Marco Rubio tells diplomats he will end State Department programs that open the door to censorship

Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio notified US diplomats Tuesday that the State Department will no longer promote programs that “open the door to censorship.”The departure from the Biden administration’s approach to combatting so-called “disinformation” was one of several planned changes outlined by Rubio, 53, in a cable sent to every US diplomatic and consular post worldwide on his first day in office. In the cable, according to RealClearPolitics, Rubio slammed the “agencies and programs of our own government” that engaged “in censorship, suppression, and misinformation.”The former Republican senator from Florida vowed that while the State Department would remain on the lookout for  “enemy propaganda,” under his watch, any programs that “lead or in any way open the door to censorship of the American people will be terminated.”Rubio’s note to his new employees follows President Trump’s Day One executive order barring federal funds from being used for the purpose to “engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” Under the Biden administration, the State Department’s controversial and now-shuttered Global Engagement Center (GEC) came under fire from congressional Republicans who charged that the center pressured social media platforms to censor COVID-19 “disinformation” — such as theories that the virus leaked from a laboratory in China — and gave money to a London-based media monitoring nonprofit that would go on to deem 10 outlets, including The Post, purveyors of “disinformation.” In the final weeks of the 46th presidency, the State Department announced that it had shut down the GEC after congressional lawmakers refused to reauthorize it. The State Department, however, notified lawmakers that it planned for some GEC employees and funding to be shifted to a different hub aimed at countering “foreign information manipulation and int...