Rubio, Hagerty, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to End Government Collusion with Big Tech to Censor Americans’ Speech

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced the Disclose Government Censorship Act. This bill seeks to end the government-directed speech suppression and viewpoint censorship the White House recently revealed in stating that it routinely urges Big Tech companies to remove the speech of Americans that the government deems inaccurate or unhelpful.

'No government should pressure social media companies into censoring their users' legal speech. That is particularly true for our own government,' Rubio said. 'This legislation will require transparency from governments, including the Biden Administration, when they collude with Big Tech and silence Americans in the process.'

'The recent collusion that has come to light between the Biden Administration and Big Tech is not only disturbing, but inconsistent with the government's constitutional role in American life,' Hagerty said. 'The purpose of the First Amendment is to prevent government from suppressing speech with which it disagrees. If the federal government is attempting to end-run the Constitution by secretly working with tech platforms to censor Americans' speech, then the American people deserve to know. Requiring transparency will ensure that the government cannot work secretly to censor Americans.'

'It is outrageous the Biden administration is coordinating with Big Tech to infringe on American citizens' First Amendment freedoms,' Johnson said. 'Big Tech, the mainstream media, and the Administration have no credibility in determining what is and isn't misinformation. I'm pleased to co-sponsor Senator Hagerty's legislation that aims to provide transparency regarding this administration's actions and prevent Big Tech and Big Government from colluding to censor the free speech of Americans.'

'The Biden Administration's recent efforts to partner with Big Tech and remove social media content that it finds problematic is deeply disturbing,' Marshall said. 'There's a reason that our founding fathers had the wisdom to enshrine the right to free speech as our first freedom, because it's fundamental to the health of our democracy. Government must not be in the business of picking and choosing who gets to speak up or what can be said in the public sphere, and this bill ensures transparency in any efforts to censor opinions with which they disagree.'