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While condemning “fake news” on the one hand, President Barack Obama used the other to sign a new law that puts the United States in a position to monitor propaganda.
On Friday, Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, a broad defense spending bill that includes within it legislation known as the “Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act.”
The Propaganda Act was authored by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
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Portman, in a statement accompanying the bill’s signing, said the Propaganda Act creates “an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government.”
The Global Engagement Center is under the umbrella of the State Department but will also include the Department of Defense, USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Intelligence Community, Portman’s statement said.
According to the statement, The Center will “counter foreign disinformation operations by our enemies.”
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The legislation will also fund grants to non-governmental agents “engaged in counter-propaganda related work,” Portman’s release said.
“The use of propaganda to undermine democracy has hit a new low,” Muirphy sad. “But now we are finally in a position to confront this threat head on and get out the truth. By building up independent, objective journalism in places like eastern Europe, we can start to fight back by exposing these fake narratives and empowering local communities to protect themselves.”
Murphy claimed Americans will not be targeted.
“The United States wouldn’t be picking the messaging. The United States wouldn’t be censoring anyone’s newspaper or web site,” Murphy said. “We simply would be offering to help other countries’ in their efforts to produce more independent journalism to counter this Russian propaganda narrative.”
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Writing on Zero Hedge, commentator Tyler Durden said the bill is not a victory for free speech.
“Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born,” he said, noting that the action comes in the context of efforts to label “fake news” anything that differs from the government-sanctioned version of events.
“… the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be ‘foreign propaganda,'” he wrote.
