US steps back from joint efforts to combat misinformation, FT reports

The U.S. will no longer work with Europe on combating disinformation from countries including China, Iran, and Russia, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 8, citing three unnamed European officials.

"Information warfare is a reality of our time, and artificial intelligence is only going to multiply the risks from that," James Rubin, former head of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), said.

The White House has sought to cut spending on publicly funded media, including Voice of America (VoA), and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Months earlier, VoA journalist Steve Herman was placed on extended leave in February, and Ostap Yarysh, a Ukrainian correspondent at VoA, was dismissed in March.

The now-canceled efforts sought a joint response to disinformation from foreign adversaries. The U.S., European, and African countries worked together to identify and expose propaganda.

Over the span of last year, about 22 countries in Africa and Europe signed memoranda with the U.S. to combat disinformation, Rubin told the Financial Times.

The U.S. State Department notified various European countries a week earlier that it is terminating Washington's memoranda of understanding signed under the former White House administration.

The efforts were led by the GEC, a U.S. State Department agency that tackled misinformation spread abroad by terrorist groups and foreign adversaries. The center was closed in April.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversaw VoA, launched an investigation into journalists who had spoken out against Trump’s policies, The New York Times reported in February.

Russia's hybrid warfare utilizes disinformation to influence public opinions, politics, and destabilize Ukraine and its allies.

Moscow was spending an estimated $1.5 billion annually on foreign disinformation campaigns, Christopher Walker, National Endowment for Democracy vice president for studies and analysis, told the U.S. Congress in 2023.