A leak of US government files, intended to support claims that a US State Department office secretly engaged in domestic censorship, has been dismissed by former officials. The files were purportedly leaked to a conservative online personality to prove allegations against the Global Engagement Center (GEC), an office created to counter foreign propaganda.
Two former high-ranking GEC officials, Daniel Kimmage and Carrie Goux, state that the documents show "absolutely nothing" to support these claims. They argue the files are a symptom of a political dispute over the GEC, which tracked foreign influence operations, particularly from Russia, China, and Iran, for nearly a decade.
The GEC lost its funding in 2024 and was disbanded in 2025 following Donald Trump's return to office. The State Department is now resuming some of this work in other parts of its operations, including a proposal to pay social media influencers in Southeast Asia as part of an $11m campaign to counter Chinese propaganda.