Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, introduced a bill on Thursday that, if passed, would make the Biden administration disclose any requests to major digital companies to censor specific content.
If this bill were to become law, the government would have to come clean about its attempts to coerce major computer corporations into First Amendment-violating censorship. In addition, the measure would require Congress and the executive branch members to disclose to the public within seven days any conversations they have had with tech companies about taking action or considering taking action to restrict specific speech.
Haggerty said collusion between Big Tech and the Biden white house is not in keeping with the Constitution.
The senator said the government cannot stifle speech it dislikes, which is why the First Amendment was ratified. If the federal government is secretly conspiring with technological platforms to stifle free speech in the United States, the people of those states have a right to know. Making transparency mandatory will prevent the federal government from conducting covert operations to censor American citizens.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has enlisted the support of five other senators: South Dakota’s Mike Rounds, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Kansas’s Roger Marshall, and Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis.
There should be “no government pressure on social media companies to censor the legal speech of their users,” the declaration reads.
Rubio said the legislation would require transparency from foreign governments, including President Joe Biden’s administration when they collude with Big Tech and silence Americans.
The Biden administration and Big Tech have repeatedly shown that they cannot self-regulate to protect the First Amendment right to free expression for the people of the United States. According to Johnson, the bill helps to reveal the shady connection between government officials and tech giants.
Initially, the concept was offered by Hagerty in December of 2022.
