17. Department of Justice · Notable
Prohibit the FBI from policing misinformation and disinformation
Printed page 550 17. Department of Justice
“Prohibit the FBI from engaging, in general, in activities related to combating the spread of so-called misinformation and disinformation by Americans who are not tied to any plausible criminal activity.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Executive Order 14149 bars every federal department, agency, officer, employee and agent — the FBI included — from acting or spending federal resources in a way that unconstitutionally abridges an American's speech, and names the "misinformation", "disinformation" and "malinformation" framing as the vehicle of the abuse it is ending; it also directs the Attorney General to investigate four years of such activity and report. That is a government-wide prohibition on unconstitutional censorship, not the bureau-specific ban on misinformation work untied to plausible criminal activity that the Quote asks for, and no implementing FBI policy has been published.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
The FBI publishes no policy statement on the subject; its national press feed carries case announcements only. The order’s operative clause is section 3(a), read at govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-28/html/2025-01902.htm.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- FBI misinformation/disinformation activities
- ID
- 1533