Inside The $50 Million Shadow Agency That Tried To Censor Americans

Posted • July 29, 2025: We know from the Twitter Files that the Biden administration had a heavy thumb on the social media platforms. You could be censored on Twitter 1.0 for questioning the COVID lab leak theory, for trying to share the Hunter Biden laptop story, or for calling Brian Stelter a "pansy." Judges even told President Joe Biden to lay off the censorship. This thread contains excerpts from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's interview with Mike Benz in which he reveals the shadow agency inside the State Department that existed to silence people on social media, in the name of election interference. He exposed a secret $50M shadow agency inside the State Department that tried to silence Americans… The man running this operation? Richard Stengel – who publicly claimed: "Donald Trump talks just like a Russian spy, he talks just like a terrorist, and so do the people around him." This wasn't just talk. They had a sophisticated system to silence opposition. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw12fbVbcAApOyN?format=png&name=900x900

Here's how the censorship machine worked: The State Department funded supposedly "impartial" NGOs with taxpayer money. These third-party groups then tagged American commentators and media outlets as "foreign agents." But that was just the beginning… The consequences were real and devastating. These weren't just labels – they led to Americans getting deplatformed and silenced online. High-profile targets included Ben Shapiro and The Federalist. But countless everyday citizens were also caught in the dragnet. Just when you think it couldn't get more shocking: Before Trump took office, they didn't shut down the unit. They simply renamed it and moved it elsewhere in the bureaucracy. A classic government shell game to avoid accountability. Just like they did by renaming all of the DEI departments but keeping them in place. The most disturbing part? American taxpayers were unknowingly funding this censorship apparatus. Your tax dollars were being used to silence fellow Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Sec. Rubio's team has been quietly dismantling this system over recent months. They're documenting what happened for two critical reasons: So those harmed can prove they were targeted to ensure it never happens again. But that's not the end of the story. We're now facing an even bigger threat from abroad. The European Union has become increasingly aggressive in censoring speech, including targeting Americans speaking about American issues. A concrete example: When Elon Musk hosted Donald Trump on X during the election season, EU officials threatened him with penalties. This was two non-EU citizens, discussing American politics, being threatened by foreign censors. The stakes couldn't be higher. Here's what's even more concerning: The foreign censorship laws in places like the EU were partly shaped by the same ecosystem partners that were funded by the State Department. It created a global censorship machine that's still operating. The EU Digital Services Act now threatens Americans with fines for speech that would be protected under our First Amendment.

They've already threatened a billion-dollar fine against X for "non-compliance with disinformation" standards. (…)

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https://twitchy.com/brettt/2025/07/28/inside-the-50-million-shadow-agency-that-tried-to-censor-americans-n2416398