Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Need for First Amendment Safeguards at the State Department

House South and Central Asia Subcommittee

2025-04-01

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Source: Congress.gov

Summary

This meeting of the Subcommittee on South and Central Asia convened to examine the State Department's past alleged efforts to facilitate censorship of Americans and to propose establishing permanent First Amendment safeguards for future activities of the department. The discussion quickly became contentious, centering on differing views regarding the existence and impact of a "censorship industrial complex" and the role of the Global Engagement Center (GEC) in shaping domestic speech.

Themes

The Global Engagement Center (GEC) and Allegations of Censorship

The GEC was a central point of contention, with Republicans alleging it deployed a "shadowy network of grantees and subgrantees" to censor American voices, particularly conservative ones, using taxpayer dollars . Mr. Taibbi detailed how the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), with GEC partnership, funneled complaints about content related to the 2020 election to social media platforms, leading to recommendations for removal or de-amplification [ 00:16:59-00:17:10 ]

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. He also cited instances where GEC pressured Twitter regarding left-leaning figures like Bernie Sanders, anti-war accounts, libertarians, and independents, by linking them to foreign propaganda through a "fellow traveler" concept . Mr. Weingarten added that GEC-funded risk raters like NewsGuard and GDI created blacklists that disproportionately targeted conservative and libertarian outlets, costing them significant ad revenue .

Conversely, Ms. Jankowicz dismissed these claims, stating there was "no censorship going on at the Global Engagement Center or the State Department" . She asserted that GEC funding for NewsGuard and GDI was specifically for tracking and countering Chinese state propaganda, not for domestic censorship efforts . She highlighted that the GEC was initially authorized to counter international terrorist organizations like ISIL and Al-Qaeda . Ms. Jankowicz also contested the scale of interaction between the GEC and EIP, claiming only fifteen emails were exchanged, mostly concerning overt Russian propaganda .

The "Censorship Industrial Complex" and First Amendment Safeguards

Republicans and some witnesses described the "censorship industrial complex" as a "mortal threat to our republic" and a "sprawling whole-of-society regime" aimed at purging unauthorized opinions [ 00:34:07 ]

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. They argued that federal agencies had turned their focus from foreign adversaries to American citizens' core political speech [ 00:34:20-00:34:45 ]

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. Evidence cited included court cases like Missouri v. Biden and Berenson v. Biden, which allegedly showed "massive pressure from the federal government for social media companies to censor American speech" . Calls were made to codify an executive order protecting free speech and ending federal censorship, along with establishing a "strict firewall" between the U.S. government and public discourse .

Democrats and Ms. Jankowicz countered that the "censorship industrial complex" is a "made-up conspiracy theory" and "fiction" that suppresses legitimate speech and research . Ms. Jankowicz emphasized that "research is speech" and that allegations of censorship are politically and financially beneficial to those who "peddle it" . She distinguished between government censorship and content moderation by private platforms, stating that companies have the right to enforce their terms of service .

Foreign Disinformation and National Security

Witnesses acknowledged the serious threat posed by foreign disinformation campaigns. Ms. Jankowicz outlined how China and Russia employ sophisticated information operations, including "spamiflage campaigns" and AI-enabled sleeper agent networks, to target Americans and sow division . She argued that dismantling U.S. counter-disinformation efforts, such as the GEC, sends a signal to adversaries like Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow that their interference is likely to succeed, making America appear weak . The evolving threat of AI in spreading disinformation was also highlighted as a critical national security concern requiring bipartisan solutions . Some members argued that previous administrations had already dismantled parts of the U.S. capacity to respond to these threats, such as the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force [ 00:14:31-00:14:39 ]

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. There was general agreement on the need for effective tools to counter foreign messaging and recruitment [ 00:50:40 ]

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Allegations of Hypocrisy and Political Weaponization

The meeting was marked by strong accusations of hypocrisy and political motivation from both sides. Democrats accused Republicans of "wasting taxpayer time and resources" on a "made-up conspiracy theory" to distract from the current administration's foreign policy . They pointed to alleged "unprecedented assault[s] on the First Amendment" by the Trump administration, including banning the Associated Press, targeting law firms, and the arrest of protesters like Rumeysi Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil . Concerns were also raised about the current administration's "Catch and Revoke" program targeting student visa holders for pro-Palestinian views .

Republicans countered that the hearing was necessary oversight of the Biden administration, which they claimed "ruined our credibility around the world" [ 00:55:44-00:55:49 ]

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. Questions were raised about the transparency of Ms. Jankowicz's "American Sunlight Project" regarding its donors . A controversial moment occurred when a Republican member quoted Joseph Goebbels to question the government's role in shaping public opinion, which was met with strong condemnation from Democrats .

Tone of the Meeting

The tone of the meeting was largely heated and partisan [ 00:14:57 ]

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. There were frequent accusations of hypocrisy, bad faith, and political theatrics from both sides . Witnesses often disagreed sharply with the premises and assertions of the questioning members and with each other, leading to direct challenges and sarcastic remarks . While underlying concerns for national security and First Amendment rights were present, the discussion was deeply divided along political lines regarding the nature and source of threats to these values [ 00:23:08 ]

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Participants

Transcript

for our witnesses and everybody else.  We're clearly not quite at critical mass yet.  I know the republicans and the democrats both have conference meetings that they're coming out of.  So we're going to give it a couple of minutes yet.  So
The subcommittee on South and Central Asia will come to order, and the purpose of this hearing is to examine the State Department's previous efforts to facilitate censorship of Americans and the importance of establishing permanent First Amendment safeguards for any future State Department activities.   This committee will be passing into law a comprehensive reauthorization of the State Department for the first time in over 20 years.  That was in 2002 was the last time that was done.  And as part of this critical endeavor, this subcommittee is tasked with examining the public diplomacy functions of the State Department, commonly referred to as the R family of bureaus and offices.   In December of 2024, Congress terminated an office within that family, the Global Engagement Center, also known as GECC, after its exposure coming out of an investigation that was done by this committee.  The GECC was initially authorized for the statutory purpose of countering foreign propaganda and disinformation efforts.  Despite that mandate, for years, the GECC instead deployed its shadowy network of grantees and subgrantees   to facilitate the censorship of American voices, especially if those voices were conservative and refused to align with the left-leaning establishment politics.  Worst of all, this was being done using U.S.  taxpayer dollars, your dollars.  The same month the GECC was terminated, the Biden State Department restructured the office into a, quote, counter foreign information manipulation and interference hub, also known as RFIMI.   The question we will be exploring today is whether this restructuring is actually in name only.  Put simply, whether you call it GAC or our Femi, the State Department should never and if I can help it, will never again be in the business of silencing American voices.   Freedom of speech is a God-given right enshrined in the First Amendment of our nation's Constitution.
It is a right that President Trump and his administration are committed to zealously protecting.  On his first day in office, President Trump signed the Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship executive order.   This executive order makes clear that no federal government employees or taxpayers dollars may be used to engage in or facilitate the unconstitutional censorship of American citizens.  And as the chairman of the subcommittee, I plan to introduce legislation that will codify that executive order.  I'm hopeful that my colleagues will join me in enshrining these vital First Amendment projections protections into law.   I want to thank the panel for being here today.  Ms.  Jankiewicz, thank you for your time, and you publicly supported and even spearheaded censorship efforts under the previous administration out of what some called the Ministry of Truth, as some had labeled you, the disinformation czar.  I guess technically it should be czarina.   It is crucial that the American public receive answers and accountability for the actions taken by their own government to silence their voices.  Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Weingarten, your valiant reporting helped unearth the GEC's role in the censorship of Americans.  Mr. Taibbi, your groundbreaking work on the Twitter files pulled back the curtain on how the federal bureaucracy   colluded, and in some cases, pressured social media companies to target American citizens engaged in protected political speech.  Mr. Weingarten, your impactful work has unearthed how the GEC and its implementing partners deployed blacklists to obliterate conservative news publications that the Biden administration disagreed with.  Well, we,   as Americans and as policymakers must never allow these dark days of mass censorship to happen again.  And that is my goal.  And with that, I am going to yield five minutes to the gentlelady from California for her opening statement.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here for our first South and Central Asia subcommittee hearing.  I look forward to working with the chair in a bipartisan way on the critical issues that we are charged with overseeing.  Unfortunately, we are not having a hearing about any of those issues.  Instead, this subcommittee is wasting taxpayer time and resources on the fifth   With such hearing, Republicans have held across multiple committees on the so-called censorship industrial complex.  The majority is relitigating a made-up conspiracy theory about a part of the State Department that no longer exists to distract from the dumpster fire foreign policy this administration is pursuing and elevating a serial sexual harasser as their star witness in the process.   Mr. Chair, I request unanimous consent to enter into the record two articles about the Republican witness Matt Taibbi.  The first is a Chicago Reader article entitled 20 years ago in Moscow, Matt Taibbi was a misogynist a-hole and possibly worse.  And a Washington Post article titled The Two Expat Bros Who Terrorized Women Correspondents in Moscow.
Without objection.
This hearing could not be more out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans.  People's retirement savings are being decimated as Trump's arbitrary temper tariffs tank the stock market.  They are staring down the barrel of cuts to their Social Security and Medicare because the Republican majority wants to give a tax break to billionaires like Elon Musk.

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