State Department Proves Old Anti-Disinformation Office Was Wasteful By Planning An $11 Million Replacement

WASHINGTON—The State Department is preparing an $11 million campaign to counter Chinese propaganda with online influencers after dismantling its old foreign anti-disinformation office as a wasteful censorship machine, ensuring that the mission can return without the dangerous burden of continuity.

A proposal reviewed by The Guardian would recruit as many as 30 influencers across 11 Southeast Asian countries, paying each up to $2,500 as part of a multiyear effort. The plan divides $5 million for messaging, $3 million for training influencers and journalists, and $3 million for bringing roughly 180 participants to studios in Washington and Houston. The former bureaucracy has been streamlined into ring lights, airfare and three convenient budget lines.

The Global Engagement Center lost its authorization at the end of 2024, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio later closed its remaining successor office while describing the operation as wasteful and censorious. A separate State Department filing this spring sought commercial software to map hostile propaganda networks and detect deepfakes. Work once performed inside government can therefore resume safely after passing through a contractor.

Undersecretary Sarah Rogers released internal center files this month as evidence that the former office had strayed into domestic censorship. Two former senior officials who reviewed the material said it showed no domestic operation. A 2022 inspector general report likewise described a clear foreign-facing legal mandate and significant overseas work, while identifying weak contractor controls and limited strategic planning.

The department has now answered those weaknesses with more contractors and a strategic plan. America will again confront foreign influence, this time using a structure too modern to resemble the program it replaced.