Rubio Directs U.S. Diplomats to Use X and Military Psyops to Counter Foreign Propaganda

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed American diplomats to leverage social media platform X and collaborate with Pentagon psychological operations units as part of a broader strategy to combat foreign anti-American propaganda. The directive, outlined in a cable reviewed by Reuters and first reported by The Guardian, targets foreign influence campaigns that threaten U.S. national security and stoke hostility toward American interests abroad.

The cable calls on diplomats to coordinate with the Pentagon's Psychological Operations division, formerly known as Military Information Support Operations (MISO). Historically, MISO has focused on influencing enemy combatants during active conflicts. One of its most notable efforts involved dropping graphic anti-ISIS leaflets over Syrian territory in 2015. However, the unit's involvement in civilian-facing information campaigns has drawn controversy. During the first Trump administration, Pentagon psyops teams ran covert social media accounts to undermine confidence in China's COVID-19 vaccine — a move that clashed with State Department officials at the time.

Rubio's directive also encourages diplomats to utilize X's crowdsourced "Community Notes" feature, along with unspecified artificial intelligence tools, to surface credible information and flag disinformation. The recommendation to rely on Elon Musk's platform has raised eyebrows, given that X has faced persistent criticism for enabling the spread of false information after Musk dramatically scaled back the platform's content moderation teams following his 2022 acquisition of Twitter. Musk and X maintain that community-driven moderation better preserves free expression.

The political dimensions are hard to ignore. Musk is a prominent Trump ally, and his platform has become a hub for pro-Trump voices online. Adding complexity, xAI was recently folded under SpaceX, placing a major defense contractor and a key social media outlet under unified ownership — a convergence that raises fresh questions about the boundaries between private tech influence and U.S. government information operations.