USAID Bankrolled Secretive Nonprofit Global News Network With Alleged Ties to Censorship

In a Feb. 7 X post, WikiLeaks revealed:

“USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, ‘Internews Network’ (IN), which has ‘worked with’ 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘training’ over 9000 journalists (2023 figures).

“IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.”

USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over…

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2025

Internews Network has 30 international offices, including headquarters in Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Kyiv, Bangkok and Nairobi.

According to its website, the organization is a nonprofit that supports “independent media” in over 100 countries. “We train journalists and digital rights activists, advance internet freedom, and offer business expertise to help media outlets become financially sustainable.”

However, WikiLeaks suggested that some Internews Network activities may be linked to efforts to influence media narratives and regulate information flow on social media…