The Republican Party introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to ban federal employees from working with large technology companies to censor U.S. citizens.
The proposal includes penalties such as fines, salary reduction or even dismissal for violators who use their authority or influence to "promote the censorship of lawful speech or advocate that a third party or private entity censor speech."
"The collusion between bureaucrats and Big Tech has gone on for far too long. Government agencies shouldn’t censor the free speech of Americans," said Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan.
The legislator explained that this project is a first step towards accountability and transparency. This, following reports that there has been communication between law enforcement and the White House with executives of social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to manipulate and censor information on various topics.
"Twitter Files"
Since Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter, the billionaire has been responsible for bringing to light all the pressures that federal agencies have allegedly exerted against executives of the social network to manipulate information.
NEW: House Republicans introduce bill that would ban feds from working with Big Tech to censor Americans.
If it wasn’t for Elon Musk, none of this would be happening.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 16, 2023
In the different installments of the "Twitter Files," both public and private agencies allegedly tried to influence content moderation on Twitter. This led to the suspension of thousands of accounts deemed uncomfortable or threatening by the government, as well as content censorship and the manipulation of information surrounding COVID and vaccines.
Facebook admitted to censorship
In addition, emails were recently disclosed in which a staffer from Mark Zuckerberg's social network explained to White House officials the measures taken by Facebook to remove or suppress posts, despite the content being "often-true."
"We have been focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain actionable information. This is often-true content, which we allow at the post level because it is important for people to be able to discuss both their personal experiences and concerns about the vaccine," wrote the Facebook employee after White House officials reportedly asked about the social network's ongoing efforts in "reducing virality of vaccine hesitancy content."
