Posts falsely claim Obama law enabled state-funded propaganda targeting Americans

"In 2012 President Barack Hussein Obama repleaded the Smith-Mundt Act, which had been in place in 1948. The law prevented the government from putting its propaganda on TV and radio," says an October 22, 2024 X post.

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Screenshot of an X post taken October 24, 2024

AFP previously fact-checked similar posts in Spanish. The claim resurfaced on Facebook, Instagram and X ahead of the November 5 election between Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"What reason was given for repealing this law?" X owner Elon Musk asked in an October 22 post, sharing the claim with his 202 million followers.

The Smith-Mundt Act, also known as the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, formally established two programs: a federal service to disseminate information about the country to foreign media and an educational exchange between the United States and other nations (archived here).  This led to the creation of the Voice of America (VOA) and other outlets broadcasting to foreign audiences such as Radio Marti, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Middle East Broadcast Networks.

Although the law authorized the government to broadcast overseas, Americans could not receive the content.

While the law was amended during the Obama administration, the Democrat did not repeal the measure -- and it is still illegal for government-funded media to create and market programming for US audiences.

Then-US Representative Mac Thornberry, a Republican from the state of Texas, and Adam Smith, a Democratic congressman from Washington, introduced the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (archived here).

"This bill technically never passed. Rather, language substantially similar to its content was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013," Weston Sager, an attorney and US state media legal scholar, previously told AFP (archived here).

Congress passed the NDAA in late 2012, and Obama signed it January 2, 2013 (archived here). 

The previous law banned the dissemination of broadcasts from outlets such as VOA in the United States, although Americans could still access much of their content online.

Sager said the 2013 NDAA removed prohibitions on the US State Department and Agency for Global Media (USAGM), making their media available within the United States. However, restrictions remain -- including the requirement that such content be made available only "upon request" (archived here and here)

"The Agency is not authorized to begin broadcasting or to create programming for audiences in the United States," the USAGM says on its website (archived here). A 2012 US Congressional Research Service report backs that up (archived here).

More of AFP's reporting on US politics is available here.