(CNSNews.com) -- Several House Republicans introduced a bill on Jan. 13 that would prohibit federal workers from using their position to advocate for censoring free speech expressed on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, and on other outlets.
The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act would amend existing law "to prohibit Federal employees from advocating for censorship of viewpoints in their official capacity, and for other purposes," reads the legislation.
The bill was introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), and Rep. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers.
"Actions taken by the Biden administration to pressure Big Tech to censor content online are an attack on our fundamental right to free speech," said McMorris Rodgers in a statement. "For months, I have repeatedly condemned efforts by radical progressives in the Biden administration to silence Americans and manipulate the truth."
"This commonsense legislation will prohibit federal employees from engaging in political activities while working in their official capacities and restrict senior federal officials from censoring Americans," she said.
Chairman Jordan said, "The collusion between bureaucrats and Big Tech has gone on for far too long. Government agencies shouldn't censor the free speech of Americans."
"The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act is an important first step toward transparency and accountability for Biden's bureaucrats and Big Tech," he added.
Emails and other documents released by Twitter in recent weeks, the "Twitter Files," show that the FBI and some members of Congress colluded with Twitter over two years to suppress and censor certain Twitter posts they did not like, particularly conservative viewpoints.
In addition, the FBI paid Twitter more than $3 million. See report.
If a federal worker violates the Act, he could be fired, demoted, or suspended, and/or ordered to pay a fine up to $10,000.
The legislation defines "censor" and "censorship" as "the removal or suppression of lawful speech, in whole or in part, from or on any platform (including an interactive computer service)."
The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act will be assigned to a committee for debate and a vote on whether to send it to the full House. Even if the legislation were to pass in the GOP-dominant House, it likely would not be taken up by the Democrats who control the Senate.
"For too long, this administration has gotten away with actions we’d expect from the Chinese Communist Party," said McMorris Rodgers in her statement. "In the United States, free speech is fundamental to our democracy. Republicans made a promise to hold President Biden and Big Tech accountable for censoring online speech they disagree with, and we intend to keep it."
Also, in august 2022, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, "Basically, the background here is the FBI, I think, basically came to us -- some folks on our team and was like, 'Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert…. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that, basically, there's about to be some kind of dump of that's similar to that. So just be vigilant.'"
As a consequence, Facebook essentially censored the New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop and payments to the 'Big Guy,' allegedly Joe Biden. Twitter also censored the story about three weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
An MRC post-election poll showed that 36 percent of Biden voters were NOT aware of the evidence linking Joe Biden to corrupt financial dealings with China through his son Hunter," reported NewsBusters. "Thirteen percent of these voters (or 4.6% of Biden’s total vote) say that had they known these facts, they would not have voted for the former Vice President."
That voting shift would have ensured that Donald Trump won the election with 289 votes.
"It is an indisputable fact that the media stole the election," Media Research Center President L. Brent Bozell wrote in the analysis of the poll. "The American electorate was intentionally kept in the dark. During the height of the scandal surrounding Hunter Biden's foreign dealings, the media and the Big Tech companies did everything in their power to cover it up."
In the new bill, it says that a federal employee may not use his "official authority or influence to advocate that any third party, including a private entity, take any action to censor any speech." They also may not "knowingly censor or discourage the exercise of speech of any person."
If a federal worker violates the Act, he could be fired, demoted, or suspended, and/or ordered to pay a fine up to $10,000.
The legislation defines "censor" and "censorship" as "the removal or suppression of lawful speech, in whole or in part, from or on any platform (including an interactive computer service)."
The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act will be assigned to a committee for debate and a vote on whether to send it to the full House. Even if the legislation were to pass in the GOP-dominant House, it likely would not be taken up by the Democrats who control the Senate.
"For too long, this administration has gotten away with actions we’d expect from the Chinese Communist Party," said McMorris Rodgers in her statement. "In the United States, free speech is fundamental to our democracy. Republicans made a promise to hold President Biden and Big Tech accountable for censoring online speech they disagree with, and we intend to keep it."
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on CNSNews.com
