The House Oversight Committee is set to review two bills this week that Republicans believe will protect free speech from the Biden administration's censorship.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., accused the Biden administration of eroding Americans' First Amendment rights by pressuring social media companies to censor certain views and news on their platforms.
February 27, 2023
He claimed that the administration was quick to label inconvenient facts as disinformation and then pressure social media companies to suppress content on their platforms. "The Biden administration has eroded Americans’ First Amendment rights by bullying social media companies to censor certain views and news on their platforms," he said.
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Comer introduced the first bill, which would expand the Hatch Act, prohibiting federal employees from participating in political activities in their official capacity. "We want to make sure that federal employees can't engage in political activity, including using their position to influence social media companies to censor or promote content," he said. "The Hatch Act is an excellent framework for ensuring that federal employees remain neutral and refrain from engaging in partisan activities."
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The second bill, introduced by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., would require a report to Congress on every instance in the last five years that a government agency suppressed lawful free speech on social media and other Big Tech platforms.
Comer had previously introduced the "Protecting Free Speech from Government Interference Act" in the last Congress, along with Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.
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The bill would make any form of censorship by a federal government official an illegal federal personnel activity subject to disciplinary action and would bar senior federal officials, including political appointees, from engaging in censorship in their personal capacities.
According to Fox News, the lawmakers cited several recent examples of Biden administration officials using their positions to influence and censor speech on large social media platforms.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a July 2021 press briefing that users banned from one social media platform for spreading Coronavirus "misinformation" should be expelled from all others as well. She also claimed that the White House was flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.
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In addition, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that his company censored news articles about the President's son Hunter after the FBI reached out ahead of the 2020 election.
While Biden's top federal agencies have been stepping up efforts to monitor and counteract "disinformation" on social media platforms, including on topics such as COVID-19 origins, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and other issues, Republicans argue that these actions constitute censorship.
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The Oversight Committee is also investigating the State Department after reports surfaced that the agency had used taxpayer money to pay $330,000 to the British Global Disinformation Institute, which allegedly had a "blacklist" of conservative news outlets.
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