House Republicans push bill to block Biden from promoting social media censorship

A trio of top House Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday that would expand the Hatch Act in an attempt to prevent government employees from encouraging social media companies to censor Americans’ views. 

The bill, the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, would penalize Biden administration officials and federal bureaucrats from using their influence or resources to push companies like Facebook and Spotify from tackling the spread of perceived ‘disinformation.’ 

The Republicans – Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, James Comer and Jim Jordan  argued that the Democratic administration may merely be using the ‘disinformation’ label for political gain, pointing to how the FBI’s warning about Russian meddling in 2020 caused Facebook to censor posts that included the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story. 

Republicans, in the House minority, likely don’t have the votes to pass the bill. 

Other examples the trio used in the Wednesday press release pointed to comments then White House press secretary Jen Psaki made from the podium encouraging Facebook and Spotify to ban or label accounts spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. 

In July 2021, Psaki said the administration was ‘regularly making sure social media platforms are aware of the latest narratives dangerous to public health that we and many other Americans seeing.’ 

She used the example of COVID-19 vaccines being responsibility for infertility.

‘This is troubling, but a persistent narrative that we and many have seen, and we want to know that the social media platforms are taking steps to address it. That is inaccurate, false information,’ Psaki said. 

The Republicans argued that the Democratic administration may be using the ‘disinformation’ label for political gain, pointing to how the FBI’s warning about Russian meddling in 2020 caused Facebook to censor posts that included the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story

Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told Joe Rogan that his company censored Hunter Biden laptop stories after the FBI sent the company a blanket warning about Russian meddling in the 2020 election 

Another exampled the lawmakers gave was what Psaki said about Spotify’s decision to add a disclaimer to Joe Rogan’s podcast after the host made a number of misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and how the drug Ivermectin, a horse deworker, can be used to fight the disease. 

‘This disclaimer – it’s a positive step,’ Psaki said at the time. ‘But we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinform – mis-and disinformation while also uplifting accurate information,’ the press secretary said. 

Federal employees who use their influence to encourage social media censorship would be subject to similar punishments as outlined in the Hatch Act, which bars politicking while on the job. 

That influence could be in the form of ‘contracting, grantmaking, rulemaking, licensing, permitting, investigatory, or enforcement action,’ a summary of the bill said.  

‘From COVID-19 to Hunter Biden, Biden Administration officials are quick to label facts that don’t fit their narrative as disinformation and then pressure social media companies to suppress content on their platforms,’ Comer said, arguging for its passage.