Overview

• R/FIMI, the State Department office tasked with countering foreign disinformation, has been officially closed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
• Rubio accused R/FIMI of attempting to censor Americans, a claim he has not substantiated publicly.
• Acting Undersecretary Darren Beattie had sparked controversy by requesting extensive staff communications, including references to Trump critics and disinformation-related keywords.
• Critics, including anonymous State Department officials, described Beattie’s actions as a ‘witch hunt’ aimed at enforcing political loyalty within the department.
• Beattie compared his efforts to Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files,’ but his initiative has drawn parallels to Soviet-style political policing, raising concerns about overreach.