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.
/2 The documents reveal the Global Engagement Center (GEC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK government, and media groups working together to conduct mass censorship under the guise of “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation.” pic.twitter.com/PJnj3exWzu
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 20, 2025
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