House GOP Subpoenas State Department Over Funding Of Anti-Disinformation Organizations

(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)

House Republicans issued a subpoena to the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) demanding records of its funding activities amid accusations that it supported “censorship-by-proxy” and “revenue interference” in issuing grants to anti-disinformation organizations.

The subpoena demanded that Secretary of State Antony Blinken disclose the GEC’s grant recipients since 2019 and any related communications by June 27.

The move comes after the House Small Business Committee, led by Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), faced obstacles obtaining full financial records from the GEC, which previously provided heavily redacted documents and restricted access.

It also comes as part of the GOP’s broader effort to halt what they perceive as government-endorsed censorship. Some Republicans are pushing to defund the GEC in the upcoming federal budget.

The subpoena also named over 20 groups that the committee specifically wants information on including London-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and New York City-based NewsGuard.

Critics say these projects have targeted conservative media outlets.

GDI, for example, claims to combat disinformation by guiding advertisers away from what it deems “harmful content.” However, it has come under fire for its opaque algorithm-led scoring system that blacklisted UK outlet UnHerd, giving it a low “brand-safety” rating and blocked from international ad exchanges for publishing articles by a gender-critical feminist, as well as outlets like the Daily Wire and the Federalist.

Both the Daily Wire and the Federalist are also suing the State Department over the mtatter, alleging First Amendment violations over the now-defunct GEC platform Disinfo Cloud.