Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is stalling cybersecurity legislation until the government agencies stop working to censor Americans’ free speech.
The Washington Post’s The Cybersecurity 202 newsletter reported Oct. 18 on Sen. Paul’s lone stand against legislation expanding the authorities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Both DHS and CISA specifically have been caught trying to undermine Americans’ free speech. Paul, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has voted “no” on at least 11 cybersecurity bills this year, stopping legislation from advancing.
Paul had already said back during a June committee hearing, per the Post, that “I cannot support expanding CISA’s authorities while it surveils and censors Americans.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revised a preliminary injunction earlier this month to include CISA after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who led the suit, successfully filed a motion to expand an earlier order in the landmark Missouri v. Biden case. The court rebuked CISA’s “frequent interactions with social media platforms to push them to adopt more restrictive policies on censoring election-related speech.” Such actions, according to the court, “violated the First Amendment.”
Paul also provided The Cybersecurity 202 with an explanatory statement. “CISA has blatantly violated the First Amendment and colluded with big tech to censor the speech of ordinary Americans,” the senator stated. He has blocked other avenues for the bills in question to get the full consideration of the Senate, the Post wrote.
The senator added, “Federal courts have ordered CISA to stop, but the trust CISA has abused cannot be restored until the agency gives a full accounting of what it has done, and Congress changes the law to create severe penalties for anyone who tries to do the same thing in the future.” Paul promoted proposed Republican legislation to prevent federal employees from demanding that social media companies remove certain content.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand government agencies and Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
