Lawmakers press State Department on taxpayer-funded censorship campaign

The House Oversight Committee is pressing the U.S. State Department after media reports indicate the federal agency funded an overseas group that targeted right-leaning U.S. news sites.

The Congressional inquiry comes after the Washington Examiner reported that $330,000 from the State Department went to the Global Disinformation Index, a British group that discouraged major ad companies from using conservative news sites including Newsmax, The New York Post, RealClearPolitics, and The Federalist.

"The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating reports that federal funds administered by the Department of State were used to suppress lawful speech and defund disfavored news outlets under the guise of combatting disinformation," House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "The Committee is disturbed by recent reporting that taxpayer money ended up in the hands of a foreign organization running an advertising blacklist of organizations accused of hosting disinformation on their websites, including several conservative-leaning news organizations. The Committee seeks documents and a staff-level briefing to understand the scope of the Department’s use of federal funds for a taxpayer-funded censorship campaign."

This is just one of several instances of the federal government working to censor certain viewpoints. The Department of Homeland Security, for instance, is under investigation by the committee for working with social media companies to censor posts.

"We continue to be concerned by efforts across the federal government to censor the lawful speech of Americans and discredit legitimate criticism as mis-, dis-, or mal- information, whether through the creation of a 'Disinformation Governance Board,' or labeling dissenting opinions as threats to critical infrastructure," the letter said.

The committee called for records, documents, communications and more about the grant funding and to what degree federal employees directed that certain news outlets should be targeted. They gave a deadline of March 9.

"The federal government should not be censoring free speech nor policing what news outlets Americans choose to consume," the letter said. "And taxpayer funds should never be given to third parties with the intent that they be used to censor lawful speech or abridge the freedom of the press."