Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently declared that the State Department had accumulated dossiers characterizing certain Americans (including now members of the Trump administration) as purveyors of misinformation and disinformation. This follows Rubio announcing last month that he would be shutting down a counter-disinformation unit at the State Department.  

Rubio is right to criticize such censorial efforts by the government, but his statement also conflicts with the way the Trump administration has punished immigrants for their speech. The tale of these two types of speech shows how censorship of all stripes is wrong and how it can be easily weaponized. 

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