United States Expands Counterdisinformation Infrastructure Against Dissent
Jacob Siegel's excerpt from The Information State recounts how the 2016 Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act expanded the State Department's Global Engagement Center and coordinated US agencies and private-sector actors to shape narratives and counter alleged Russian influence. Siegel says this shift framed disinformation as a national-security imperative, enabling surveillance-style targeting that erodes privacy and democratic oversight, illustrated by Michael Lumpkin and the December 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment.
Key Points
- 1Details Obama-era 2016 law expanding the Global Engagement Center's remit to counter disinformation.
- 2Explains how GEC coordinated agencies and private firms to align narratives and target specific audiences.
- 3Warns that surveillance-style targeting blurs foreign/domestic distinctions, undermining privacy, oversight, and platform governance.
Scoring Rationale
Timely book excerpt (published today) offers broad, credible reporting on government-private coordination around disinformation; scored for wide scope and strategic relevance but lower on novelty and direct technical actionability.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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