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Government-Pressured Social-Media Censorship Must End
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
July 14, 2023
National Review
Judge Terry A. Doughty…has issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration for pressuring social-media companies to restrict free speech. The facts of this case are indisputable. Since taking office, Biden officials have urged social-media companies to silence conservative viewpoints….
The administration downplays its actions by branding censorship as a necessary weapon in the war against “disinformation”…. Judge Doughty is far closer to reality when he writes [that the] “United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
Thankfully, we have a protection against totalitarianism in this country. It’s called the Constitution, and Judge Doughty’s injunction against the administration is, by and large, a sound application of constitutional principles. Nevertheless, it’s uncertain if this injunction will be enough…. To discourage future censorship…we need more than legal precedent. We need law.
That’s why I’m reintroducing the PRESERVE Online Speech Act. This bill would require Internet companies such as Google, Meta, Truth, and Twitter to publicly disclose government-censorship requests and any actions taken in response to them under pain of a $50,000 per day fine. It would also require the Federal Communications Commission to submit an annual report to Congress on all government-censorship requests….
My colleagues in the House and the Senate now face a clear choice: Pass the PRESERVE Online Speech Act and rebuild some measure of public faith in national institutions, or kill this bill and do the opposite…. We cannot protect so-called public servants who blatantly violate the First Amendment without losing our constituents’ trust….