The US has reportedly terminated Biden-era agreements to jointly police \u201cdisinformation\u201d<\/p>\n
The US has withdrawn from a series of international agreements aimed at countering alleged foreign \u201cdisinformation,\u201d effectively ending joint efforts with EU governments to police online content, the Financial Times has reported, citing unnamed European officials.
\nThe US State Department notified participating nations last week that it would terminate memoranda of understanding signed under the Biden administration, according to the report published on Monday. The agreements with 22 countries, mainly in Europe and Africa, were part of a broader initiative led by the now-defunct Global Engagement Center (GEC).
\nThe GEC was formally disbanded in April after congressional Republicans blocked a funding renewal in December. Originally established in 2011 to reportedly fight online terrorist propaganda, the center\u2019s mandate was later expanded to cover alleged foreign state-backed \u201cdisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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US shuts down Biden-era \u2018censorship\u2019 agency<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously characterized the GEC as a taxpayer-funded tool for political suppression, alleging that it was used by the Biden administration to target conservative voices under the guise of combating propaganda. \u201cUnder the previous administration, this office… spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,\u201d Rubio said in April.
\nThe move marks another step in a broader campaign by President Donald Trump to dismantle \u201cineffective\u201d institutions perceived as vehicles for political censorship. Since taking office, Trump has also defunded the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees the Cold War-era broadcasters Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL), widely regarded as Western propaganda outlets.<\/p>\n
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US working to kill EU Digital Services Act \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n
Washington has also pushed back against the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act, which mandates the removal of content deemed illegal or harmful. US diplomats were reportedly ordered in August to lobby against the legislation, calling it a threat to free expression and a burden on American tech firms. Critics of the EU law have argued that it institutionalizes censorship across the bloc and unfairly targets non-EU media and platforms.
\nThe EU imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian media after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Outlets like RT, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti have all been banned across the bloc, while their personnel have been targeted with sanctions. Moscow described the crackdown as \u201cglobal censorship and a regime of zero tolerance for dissenting opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US has reportedly terminated Biden-era agreements to jointly police \u201cdisinformation\u201d The US has withdrawn from a series of international agreements aimed at countering alleged foreign \u201cdisinformation,\u201d effectively ending joint…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-politics","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t