Eager to win foreign hearts and minds on the Internet, the Obama administration launched a government-run website called ShareAmerica. Repackaging propaganda for social media, the State Department site creates bite-sized content about the United States. Call it viral soft power.
Today ShareAmerica is in the news for running a story advertising President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club, an obvious conflict of interest. The website, however, has also promoted everything from big business to liberal social issues.
The idea is to export American values like “democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society.” And on paper it possibly makes sense: The more citizens of the world know about baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet, the more likely they are to think favorably about the United States. But in practice, it seems like an opportunity for special interests to score free international advertising on the taxpayer’s tab.
The State Department certainly didn’t waste any expense building the website. Scrolling through the ShareAmerica website is like visiting a federally-subsidized version of Upworthy. Or maybe Vox and Buzzfeed had a baby, and Uncle Sam is raising it. With an eye toward making things go viral, readers are encouraged to share on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Content can be playful like a June 30, 2016, article plugging the “new, high tech spacesuits” worn by astronauts and designed by Boeing. Other times, it’s wonky like a 2010 article applauding the fact that Boeing won a World Trade Organization suit against competitor Airbus.
And sometimes it’s just downright preachy. A June 2015 article, entitled “Love is Love,” detailed the “growing solidarity with the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex citizens.” An LGBT tour de force, the piece praises the Obama administration, quotes the New Republic at length, and celebrates gay marriage as “an extension of family values.”
Regardless of whether one agrees with the content of these specific stories, the idea of a state-sponsored public relations organ masquerading as a news site should be concerning. Unlike a traditional magazine, the writers at ShareAmerica don’t worry about advertisers or readers. They’re beholden to whatever president occupies the White House.
With that model, the real surprise isn’t that ShareAmerica promoted the President of the United States’ country club. It’s why nobody objected to this little boondoggle blog earlier.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
