Washington, D.C. – A measure to block the Biden administration from pressuring social media sites to censor conservative opinions was introduced in Congress Wednesday by senior GOP congressional leaders.
The proposed legislation, The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, would block members of the current administration as well as federal bureaucrats from using their positions of influence or authority to promote censorship online in any way.
The bill, H.R. 8752, is the latest in a series of proposals and counterproposals being made to address allegations consumers of social media are being manipulated by individuals and entities engaged in the deliberate posting of erroneous information intended to shape political positions and drive people to action. (RELATED: It's Official – Disinformation Governance Board Goes Underground)
Critics of the approach to the problem taken by former President Donald J. Trump and others, who see a role for government in the debate, whether it is the breaking up of the companies that operate the platforms or establishing rules for content moderation that removes the safeguards protecting platform operators from legal action, say concerns about the potential for government-led or government-directed suppression of speech should be the paramount concern.
“The Biden Administration is using the heavy hand of government to pressure social media companies into censoring Americans' free speech and news shared on their platforms,” House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Comer, R-Ky., said. (RELATED: GOP Leaders Warn Fauci – Retirement Won't Stop Investigation)
The bill, of which Comer is a principal co-sponsor, would also prohibit administration appointees and employees of the Executive Branch and independent regulatory agencies from applying pressure on social media companies to censor speech.
“From COVID-19 to Hunter Biden, Biden Administration officials are quick to label facts that don't fit their narrative as disinformation and then pressure social media companies to suppress content on their platforms. This threatens Americans' First Amendment rights. To protect freedom of speech, our bill stops the Swamp from pressuring social media companies to silence ordinary Americans.”
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently admitted his platform had acceded to pressure from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to censor the sharing of news reports during the 2020 presidential election about information found on a laptop believed at the time — and now proven to have been — owned and used by Hunter Biden. (RELATED: FBI Told Not to Investigate Hunter Biden Laptop Ahead of 2020 Election)
“Big Tech platforms have become the modern town square, and any effort to erase people from these digital spaces simply for not adhering to the woke liberal agenda is unconstitutional. I am pleased to join my colleagues,” Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris-Rodgers said, “on legislation to protect Americans' first amendment rights from government censorship.”
According to a release from the committee the measure, of which Ohio Republican Jim Jordan is also a principal co-sponsor, their proposal prohibits federal officials from using their official authority, influence or resources — including contracting, grantmaking, rulemaking, licensing, permitting, investigatory or enforcement actions — to promote the censorship of lawful speech or advocate that a third party or private entity censor speech.
The penalties that would result should such activities be proven to have occurred would be the same established as those already established for federal officials who engage in political activities in their official capacity as prohibited under the Hatch Act, including disciplinary actions such as removal, reduction in pay grade, debarment from federal employment or monetary civil penalties. (RELATED: Watchdogs Sound Alarm as Biden Pressures Companies to Censor Green New Deal Critics)
The sponsors said their measure would go further to safeguard the free speech rights of all Americans by “further restricted employees” — who are defined as senior federal officials whose duties and responsibilities extend beyond normal duty hours or their office — “from engaging in censorship in a personal capacity. This includes any employee of the Executive Office of the President and Presidential agency appointees.”
The timing of the legislation is apt, coming as it does just hours before President Biden is scheduling to give a primetime address from Philadelphia, near the site where the Declaration of Independence was signed, accusing the Republicans of using social media to help disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6 by rioting on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. He and others have long urged strict controls on the posting of information and have argued there is a role for government to play in determining what is true and what is not. Critics opposed to a larger role for government in policing information have called the approach favored by some progressives “Orwellian” — a reference to George Orwell's novel “1984” in which the principal character, Winston Smith, attempts to resist efforts by the government — referred to in the book by the catchall phrase “Big Brother” — to induce conformity in his behavior and thinking. The threat, they say, is real. In the introduction of their legislative proposal, Comer, McMorris-Rodgers and Jordan alluded to specific examples of what they said were instances of federal officials using their positions “to police and censor Americans' speech expressed on social media platforms” during the Biden presidency. One of the most notable involved former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki — now with NBC and MSNBC — who used a July 2021 press briefing to call for Facebook to ban specific accounts.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act. Hmm, I think I’d call it the Protecting the People Anti-Fascist Act to address the increasing government intrusion into directing businesses to do their bidding. Heck California is now telling auto makers how many electric vehicles they must make and how many fewer gasoline vehicles they will make, or else. While Biden and his nut jobs are making sure their propaganda is the only thing on the media for the citizens to see and hear. New World Order banks are being pressed to use ESG as a criteria to make loans, that isn’t our idea, that comes from the WEF and guys like Biden who think they have the authority to do whatever they want. Time to take out the trash.
Folks, it’s all for nothing unless we solve the way votes are counted by ‘black boxes’ after elections. The latest thing I heard was that voting machine software was engineered in China. Can this BE? China is the LAST nation we want controlling the black boxes. Dictator Joseph Stalin reminded us that it matters not how the people vote; who matters is the one who COUNTS the votes.