The U.S. State Department has ordered American embassies and consulates worldwide to mount a coordinated campaign against foreign propaganda, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio explicitly endorsing Elon Musk's X platform as a tool to counter disinformation.
The directive, contained in a cable signed by Rubio on Monday and obtained by the Guardian, instructs diplomatic outposts to leverage X as what the document describes as an "innovative" means of combating coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.
The cable goes beyond simply promoting the social media platform. It advises embassy and consulate staff to partner with the Pentagon's psychological operations unit in their counter-disinformation efforts, establishing a framework that links diplomatic and military messaging operations.
The instructions lay out a broad set of guidelines for how embassy personnel should push back against what the State Department characterizes as organized foreign campaigns spreading false information. The specific nature of the foreign disinformation threats and the particular strategies embassies should employ were not detailed in reporting on the cable.
The directive represents a significant endorsement of X from the highest levels of the Trump administration's State Department, naming the platform explicitly in official guidance sent to diplomatic missions globally. It also signals an integration of military psychological operations capabilities into the State Department's broader communications strategy.
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