【By Liu Bai, Observer Net】On September 8, the UK's Financial Times cited statements from three European officials, revealing that European countries have been notified that the U.S. will withdraw from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on combating so-called "disinformation" from China and Russia, which was signed by both sides.

These memorandums were part of the initiatives led by the U.S. Department of State's Global Engagement Center (GEC). With the GEC being closed last year, terminating the memorandums marked the final step in the project's complete termination.

Former GEC director James Rubin criticized the U.S. government for "unilaterally disarming" in the information war, while Trump administration officials claimed that the GEC was involved in censorship, was inefficient, and conflicted with its so-called stance on "free speech."

According to three European officials familiar with the situation, European countries received a notice from the U.S. Department of State last week: the U.S. would terminate a series of memorandums signed during the Biden administration. These memorandums were initially promoted by the Biden administration and led by the GEC, aiming to establish a unified mechanism among all parties to identify and expose so-called "malicious information spread by foreign governments to create chaos."

According to information on the U.S. Department of State website, the predecessor of the "Global Engagement Center" was the Strategic Counterterrorism Communications Center established in 2011, whose responsibility was "combating online terrorism propaganda." It was renamed in 2016 and transformed into the center for the U.S. to "combat foreign disinformation."

U.S. Department of State

However, as domestic political tensions between the two major parties in the United States intensified, Republicans and their supporters raised doubts about the center, claiming that it had connections with organizations opposing some conservative American media outlets.

After Trump won the election again, the center was eventually closed in December of last year. Its functions were briefly reorganized and merged into an office within the Department of State, but this office was closed by the Trump administration in April of this year.

The termination of the memorandums is the final step in ending the project.

James Rubin, who once led the GEC, estimated that approximately 22 countries in Europe and Africa signed the above memorandums with the U.S. over the past year.

He claimed that the Trump administration's withdrawal from the cooperation was "unilateral disarmament in the information war with Russia and China." "Information warfare is a reality of our time, and artificial intelligence will only further exacerbate the risks it brings," he said.

Darren Betts, the acting deputy assistant secretary for public diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, stated, "We not only terminated a plan, but we proudly abolished the entire GEC completely."

Betts said that the GEC's notorious censorship practices were seriously inconsistent with the current administration's support for "free speech," and even from its own work objectives, "it was terrible, ineffective, and embarrassing."

Republicans previously criticized that the GEC provided $100,000 in funding to the organization "Global Disinformation Center" in the UK, which listed some conservative American media outlets on a list indicating "the risk of spreading disinformation."

Elon Musk, a billionaire in the U.S., is also one of the main critics of the "Global Engagement Center," and he questioned the institution's attempts to "manipulate social media." In 2023, Musk posted on social media, accusing the center of being "the most serious violator of illegal acts of censorship and media manipulation by the U.S. government."

Despite intense partisan conflicts, there is a consensus between the two parties on the issue of "countering China." The Wall Street Journal reported that bipartisan senators once tried to retain the "Global Engagement Center" to "counter China's influence."

The center once accused Russian media outlet RT of "disinformation campaigns" under the requirements of Russian intelligence agencies, and several social media companies including Meta subsequently blocked it. On the issue of China, the center fabricated rumors about Xinjiang, falsely claiming that China "invested tens of billions of dollars to spread disinformation globally," and slandered China for "manipulating global information," trying to portray the U.S. as a victim of "disinformation."

Previously, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the relevant institutions of the U.S. Department of State, under the name of "global engagement," actually engaged in "propaganda infiltration," and are the source of false information and the command center for "cognitive warfare."

The spokesperson said that from the "Mockingbird Project" initiated during the Cold War to buy media and manipulate public opinion, to the new century using "soap powder" and "White Helmets" to launch aggressive wars against Iraq and Syria, to fabricating the "century lie" to slander China's policies on Xinjiang, facts have repeatedly proven that the U.S. is truly a "lie empire." Even U.S. Senator Rand Paul has admitted that the U.S. government is the largest disseminator of false information in world history.

"Perhaps some people in the U.S. think that as long as they create enough rumors, they can win the information war. However, the eyes of the world are clear," the spokesperson said. No matter how hard the U.S. tries to pin the label of "spreading false information" on other countries, it cannot change the fact that more and more people around the world are beginning to see through the U.S.'s ugly behavior of fabricating "new clothes" with lies and maintaining its hegemony by slandering others.

This article is exclusive to Observer Net. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7547899174730088986/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your attitude by clicking on the 【Up/Down】 buttons below.