Feds’ disbanded ‘censorship nerve center’ faces hellish afterlife amid lawsuits, Hill probes

The State Department laid to rest the alleged “censorship nerve center” of the federal government last week after Congress refused to reauthorize the interagency Global Engagement Center, known for teaching youth to distrust populism and allegedly squelching American small businesses online.

While it may have a peaceful afterlife – State plans to “realign” GEC staff with other entities that handle purported “foreign information manipulation and interference activities” – GEC also faces an unquenchable fire and undying worm on multiple fronts.

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Monday against State, with nine exhibits, because it “has produced no records and has failed to assert any claims that responsive records are exempt from production” in response to three FOIA requests whose statutory due dates have passed.

Two seek discussions within GEC and State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, and their talks with the White House, on the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), whose stated goal is stopping “illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.”

The third asks for “internal press guidance” mentioned in a New York Post article Sept. 13 in which State officials mulled how to discredit journalists reporting on GEC’s funding of disinformation police NewsGuard and Global Disinformation Index (GDI), and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., for supporting a ban on “federal funding of anti-free speech groups.”

It’s not the first FOIA to State for internal press guidance related to GEC’s funding. The agency hid the vast majority of emails, and even the names of public officials, in a FOIA production to former Department of Education lawyer Hans Bader in 2023.

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson has also been warning he’ll aggressively wield his substantial subpoena powers as chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and demand transparency from agencies.

He called on President-elect Donald Trump to create something like a “secretary of information extraction” to coordinate with Trump’s incoming secretaries on exposing agency records he’s seeking, and for binding budget caps based on the last surplus year of 1998 in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Then-EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton repeatedly invoked the DSA to threaten X owner Elon Musk, starting with his purchase of the former Twitter, which also prompted President Biden to float a potential security review.

The EU distanced itself from Breton’s final threat, to preempt Musk’s planned X interview with then-GOP presidential nominee Trump, which prompted Musk to respond with a meme telling Breton to “literally, f*** your own face!”

The Frenchman resigned a month later, accusing President Ursula von der Leyen of trying to get France to replace him – days after House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demanded a briefing from Breton on his threats against X, use of EU law to censor American speech and communications with the White House to “bypass the First Amendment.”

Breton didn’t let his departure stop him from saber-rattling against Musk, demanding Europe enforce the DSA against Musk on Dec. 21 for his “foreign interference” in German elections by endorsing the “far-right” Alternative for Germany party, which favors lower immigration.

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk had written, using its German acronym, in response to presumptive German Chancellor Friedrich Merz refusing to cooperate with AfD “no matter how many” seats it won in upcoming elections against his Christian Democratic Union.

Suspected U.S. interest in copying Europe’s DSA

FGI’s first FOIA request Sept. 27 asks for cyberspace bureau records from October 19, 2022 – when the DSA was adopted – to the start of the records search.

It pertains to Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jennifer Bachus, Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom Eileen Donahoe, Ambassador at Large Nathaniel Fick, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Cyberspace Security Liesyl Franz, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy Steve Lang and Director for Strategic Planning and Communications Shawn Powers.

It also sought their communications with the National Endowment for Democracy, Cambridge University Social Decision-Making Lab, Atlantic Council, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Meedan, National Conference on Citizenship, Algorithmic Transparency Institute, Stanford Internet Observatory, International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute, Google Jigsaw, Microsoft Democracy Forward, Internews, Wilson Center, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Center for Democracy and Technology.

FGI’s second FOIA request Sept. 27 pertained to GEC Acting Coordinator Leah Bray, Special Envoy and Coordinator James Rubin, and its “media contacts” email, “staff who manage the incoming messages” and any others with media duties using the group email or their own. It asks for communications with the same 16 external organizations.

The third FOIA request Oct. 7 was prompted by the Post article on internal press guidance. It sought records since Jan. 1, 2023, on who was involved, “its preparation and implementation” and the guidance itself, and records that name or refer to journalists Matt Taibbi, Gabe Kaminsky and his publisher The Washington Examiner, the Post, GDI, National Endowment for Democracy, “disinformation risk measurement,” “conservative media outlets,” “blacklist” and Park Advisors, which ran GEC’s Disinfo Cloud platform that several agencies used.

FGI sought such records from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell, Chief of Staff Suzy George, acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Lee Satterfield, acting Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs Stephanie Sutton, that bureau’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kristin Kane, Office of Press Operations Director Jennifer McKewan, Bureau of Legislative Affairs Assistant Secretary Naz Durakoglu, that bureau’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Senate Affairs Roy Awabdeh and Deputy Assistant Secretary for House Affairs Stacy Thompson, GEC’s Bray and Rubin, and GEC media staff.

A First Amendment lawsuit against State and GEC, for funding disinformation police that press