Could you tell the American people what that was?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. Well, we ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department. And let me explain how we get there. This started out 15, 10 years ago with this effort of let’s go after the messaging that al-Qaida and ISIS and others are putting to radicalize people. And who’s going to be against that? That sounds normal. And then it was, like, in 2016, oh, we had this foreign interference in our election; we need to start targeting some of that stuff. By 2020 it had grown into this movement of, like, actually going after individual American voices.

And one of the ways that was being done wasn’t just directly. Because the guy that was running this thing, Stengel, was actually a guy that was out there saying: Donald Trump talks just like a Russian spy, he talks just like a terrorist, and so do the people around him. But they were also taking money from this program and using it to fund these NGOs, these third-party groups who were supposed to be, like, impartial. Those groups were then tagging – they were literally tagging and labeling voices in American politics – Ben Shapiro, The Federalist, others – tagging them as foreign agents.

So you look at it and say, American taxpayers, through the State Department, were paying groups to attack Americans and to try to silence the voice of Americans. And there were consequences. These weren’t just a label they put on people. Some of these people got deplatformed, they got taken down, they couldn’t communicate. So it was outrageous.

So before President Trump took over, they disbanded this unit. They just renamed it and moved it somewhere else. But now over the last few months we’ve worked on it and just taken it down, and to the extent we’re spending money now – we are going to spend money on messaging; it’s going to be pro-American messaging, and it’s going to be incentivizing and protecting free speech, which is threatened all over the world, including countries that are allies of ours.

The best way to counter disinformation – if that’s what people are thinking is out there – the best way to counter disinformation is free speech —

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: — is to make sure that what’s true has as equal or greater opportunity to communicate as what’s not true. We’ve learned that the hard way. But when you turn disinformation into a weapon, a political weapon, a label that you can use to go after people you don’t like, and say, oh, anything that person’s saying is disinformation – well, listen, I read mainstream newspapers every day, or I watch mainstream broadcasts – mainstream broadcasts every day that I know are disinformation, okay? We have an issue right now. They keep calling it “Maryland man” deported to El Salvador. No, not “Maryland man” – El Salvador citizen deported to El Salvador. That’s disinformation. Every day I – a U.S. senator yesterday said that this guy was a kidnapped American citizen, and they published it in the article without any fact check. He’s not an American citizen.

So the important thing is that we have free speech so we can counter that, so we can say this is not true.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: That’s the way you handle that. And – but we have instances now in Western countries where people are being arrested. You’ve seen this, I’m sure. You know what I’m talking about.

QUESTION: Yes, absolutely.

SECRETARY RUBIO: People out there, they put a post, and they – a cop comes knocking on their door: You’re going to go to jail for 60 days for posting something online.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: This is crazy stuff that’s happening around the – and the Vice President addressed this in his speech at the Munich conference back in February.

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So we got a lot of work to do, but the most important thing is we’re going to make sure that as we communicate to the world it’s going to be pro-American – things that build up what this country’s working on and explaining what we’re doing, not attacking Americans who are exercising their First Amendment rights.

QUESTION: The classic work of the State Department in the 20th century.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: And you mentioned this network that was paid through the State Department through grants and contracts. And my understanding is that network also targeted the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie, who I believe played an important role in this restructuring as well.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Right.

QUESTION: And credit to you and to the under secretary. One of the questions that remains – this is obviously amazing news, I think, to the entire American people about the defunding and the restructuring. There are lingering questions about what was done during that period, where we now have so many people wondering, was I censored because of something the State Department did?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: Was my news organization bankrupted? Were advertisers contacted about it? And there are aggrieved parties; there’s an important historical record that needs to be unearthed; there are active lawsuits. There are many reasons for a public disclosure effort on top of this development today. Are there any efforts underway to be able to have a kind of GEC files, as there were for the Twitter Files?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. So I think what we have to do now – and Darren will be big involved in that as well – is sort of document what happened. Because one thing is to say it in a broadcast like this, another thing is to actually put it on paper. And there’s two reasons to do it. The first is because I think people who were harmed deserve to know that, and be able to prove that they were harmed; and then the other is to make sure it never happens again, right?

QUESTION: Exactly.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So that 10 years from now, when someone has a brilliant idea like this again – not-brilliant idea like this again – you can point to that and say, oh, this was done once before, and here’s the reason why we don’t. That’s why accountability is important in these things, because it doesn’t just provide justice and – but it also prevents it from happening in the future. You have something you can point to at the same time and say, these are the kinds of things we want to stay away from.

And it’s also a very important lesson here. If I take you back 15 years and I ask somebody, do you think we should be doing more to make sure ISIS and al-Qaida are not radicalizing people online, 15 years ago we would have said, yeah, of course.

QUESTION: Yes, right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: But look what that turned into.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And I’m not saying I’m – obviously we don’t want ISIS radicalizing everybody, but you have to understand that sometimes, some idea that starts out as innocuous or maybe even good intention, whatever, can metastasize, becomes a weapon that can be turned into something else by someone else. That’s a valuable lesson here. And everything we do, you have to understand that when you create something, what you created and what it turns into are not necessarily the same thing, especially when the people in charge change.

QUESTION: Right. A Frankensteinian monster that —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, yeah, that’s right.

QUESTION: — takes on a life of its own. So then that is to say you can commit to the American public now that there will be a transparency effort to actually —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, that’s already started, because I think as part of justifying doing all this, we had to document this, right?

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So now I think there’s more in-depth, and we’ll create a process for people that sort of point – we already know some of the higher-profile ones, but there are more than higher-profile ones, right? There are a lot of other, including everyday, individual American citizens —

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: — who suddenly were labeled. And I think this is going to require some cross-jurisdictional work because some of it’s going to require us to go back and prove, okay, somebody got deplatformed in 2021, right?

QUESTION: Yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And back in the middle of COVID – 2020. Someone got deplatformed, and tracking – we can prove that; people can show, hey, I got deplatformed by the old Facebook or by the old Twitter or whatever. But then linking that. So why were they deplatformed? Who told them to deplatform? And if we could somehow with internal review create a linkage between some information that came from something the State Department paid for and an actual aggrieved party, that’s what’s important.

Because I think that one thing is to point to the high-profile cases, which we’re aware of, but I think when people see that there were actually just individual, everyday Americans that were deplatformed and for whatever – silenced because somebody associated with this program identified them, I think that’s what’s really going to be eye-opening to a lot of people. But we didn’t want to wait for that to take action. We know enough to already act.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: But we obviously want to know the depth and the scope of this. That’s going to happen. It’s already happening.

QUESTION: Right. This is a program that has been shrouded in secrecy. Journalists like Matt Taibbi have tried to FOIA for many of these grants and contracts and have encountered the stone wall. So this is, I think, amazing news.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: I know that you’re a very busy man, and appreciate all the time here. So the final question is on the international stage. As you are repositioning the State Department to have the U.S. once again be the global beacon for free speech and liberty, we face threats around the world from censorship laws coming out of the European Union, coming out of Brazil, coming out of really a network of countries that have taken the legitimacy of things like the Global Engagement Center and said, oh, it’s okay in the Western world to have media literacy programs, information integrity, mis/dis/malinformation programs. And many of those Global Engagement Center partner – ecosystem partners have been involved in the shaping of those foreign laws; many have – are actually – have been funded by the State Department and USAID, being signatories on the EU Code of Disinformation, implementing the EU Digital Services Act, which was threatened to be turned against Americans when Elon Musk famously had that X Space with Donald Trump during the election season.

So my question to you is: Is there any insights that you can provide to the American people about how the State Department is going to go about once again restoring free speech —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: — in a world where we are facing foreign threats from the European Union and Brazil and other places to Americans’ ability to talk to Americans?

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, so the first thing obviously is our number one priority is Americans. So we don’t want to see an American who happens to be living in London or happens to be living in Europe post something online about American politics or any politics, and all of a sudden they’re facing ramifications over there or they’re denied entry and something happens – “Oh, we’re denying them into our country or we’re going to arrest them because they posted something while living overseas.” So our number one interest is the impact that it has on Americans.

The broader point, which is the one I think the Vice President made very clear in Munich at the Security Conference – people freaked out about what he said, but it’s true. What is it that links us with Western Europe? What is it that links us with these – it’s our shared values. And one of those shared values, we hope, is freedom of expression. I know they don’t have a First Amendment, but freedom of expression, right? And if that is eroded – if suddenly these become places where people are targeted because of what they said or what their opinion is – then one of the pillars of our shared interest, beyond military cooperation or anything else, is under attack. And I think he made a very vibrant point that in some ways you are attacking – by attacking freedom of expression, you are attacking one of the pillars of our shared interest, our shared culture, our shared values.

And so I think – we raise that. We’ve raised that. I mean, I can tell you we were at a Oval Office meeting with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, and this issue came up. So this has been raised. It becomes part of our diplomatic —

QUESTION: Yeah.

SECRETARY RUBIO: — situation that we raise when we interact with foreign interlocutors. I think what’s troubling is we understand, like, that’s always going to be an issue when you – certain countries around the world. But when you’re dealing with Western European allies and that’s who you’re talking to about this stuff, it really tells you how far it’s gone and how big a problem. And so that’s a new thing for us to have to raise in those capitals, but we do it and we do it everywhere. And I personally witnessed the President and the Vice President raise it with multiple —

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: — foreign leaders. And I think you’re going to continue to see an emphasis on that in our diplomacy and what we talk about.

QUESTION: That’s fantastic. And I think the actions today will send a message to those foreign bodies that what was done for a very brief period here really in the scope of our history is not a legitimate way to pursue international laws. So – and just on the EU Digital Services Act, I’d feel remiss if I didn’t mention that the EU commissioning body there threatened Elon Musk, a non-EU citizen, talking to Donald Trump —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: — a non-EU citizen —

SECRETARY RUBIO: During the campaign in October.

QUESTION: — running for President.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah.

QUESTION: And threatened them specifically not to talk about the unrest – the street protests in the UK at the time. The UK is no longer a member of the EU. So the EU is threatening – and today, they’re now – we’re hearing they’re threatening a billion dollars in fines against X for noncompliance with disinformation. And we’ve seen the head of their commission target non-EU citizens talking to non-EU citizens about non-EU territories. And so this is just one of these things – as this code becomes mandatory in July – to know that the State Department is focused on protecting free speech both within and without is, I think, an important thing.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, just beyond Elon, if a country or a group of countries in the case of the EU – although it considers itself sort of a country because these countries have given over a significant amount of sovereignty in order to become a member of the EU – when you have foreign entities taking actions that go after Americans for speech —

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: — that becomes a foreign policy irritant for the United States, and more than an irritant. It becomes an impediment in some cases to cooperate when they’re going – not just after a high-profile person like Elon, but anybody for that matter. I mean, I think if you extend this out, you could see it threatening commentators, threatening people that are opining about world events, potentially threatening office holders in the United States.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, so what if – what if an American political figure, on the left or right, criticized something that was happening in Europe – imagine right now if all these people freaking out over Bukele in El Salvador were suddenly being threatened by some Western Hemisphere version of the EU – oh, we’re going to come after you because you’re attacking the President of El Salvador. The left would be freaking out.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So I think that this is a very legitimate issue for us to raise as a bilateral or in this case with the EU irritant in our foreign policy. It has to become part of one of the things that we raise when we interact with them about the impact this is having on American citizens. At the end of the day, the number one priority of the State Department is to serve the national interest of the United States and the interest of the American people. We work for the American people.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s the United States Department of State.

QUESTION: Yes.

SECRETARY RUBIO: So that – we need to return that principle in everything we do, including this.

QUESTION: Right. And this is such a fair and frankly merciful way of doing this as well. You don’t – it sounds like you don’t want the power to go after the other side for misinformation and things like this. So —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, we would be here all day.

QUESTION: No —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I mean, we could – I could build a whole building to go after that.

QUESTION: Right. Exactly.

SECRETARY RUBIO: But the best way to do it is just to say they’re lying; here’s the truth.

QUESTION: Right. Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: That’s why we have things like this today.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And that’s why we’re able to interact with you and others. That’s the best way to do it. And it’s annoying; don’t get me wrong. I mean, they say things that aren’t true. Every day stuff is leaked in the press that’s reported on as fact, and it’s not fact.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Or stuff is reported and commentary – not – look, commentators say what they want. Mainstream newspapers and mainstream media outlets report things as fact that are completely not true. So our approach to that is not shut them down, not fine them.

QUESTION: (Inaudible). Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Right. Our approach to that is to say they’re lying; here’s the truth.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: It’s harder. It’s annoying. But that’s the best way to do it. If you don’t do it that way, then you recognize that some day in the future if you create this power to shut that down, someone in my position will do it to us.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RUBIO: And I just think that begins to devolve very rapidly, as we’ve seen with this experiment that they did.

QUESTION: You’re putting the censorship gun down, and the American people are incredibly grateful for it. So thank you so much for making the time today.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it was the right thing to do. Thank you, and thanks for your attention to this topic. I know you’ve been on this a long time.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.