‘Little’ Marco’s Tall Tale

Rubio's "Censorship" Lies Are Leaving America Open to Foreign Manipulation

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Marco Rubio speaks at CPAC 2013. Original image: Greg Skidmore, via CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to The Federalist on Wednesday with a bizarre piece of fan-fiction, in which he cast himself and President Trump as American heroes for shutting down a State Department office tasked with combatting hostile foreign influence operations. In non-wonk speak: by shutting down the office, Rubio has opened the American information space to the likes of Russia, China, and Iran in his latest attempt to curry favor in MAGA land.

Rubio’s op-ed borders on delirium, repeating with tired, false claims that the US government has censored millions of Americans in recent years. It heaps lavish praise on Trump’s ‘landslide’ 2024 victory, despite Trump winning only a plurality of the vote, by less than 1.5%.

In Little Marco’s tall tale, the State Department’s former Global Engagement Center (GEC) was not a government office that publicly attributed online influence operations to our strategic adversaries, but a shadowy ground zero for censorship of ordinary Americans and conservative media outlets and personalities. Rubio’s overarching claim that the US government engaged in this sort of censorship is patently false, and we debunked it last summer in our Information Laundering Cycle Report. In that report we also examined detailed case studies of information laundering around this claim, several of which involved the maligning of the GEC.

The GEC’s mandate was clear—it was created originally to combat ISIS propaganda and recruitment online. Its mission was expanded in the 2017 NDAA—which Rubio voted for—to include addressing other foreign propaganda, disinformation, or influence operations. Its mandate had been refunded by Congress multiple times—on a bipartisan basis—thereafter. Even more hypocritical is the fact that an overwhelming amount of the transgressions Rubio claims to be outraged about happened under the watch of Trump appointee—and former Fox News commentator—Lea Gabrielle, who led the GEC from 2019–2021.

The GEC was reorganized in December 2024 into the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference Hub (R/FIMI), with a tighter budget, smaller staff, and a narrower scope. However, neither this reorganization nor the integrity of the US information space mattered to the administration, more than scoring political points with a handful of viral MAGA accounts on X and Truth Social.

Rubio takes particular issue with GEC’s warnings in 2020—which, to remind everyone, was when Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, was in office—that hostile foreign actors like Russia were pushing COVID-related disinformation. But as even he admits, the GEC never censored any content—it merely sent certain posts “to social media companies for ‘review.’” Social media companies then made their own decisions according to their terms of service. For example, a post espousing the Kremlin’s conspiracy theory that COVID actually originated in a US biolab most certainly violated Meta’s policies at the time. GEC may have observed a post containing this conspiracy and let Meta know where and how fast the narrative was spreading. Then, Meta would decide what to do with that content internally.

Moreover, MAGA has already been proven wrong by the Supreme Court on this censorship lie. Murthy v. Missouri, decided last June, found no standing to proceed nor harm done to anyone by the US government when it flagged content to Meta which violated Meta’s terms of service. In fact, the plaintiffs in Murthy couldn't name a single piece of content that had been ‘ordered’ down by GEC or any other federal agency. Beyond this, courts have consistently ruled that the government is allowed to express its own views through its own speech. It’s not allowed to coerce, but it’s allowed to request, convince, or attempt to persuade. And with Murthy, when the light of truth was shined on the censorship rumorverse, the highest court found nothing coercive.

Murthy was decided nearly a year ago, and the bad actors making these claims still can’t pinpoint a single piece of content that was ordered down. ASP CEO Nina Jankowicz testified before the House of Representatives on April 1, in yet another sham hearing about ‘censorship.’ Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) asked the Republican witnesses, Benjamin Weingarten and Matt Taibbi, what the single clearest example of actual censorship they had was. Weingarten pointed to Murthy (even though “Team Censorship” lost 6-3) and Matt Taibbi pointed to two cases in litigation. In other words, despite being the foremost ‘experts’ on the topic, they—like Rubio—still can’t name a single instance in which the government censored Americans. Because it didn’t happen.

In his op-ed, Rubio also straight-up lies about the work of GEC grantees like the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and NewsGuard. Both entities rank the reliability of news websites for consumers and advertisers so that they have an informed choice about which content to consume or advertise next to. Both entities also work on dozens of other research efforts, two of which were awarded small GEC grants. The bottom line is: GEC didn't fund GDI’s and NewsGuard’s ranking work.

It’s unfortunate to see displays like this from folks like Marco Rubio. He’s served for years as an elected official, knows the government inside and out, and has historically been one of the biggest advocates for national security and countering foreign influence. Sadly, writing this fan-fiction, attacking researchers like us, calling private citizens anti-democratic or evil, and shredding the First Amendment have become hallmarks of this administration.

As we approach 100 days of Trump 2.0, it’s harder than ever to believe that American politics—and society writ large—have reached a place where truth and facts are optional, and where people’s liberties are being restricted. There is real censorship happening, and it’s being carried out by bad actors who are still offended by content moderation decisions from half a decade ago. It’s unconscionable that people like Marco Rubio—born to noncitizen immigrants who fled a communist regime for a better life—are detaining, without evidence, students for expressing themselves. It’s horrifying that private law firms and universities are being targeted—by name—for exercising constitutionally-protected speech.

America is at a crossroads. The administration is willfully disobeying federal court orders in front of us all, our allies and partners are turning away from our country, and hostile foreign influence operations—from Russia and beyond—continue to infiltrate our democratic discourse.

We must stand up and push back: As researchers, as civil servants, as protesters.

As Americans.