The decree runs until 2036, binds future administrations, and appoints The Daily Wire and The Federalist as compliance monitors. No court found the Biden administration guilty of anything. Here's what we know from the primary sources.
The State Department created the Global Engagement Center in 2016 to counter foreign propaganda — ISIS messaging and Russian disinformation campaigns. At its peak it had a budget of roughly $60 million a year.
Critics argued it expanded far beyond that mission. The lawsuit alleged the GEC funded two specific private companies — NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index — that built tools social media platforms could use to demonetize and downgrade content. The GEC also created a platform called "Disinfo Cloud" to house over 365 censorship technologies it developed or funded. Both NewsGuard and GDI maintain ratings of news outlets' reliability. The Daily Wire and The Federalist appeared on those lists as "unreliable," which the lawsuit argued directly cost them advertising revenue.
The plaintiffs argued the GEC funded private companies to build technology that social media platforms used to downgrade, demonetize, or suppress specific content — without the government doing it directly. Topics allegedly targeted included COVID-19 origins, vaccine safety, election integrity, abortion, transgender issues, and mask policy. They said this violated the First Amendment by using federal money as a backdoor to suppress protected speech.
Lawyers for the Biden Justice Department opposed the suits in court, arguing there was no ongoing conduct threatening the plaintiffs with any imminent injury. After Trump took office, DOJ reversed that position entirely.
The decree — entered by a federal judge on April 8, 2026 — is a binding court order, more enforceable than a standard out-of-court settlement. Violating it can be treated as contempt of court. It also has First Amendment carve-outs: the decree does not protect obscenity, incitement to imminent violence, or speech tied to criminal conduct.
| What the State Dept agreed to | Details |
|---|---|
| No funding of censorship tools | Cannot use, finance, or promote technology that suppresses or fact-checks constitutionally protected American speech |
| No foreign partnerships for censorship | Cannot work with foreign governments or NGOs — formally or informally — for those purposes |
| Remove damaging content | Must request removal of videos the Biden administration used to label the plaintiffs "unreliable" |
| Employee training | Federal employees must attend First Amendment training in 2030 and 2035 |
| Annual reporting | State Dept must report annually so Daily Wire and Federalist can monitor compliance |
| Attorney fees | DOJ agreed to pay plaintiffs' legal costs |
| Duration | Runs through January 31, 2036 — binding on any future administration |
No court found the Biden administration guilty of violating the First Amendment. The case settled before trial. The decree prevents specific practices from recurring — it is not a judicial ruling that those practices were illegal. The exceptions for obscenity, incitement to violence, and speech integral to criminal conduct remain in place.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the settlement as correcting what he called "weaponization" against the American people. The announcement came from Trump's DOJ and reflects that administration's framing of events.
"The Federal Government has no business promoting and funding tools to censor domestic media or citizens. This resolution ensures the unlawful practices at issue will not recur."
— AAG Brett Shumate, Civil Division, April 10, 2026These are statements from Trump administration officials announcing a settlement that implements Trump's own executive order. The Biden administration officials who ran the GEC have not responded publicly as of April 12, 2026. The consent decree itself is the primary record of what was actually agreed to — not the press release.
The settlement implements Executive Order 90 Fed. Reg. 8243, signed by President Trump on January 28, 2025. It directed the executive branch to stop funding tools that suppress protected speech and to review prior administration actions.
Because the decree is a court order — not just an executive order — it survives even if a future administration tries to revoke the underlying executive order.
Because the case settled before trial, several things remain unknown: exactly which content was affected on which platforms, how much audience reach was lost, and precisely how the GEC defined the line between countering foreign disinformation and flagging domestic speech. A trial would have explored those questions through discovery. It didn't happen.
The full text of the consent decree is available directly from DOJ — linked in the sources below. We encourage you to read it rather than rely on either side's characterization of it.
If we got a fact wrong, have a missing source, or have documents from this case — send it. We correct errors within 24 hours.