas v. State Dep’t lawsuit were correct.

Congress declined to renew the GEC’s funding in late 2024, but the Biden Administration sidestepped this legislative decision by reallocating its activities to another entity within the State Department and renaming it the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference framework. Representing The Daily Wire and The Federalist, NCLA applauds the State Department’s new admissions and its plans to eradicate related tools used to suppress so many members of the American press.

Beattie told The Daily Wire yesterday that the former GEC framework “devolved into tools for political censorship instead of protecting Americans from foreign adversarial propaganda,” its original stated purpose. As NCLA’s lawsuit contended, GEC was funding the development of “mis” and “disinformation” tools and technologies that had the intent and effect of suppressing Americans’ First Amendment protected speech.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio first vindicated these claims in his April op-ed at The Federalist announcing plans to completely abolish the GEC. Underscoring evidence NCLA outlined in this case, Rubio decried the GEC’s financing the development and promotion of censorship technology and enterprises, such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, that blacklisted domestic news organizations in order to demonetize them. NCLA’s suit helped expose how these companies targeted media outlets—including The Daily Wire and The Federalist—that opposed the government’s preferred narrative. The technologies these companies developed suppressed NCLA’s clients’ views by reducing their circulation and ultimately depriving them of advertising dollars.

Beattie admitted that GEC frequently asked tech companies to censor people on their platforms, noting that “a lot of the names that they submitted to tech companies weren’t even foreign.” He indicated that his office has now shut down the aspects of the GEC that remained after Rubio’s April announcement, including formal and informal agreements with foreign countries to “facilitate and provide a framework for cooperation on mutual objectives, including principally combating so-called disinformation.” Beattie’s new revelations continue to prove correct the allegations of NCLA and its clients that the GEC exceeded its statutory mandate to combat foreign malign influence operations. NCLA looks forward to working with the Trump Administration and to using the information gleaned through discovery in this case to assist with developing measures that will ensure the State Department does not trample Americans’ First Amendment rights in the future.

NCLA released the following statements:

“We are glad to see our clients’ claims begin to be vindicated by the State Department’s latest statements. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Even during litigation, the State Department shielded the truth with a protective order and claims of privilege. Today’s announcement is a good start.”
— Zhonette Brown, General Counsel and Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

“It’s gratifying that the State Department is finally acknowledging publicly the informal coordination with foreign governments. For two years, we have been fighting for the State Department to halt this unconstitutional conduct.”
— Margot Cleveland, Of Counsel, NCLA

“As NCLA has claimed from the outset of this lawsuit, and this week’s news makes ever more certain, the U.S. State Department under President Biden and Secretary Blinken engaged in an unprecedented and unlawful crackdown on the domestic free speech of American media outlets and American citizens to support the government’s preferred narrative on a wide range of topics. Absent this lawsuit, brought by NCLA on behalf of The Daily Wire and The Federalist, this treacherous scheme may never have fully come to light.”
— Mark Chenoweth, President, NCLA

For more information visit the case page here.

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.

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Joe Martyak
New Civil Liberties Alliance
703-403-1111
joe.martyak@ncla.legal

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