Global Engagement Center shuts down after it was stripped from spending bill

Republicans specifically and Americans more broadly scored a massive win this week after it was announced that a controversial government agency that was in charge of so-called "disinformation" was shut down as a result its defunding.

According to the New York Post, the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) has officially been put out of business. 

"The Global Engagement Center closed on December 23, 2024," the former agency's website read, which led to cheering from the Republican side of the aisle.

The agency had been named as one of the many government agencies that independent journalist Matt Taibbi exposed in his famous "Twitter Files" that pressured social media platforms to censor Americans on certain subjects.

"We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation ‘requests’ from every corner of government: the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA,” Taibbi told Congress during his 2023 testimony.

The Post noted:

Several Republican lawmakers have argued that the GEC went well beyond its stated mission of “proactively addressing foreign adversaries’ attempts to undermine US interests using disinformation and propaganda” by attempting to censor Americans.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) was one of the many Republicans who slammed the GEC for its obvious censoring of conservatives during the pandemic, elections and other important time periods.

This is an entity that is funded to censor conservatives," Schmitt said during the spending bill debate earlier this month.

"We should not be doing any of this stuff," he added, referring to the GEC.

Obama's Global Engagement Center — the 'worst offender in US government censorship' — is officially dead https://t.co/IDygMNf9XA

— Krysti Pavlisko (@KPavlisko2023) December 28, 2024

The GEC even drew extreme criticism from X owner Elon Musk, who described it as the "worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation."

In theory, the agency could be re-funded in later bills, but given that Republicans will control the White House, the House and the Senate, it's highly unlikely that the agency will see any new funding anytime soon.

Social media users reacted to the news of the shutdown with many crediting Musk, Trump and congressional Republicans for getting it quashed.

"It took Elon, Trump, and a handful of republicans to stop the CR funding of GEC (Global Engagement Center). Thank God for them!!!!! No thanks to ALL DEMOCRATS and RINOS!! Don't forget most Democrats and republicans rejected the small CR in favor of the revised crap version. Why, they are all bad and lazy politicians that everyone hates for waste. The fed needs to be financially, departmentally, and resource gutted" an X user wrote.