WASHINGTON ¨C U.S. diplomats should use ?the social media platform X and partner with military psychological operations units in an effort to ¡°counter foreign anti-American propaganda,¡± U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a cable reviewed by reporters.

The cable, which was first reported on by The Guardian, was devoted to ways to expose ?foreign influence operations and falsehoods that ¡°pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and ?fuel hostility ?toward American interests.¡±

In a statement, the U.S. State Department said it ?would ¡°continue to take an assertive stance on this pernicious issue¡± and that it would use ¡°every tool in our diplomatic toolkit¡± while also protecting Americans¡¯ right to free expression.

The missive ?told diplomats to ¡°coordinate with interagency partners as appropriate,¡± singling out the Pentagon¡¯s Psychological Operations, formerly known as ?Military Information Support Operations (MISO).

The cable did not elaborate, but MISO and its successor have traditionally aimed to sway enemy soldiers on the battlefield. MISO was ?behind U.S. propaganda efforts against the ?Islamic State group in Syria, including an incident in which tens of thousands of graphic cartoon-style leaflets showing recruits being shoved into a ?meatgrinder were air-dropped over ?the group¡¯s area of operations in 2015.

Military psyop deployments have ?in the past led to friction with U.S. diplomats. Under U.S. President Donald??Trump¡¯s first ?administration, the Pentagon¡¯s psyops teams used bogus social media accounts to spread doubts about China¡¯s COVID-19 vaccine over the objections of State Department officials.

The Pentagon did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Rubio¡¯s cable or ?the nature of its psyops units¡¯ potential collaboration with diplomats.

The cable also urged diplomats to elevate trustworthy information and expose fakes by making use of tools such as the crowdsourced commentary function ¡ª dubbed ¡°community notes¡± ¡ª on Elon Musk¡¯s social media platform X, as well as other, unspecified artificial ?intelligence ?tools.

X and its parent, xAI, did not immediately reply to ?requests for comment. X has been routinely criticized for allowing disinformation to flourish after Musk ?gutted the site¡¯s moderation and safety teams following his 2022 takeover of what was then known as Twitter. X says the platform is designed to prioritize free speech, and that ¡°community notes¡± are preferable to centralized moderation.

Musk is a powerful Trump ally ?and his site has become a key node for pro-Trump social media influencers. Last month, xAI was?acquired by Musk¡¯s rocket company SpaceX ahead of what is expected to be a landmark Wall Street debut, one that places X and the defense contractor under the same corporate roof.