The US State Department had missed the June 21 deadline to provide Congress with documents that Republicans in the House of Representatives believe could help clarify the role the government had in silencing conservatives online.
The documents in question were requested in June from the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which is operated by the State Department. The Center’s “claim to fame” is that one of its grants – amounting to $100,000 – went to the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) in 2021.
This is by no means the only significant donation GDI has received – $860,000 came its way from the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit that is also funded by the US government. This money was paid to GDI between 2020 and 2022 – but this organization has in the meantime cut ties with GDI, at least as far as openly financing the controversial group.
This time, the approach is to probe how the government may have adversely affected small businesses when it stopped them from having their voices heard uncensored online – and what the thinking behind giving out grants like these was, exactly.
The Republican chair of the Small Business Committee Roger Williams, who is one of those behind the request that is yet to be fulfilled, suspects that the Global Disinformation Index and its activities are responsible for the loss of opportunities for small businesses, through censorship.
Williams, who was joined by Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Beth Van Duyne (also a Texan Republican) in penning the June letter to the State Department – specifically, GEC – said on Monday that their request essentially went ignored – having received no update.
The Washington Examiner is reporting about this development, and it was this publication’s previous articles that were cited in the Williams/Duyne letter, explaining the source of their belief that GDI might have had its hand in harming small businesses.
Namely, the UK group allegedly put pressure on advertisers to steer clear of sites deemed conservative and did so secretly.
This is far from the only investigation into GEC that Congress has been trying to carry out over the past months, with the interagency marred by reports about involvement in the Biden camp’s “anti-misinformation” online campaigns.
Read the latest letter for the State Department here.
