{"id":2442891,"date":"2025-06-04T15:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/uk-media-are-mad-at-beattie-for-dismantling-censorship-regime\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:20:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:20:59","slug":"uk-media-are-mad-at-beattie-for-dismantling-censorship-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/uk-media-are-mad-at-beattie-for-dismantling-censorship-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Media Are Mad At Beattie For Dismantling Censorship Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fuk-media-are-mad-at-beattie-for-dismantling-censorship-regime%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2442891&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the Trump management&#8217;s decision to dismantle the global Engagement Center (GEC),a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >bureau originally established<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-biden-administrations-disinformation-board-is-a-tool-straight-from-soviet-russias-kgb\/\" title=\"The Biden Administration\u2019s \u2018Disinformation\u2019 Board Is A Tool Straight From Soviet ...\u2019s KGB\">combat foreign disinformation<\/a>,particularly from Russia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced its closure, aiming to curb what critics call a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-trump-derangement-gave-birth-to-the-censorship-industrial-complex\/\" title=\"How Trump Derangement Gave Birth To The\u00a0...-Industrial\u00a0Complex\">censorship-industrial complex<\/a>.&#8221; Following this, media outlets, particularly in the U.K., began publishing articles that suggest Darren Beattie, the Trump administration&#8217;s under secretary for public diplomacy, has links to the Kremlin, based on his marriage to a Russian \u00e9migr\u00e9. These claims are portrayed as efforts to discredit him for shutting down the GEC, which some argue was actually focused on censoring domestic speech rather than protecting against foreign disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>The article posits that these attacks on Beattie coincide with the Trump administration&#8217;s push for free speech, both domestically and globally, and that they reflect an ongoing struggle against censorship, particularly in Europe. Rubio additionally announced new visa restrictions aimed at foreign nationals responsible for repressing free expression in the U.S.The piece concludes by underscoring the administration&#8217;s commitment to combating censorship and promoting free speech as a fundamental human right.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Trump administration drove a silver stake into the heart of the censorship-industrial complex in April when Secretary of State <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/16\/rubio-to-protect-free-speech-the-censorship-industrial-complex-must-be-dismantled\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marco Rubio<\/a> announced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/protecting-and-championing-free-speech-at-the-state-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">closure<\/a> of its Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub (R\/FIMI), formerly the Global Engagement Center (GEC).<\/p>\n<p>But like a predictable horror movie, sometimes the villain tries to spring back to life and create more chaos. That is what is happening with a <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/196029\/trump-official-ties-kremlin-russian-propaganda-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spate<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/us\/news\/2025\/06\/03\/trump-official-shut-russia-propaganda-unit-kremlin-ties\/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">propaganda<\/a> pieces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/us\/american-politics\/article\/darren-beattie-wife-russia-putin-government-bnj50czm2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> this week, aimed at discrediting the Trump administration&rsquo;s under secretary for public diplomacy, Darren Beattie.<\/p>\n<p>The GEC is dead, but the dutiful press is trying to squeeze another &ldquo;Russian disinformation&rdquo; hoax out of it. Weirdly, this round of propaganda originates in the United Kingdom, with a piece from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/us\/news\/2025\/06\/03\/trump-official-shut-russia-propaganda-unit-kremlin-ties\/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Telegraph<\/a> claiming Beattie, who &ldquo;shut down counter-Russia agency&rdquo; (GEC), &ldquo;has links&rdquo; to the Kremlin. Other outlets are using the poorly sourced Telegraph piece as their source.<\/p>\n<p>The so-called &ldquo;links to the Kremlin&rdquo; are based on Beattie&rsquo;s 2021 marriage to Yulia Kirillova who &ldquo;fled Russia at the age of 16,&rdquo; according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/us\/american-politics\/article\/darren-beattie-wife-russia-putin-government-bnj50czm2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Times<\/a>. Kirillova&rsquo;s uncle is Sergei Chernikov, who once &ldquo;received a letter of thanks from [Vladimir] Putin for his help in the election campaign which first brought the Russian leader to power.&rdquo; Putin came to power in 2000.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This and the copycat stories aim to convince the public that Beattie, with his tenuous &ldquo;links to the Kremlin,&rdquo; was up to something hinky when he helped shut down GEC, a so-called &ldquo;counter-Russia agency.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But the $50-million-a-year GEC was never actually about Russia. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/2009-2017.state.gov\/r\/gec\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">formed<\/a> in 2016 under former President Barack Obama and presented to the public as a tool to combat foreign disinformation, with an emphasis on the threat of &ldquo;Russian <a href=\"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/russias-pillars-of-disinformation-and-propaganda-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disinformation<\/a>.&rdquo; Instead, GEC &ldquo;pressure[d] Big Tech companies into censoring what they claimed to be &lsquo;disinformation&rsquo; during the 2020 election,&rdquo; as The Federalist&rsquo;s Shawn Fleetwood previously <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/08\/fbi-confirms-its-restarting-online-censorship-efforts-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Americans, including The Federalist&rsquo;s Editor-In-Chief Mollie Hemingway and CEO Sean Davis, engaged in constitutionally <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/EIP_Jira_Ticket_Staff_Report_11-6-23_Clean.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protected<\/a> speech, were targeted by the GEC, and deplatformed, muted, or silenced online. If you were ever put in Facebook jail over a political meme, you may have felt the long arm of the GEC.<\/p>\n<h2>Global Propaganda<\/h2>\n<p>Why are U.K. media outlets writing hit pieces on Beattie, an administration official many Americans have likely never heard of? It could be because the Trump administration is pressuring Europe to abandon censorship of citizens.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t a coincidence that these attacks are surfacing as the administration is working to fight censorship domestically and champion free speech around the world,&rdquo; a senior State Department official told The Federalist. &ldquo;These fake news outlets are so desperate to keep these censorship tactics alive and discredit the transparency initiative, they are publishing false smears on a respected and effective employee at the State Department.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Censorship is in opposition to the human spirit that longs to be free, and the Trump administration has been having tough conversations with U.K. and world leaders about the alarming increase in censorship.<\/p>\n<p>When U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/02\/28\/british-pm-is-wrong-there-is-no-free-speech-in-the-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Oval Office<\/a> in February, Vice President J.D. Vance condemned free speech intrusions in Europe. People in the U.K. have been <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/02\/28\/british-pm-is-wrong-there-is-no-free-speech-in-the-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">jailed<\/a> for social media posts and arrested by police for praying <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standingforfreedom.com\/2023\/02\/and-now-a-priest-has-been-arrested-for-praying-silently-in-the-u-k\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">silently<\/a> in front of abortion businesses.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Rubio announced on May 28 a &ldquo;new visa restriction policy that will apply to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-seeks-to-uphold-ban-on-foreign-money-in-ballot-campaigns\/\" title=\"Ohio Seeks To Uphold Ban On Foreign Money In Ballot Campaigns\">foreign nationals&#038;rdquo<\/a>; who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans.&hellip;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&mdash; Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecRubio\/status\/1927729522855600365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Across Europe, governments have weaponized political institutions against their own citizens and against our shared heritage. Far from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/european-populism-is-rising-against-an-oppressive-political-elite\/\" title=\"...an Populism Is Rising Against An Oppressive Political Elite\">strengthening democratic principles<\/a>, Europe has devolved into a hotbed of digital censorship, mass migration, restrictions on religious freedom, and numerous other assaults on democratic self-governance,&rdquo; the State Department wrote in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/statedept.substack.com\/p\/the-need-for-civilizational-allies-in-europe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Substack<\/a> post that decries censorship across in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Americans are familiar with these tactics. Indeed, a similar strategy of censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization was utilized against President Trump and his supporters,&rdquo; the post said. &ldquo;What this reveals is that the global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy. Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trump administration ended the censorship hub GEC in April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":2442892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/U.S._State_Department_-_Truman_Building.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[56537,6371,33295,56536],"class_list":["post-2442891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-beattie","tag-censorship","tag-media-criticism","tag-uk-media"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/U.S._State_Department_-_Truman_Building.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2442895,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442891\/revisions\/2442895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2442892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}