{"id":278,"date":"2026-06-11T16:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:45:08","slug":"bipartisan-bill-targets-government-censorship-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan bill targets government censorship threats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Biden-era push to remove certain social media posts about COVID-19 and the 2020 election and more recent pressure by the Trump administration against TV broadcasters have brought together a bipartisan Senate duo to try and prevent indirect government censorship.<\/p>\n

Read more Orthographic glitterati? Press beat politicians at annual spelling bee<\/a><\/p>\n

Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. unveiled legislation Thursday that would prohibit government agencies from \u201cjawboning\u201d\u00a0Americans through social media platforms, artificial intelligence systems or broadcasters.<\/p>\n

The bill is not the first to attempt to take on jawboning. Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have both tried before. This effort is new in its bipartisanship. It takes a more comprehensive approach to the issue than Schmitt\u2019s bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cruz and Wyden\u2019s as-yet unnumbered bill would set up monetary, but not punitive, damages for individuals or platforms, require the government to defend employees in potential cases and establish a portal for the government to report its communications about platforms\u2019 content decisions.<\/p>\n

In a statement on the bill\u2019s release, Cruz said the Biden administration had \u201cweaponized\u201d\u00a0the Homeland Security Department\u2019s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, in its interactions with tech companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHolding the government accountable and giving Americans the tools to fight back is essential. The JAWBONE Act ensures the First Amendment is protected, not undermined,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n

Cruz first announced plans for an anti-jawboning bill in September as part of what he called a \u201clight-touch\u201d\u00a0AI framework.<\/p>\n

In September, Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, signed a letter to Nexstar and Sinclair after the broadcasters temporarily stopped airing Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/p>\n

The letter connected the move to widely-criticized comments by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatening the broadcast licenses of stations that aired Kimmel\u2019s show after comments the host made in the wake of Charlie Kirk\u2019s death. Cruz also criticized Carr\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Also in a statement Thursday, Wyden referenced threats against late-night shows, adding that \u201cjawboning isn\u2019t partisan, and it isn\u2019t new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly all of Americans\u2019\u00a0speech \u2013 including TV news, online streams and social media \u2014 flows through private corporations that are highly susceptible to government pressure. Regular Americans can\u2019t count on those companies to stand up to government jawboning, they need a way to level the playing field,\u201d Wyden said.<\/p>\n

The ACLU and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression both endorsed the bill, along with eight other free-speech focused organizations.<\/p>\n

[Related:\u00a0Can Congress find a path on government \u2018jawboning\u2019 limits?]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The bill comes several months after the Commerce Committee held two hearings on government jawboning, including hearing from individuals who say their speech was suppressed online after government efforts.<\/p>\n

At the second of those hearings, executives from Meta and Google both offered qualified support for anti-jawboning legislation, though they left room to decide based on the specific bill text.<\/p>\n

Details<\/h2>\n

A accompanying the bill listed three potential barriers to preventing jawboning under existing law: proving the violation, recourse after government officials leave their post and a lack of transparency.<\/p>\n

Read more A data center caused an uproar in Utah. Congress is watching (and waiting)<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder current legal precedent, a plaintiff must show that the government caused a removal or a change to the expression at issue,\u201d the document said, going on to add that, \u201cThis also makes the judicial inquiry about whether the government succeeded in its coercion, not whether the government attempted it in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would prohibit the government from coercing platforms into making content decisions, and directs courts to take into account the tone of a communication, referring to potential adverse consequences and the regulatory or enforcement relationship between the platform and the government employee.<\/p>\n

The bill would make exceptions to the jawboning prohibition for investigations into violations of state or federal law, actions authorized by a warrant and directions related directly to a federal agency\u2019s official use of a platform. In case of a lawsuit, the government would be responsible for proving that an exception applied.<\/p>\n

Individuals or platforms could sue for compensation and attorney fees, but not punitive damages. States could also sue the federal government on behalf of their residents.<\/p>\n

The bill builds on previous bills introduced by Schmitt and Paul, both of which included a private right of action for jawboning.<\/p>\n

Schmitt\u2019s bill would establish liability for government employees if they caused \u201cdeprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the First Amendment.\u201d That liability could include attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s bill would prohibit government employees from using \u201cany form of communication (without regard to whether the communication is visible to members of the public) to direct, coerce, compel, or encourage a provider to take, suggest or imply that a provider should take, or request that a provider take any action to censor speech.\u201d It would allow individuals to sue for \u201cattorneys\u2019 fees, injunctive relief, and actual damages.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cruz-Wyden bill would state that the government would not be immune from liability because of a \u201csubjective belief\u201d that the speech at issue was not protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

It would require the Department of Justice to defend government employees being sued in their individual capacity, but only if the employee requested defense. The government would also be required to indemnify employees for monetary verdicts against them, unless the employee acted in a \u201cwillful and wanton\u201d manner. In that case, the employee would need to reimburse the government for the cost of their defense.<\/p>\n

The bill also responds to calls for transparency from free-speech experts concerned with jawboning.<\/p>\n

It would task the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with establishing a portal through which federal agencies would be required to submit records, including the contents, of their communications with social media platforms, AI providers or broadcasters.<\/p>\n

The office would then provide a public website summarizing each communication and identifying requests for the alteration or removal of content. The public website would also allow platforms to submit complaints alleging that the government violated the jawboning prohibition.<\/p>\n

The bill would allow for redactions in the public website, but would require that the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Commerce and House Energy and Commerce committees have access to the full, unredacted record of the communications.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s bill, similarly, would establish reporting requirements for communications between the government and social media platforms or broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Read more Top GOP appropriators dominate earmarks in House bills<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Biden-era push to remove certain social media posts about COVID-19 and the 2020 election and more recent pressure by the Trump administration against TV broadcasters have brought together a bipartisan Senate duo to try and prevent indirect government censorship. Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. unveiled legislation Thursday that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy"],"yoast_head":"\nBipartisan bill targets government censorship threats - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=278\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bipartisan bill targets government censorship threats - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Biden-era push to remove certain social media posts about COVID-19 and the 2020 election and more recent pressure by the Trump administration against TV broadcasters have brought together a bipartisan Senate duo to try and prevent indirect government censorship. 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