House votes for new curbs on government censorship in response to Twitter Files
Christopher Hutton
The House voted to place new restrictions on federal employees pressuring or helping private entities to censor political speech, a response by Republicans to the release of internal Twitter documents that detailed the close relationship that federal agencies have with Big Tech.
The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act passed 219-206 in the lower chamber. The legislation would expand the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting federal employees from engaging in political activity, to include a prohibition on employees working with private companies or platforms to censor lawful speech. Republicans have argued that government officials have collaborated with Big Tech to censor conservatives.
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“Federal officials, no matter their rank or resources, must be prohibited to coerce the private sector, to suppress certain information or limit the ability of citizens to freely express their own views on a private sector internet platform,” the bill’s sponsor, James Comer (R-KY) said during the markup.
If passed, federal employees would be subject to disciplinary actions ranging from reprimands to firing if found guilty of suppressing “lawful speech.”
Democrats have slammed the legislation, claiming that it was not focused on “real problems” and that it was based on the premise that government officials coerced Twitter to suppress a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Twitter executives stated at a February 2023 hearing that the decision to ban links to the story was made by Twitter staff and not by government employees.
“Compelling social media to carry the propaganda of big liars cannot be the meaning of free speech in the 21st century,” Oversight committee ranking member Jamie Raskin said.
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Communications between government agencies and Big Tech became a focus in late 2022 when the attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana released emails detailing the two entities’ cooperation over censoring COVID-19 communications deemed misinformation. This was described further when the Twitter Files, a series of reports based on Twitter’s internal communications released by journalists chosen by new owner Elon Musk, found that the social media website regularly communicated with the Biden campaign and FBI regarding content moderation decisions.