While Democratic lawmakers and experts said Tuesday that the Biden administration effectively facilitated a crackdown on speech it disliked, they maintained those efforts did not amount to unconstitutional censorship.
The claim made by Republicans that the previous administration headed a “censorship industrial complex” – composed of the administrative state, Big Tech, universities and NGOs – is a “myth” according to Mary Anne Franks from The George Washington University Law School.
Franks, who authored “The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech,” told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing Tuesday that the First Amendment does not forbid the government from advocating its preferred viewpoints through a non-government apparatus.
“No official can dictate what Americans can say, think, or believe. The First Amendment constrains the government from interfering with freedom of speech,” Franks said. “[But] the government has the right to prefer certain viewpoints, and it is even allowed to communicate those preferences through persuasion, encouragement, and funding.”
“What the government may not do is compel private actors to think or speak a certain way through coercion or threats,” Franks added.
During the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security coordinated with a multitude of entities to censor speech deemed “misinformation, disinformation, or malinformation,” the latter referring to information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
The DHS particularly pushed social media platforms, including Meta, to censor speech not aligned with the administration’s views about the COVID-19 virus and vaccine, Ukraine, and Hunter Biden’s laptop, among other things.
The agency even tried to create a “Disinformation Governance Board” in 2022, which would have used “federal law enforcement power to address disinformation,” but paused the project due to backlash.
Citing these instances and more, other experts called to testify by Republicans argued that the federal government using non-governmental agencies to facilitate a multifaceted suppression of politically incorrect speech, or control public conversation around certain topics, amounts to the government infringing on free speech.
Jonathan Turley, also a professor at The George Washington University Law School, said that the Biden administration “made censorship efforts part of its official mission” that created “a cottage industry of disinformation experts” funded by millions of taxpayer dollars.
“For years, many in Congress opposed every effort to expose this censorship system,” Turley added. “With the release of the Twitter files, that narrative collapsed. Emails showed government officials directly targeting individuals and groups for censorship or other forms of speech curtailment.”
Benjamin Weingarten, a journalist and contributor to RealClearInvestigations, urged in his testimony that the Republican-controlled Congress act now and shut down any remaining federal censorship initiatives.
“Suffice it to say, if we want to preserve our republic, let alone restore it to greatness, we must abolish this censorship regime,” Weingarten said.
