GOP House seeks documents on State Department's funding of 'censorship campaign'

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer on Thursday requested Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide documents about the use of taxpayer dollars for what he calls a "censorship campaign."

The Global Disinformation Index, a British organization that offers "risk ratings" to ad companies on what websites to avoid, has received $330,000 in federal funding, Comer said. The index identified Newsmax, The New York Post, The Federalist and RealClearPolitics as some of the "riskiest" news agencies. 

"The purpose of these risk ratings is to pressure advertisers into pulling their ads from these websites, defunding those who would dare to host content or opinions deemed objectionable," Comer wrote.

He asked Blinken to provide him with all records regarding grants from the department to organizations that focus on "mis-, dis-, or mal- information" in order to "understand the scope of the Department’s use of federal funds for a taxpayer-funded censorship campaign."