The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is allegedly implicated in a vast, government-backed censorship scheme, according to internal documents obtained by law group America First Legal through ongoing litigation against the U.S. Department of State's Global Engagement Center (GEC).
Copies of communications released Thursday reveal an alliance among USAID; the GEC; the British Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office (FCDO), which is the UK's foreign affairs ministry; and multiple media censorship firms, "all working in lock-step to manipulate public discourse, control media narratives, and suppress free speech," particularly that of dissenting voices, America First Legal says.
As part of this censorship conspiracy, the GEC and USAID allegedly worked together to censor "COVID-19 misinformation."
In a widely distributed email to USAID, per America First Legal, the GEC's "Liaison Planner to USAID" stated that they'd like to “sustain dialogue and connectivity during these unprecedented times" to help counter so-called "misinformation" surrounding COVID-19. The records show that GEC extensively communicated with an assortment of USAID branches, including "TF 2020-COVID 19," "Digital Development," Asia Bureau ES Taskers," "Asia Outreach," "Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) Policy," and "CPS Africa."
According to America First Legal's findings, the GEC also collaborated with private-sector internet censors, such as Poynter and NewsGuard, to use AI censorship tools for monitoring "misinformation."
Two days after the 2020 presidential election, Matt Skibinski, general manager of NewsGuard Technologies, started an email chain pitching NewsGuard's services. Included in this email chain were government employees with the U.S. State Department, the National Security Agency (NSA), and U.S. Defense Department components, including the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), U.S. Cyber Command, and the U.S. Army European Command.
The principal email recipient was ex-Obama State Department official Christina Nemr, the director of Park Advisors at the time. Park Advisors, according to Nemr's LinkedIn page, "Designed and led multi-million public-private initiatives addressing security threats in the information environment, bridging gaps between emerging technologies and real-world operational needs." In this role, Nemr said she also "support[ed] government adoption."
Last year, the U.S. House Small Business Committee found that Park Advisors received a GEC cooperative agreement award of more than $6 million. Park Advisors then distributed subawards to several companies, including NewsGuard, the Atlantic Council, and the Global Disinformation Index, a Soros-funded project that reportedly generated a blacklist of conservative websites that advertising companies should boycott.
Together, these groups, which are not subject to the same international restrictions that GEC was, tested disinformation products, leading to the creation of the "Disinfo Cloud," an unclassified platform used by the U.S. government and other world powers "to counter adversarial propaganda and disinformation."
Skibinski provided samples of the new GEC/U.S Cybercommand Testbed Pilot (a.k.a. "Misinformation Fingerprints"), a program utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor "misinformation," flag examples, and rank sites accordingly.
Research from the Foundation For Freedom Online revealed how NewsGuard operates the enforcement arm of the censorship industry and rates websites based on how much perceived "misinformation" each page publishes.
Furthermore, on February 4, 2021, Vonda Wolcott, senior program manager at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, connected GEC's Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) "expert" with Baybars Orsek from Poynter, which, according to America First Legal, funds a global false-flag operation of international "fact-checkers." Though they claim to be independent, this army of content moderators pledge fealty to a tightly woven network bankrolled by Poynter and the GEC.
One of the released emails illustrates how closely GEC and Poynter worked in tandem, with GEC's "expert" offering to "walk [Poynter] through GEC's new M&E workbook."
According to the investigative work of America First Legal, the GEC also collaborated with foreign officials in the British Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office on "disinformation" efforts.
The now-defunct GEC, which was established by then-President Barack Obama via executive order, "counter[ed] foreign disinformation" before it was forced to shut down in December 2024 following a number of First Amendment lawsuits. Through several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, America First Legal previously uncovered that the GEC engaged in state-sponsored propaganda.
"The partnership between USAID and the Global Engagement Center is bad news for the American people. Add in the fact that they were coordinating with internet censorship enforcers at NewsGuard and Poynter, and you can start to see just how dangerous this unholy alliance is for free speech and free expression," America First Legal senior counsel Andrew Block said in a statement. "Thankfully, the GEC is shuttered and USAID is being exposed — but lawmakers should take note of this example as they consider legislation to ensure the federal government actually serves American principles and interests."
