Free Speech Defense Act
Bill: H.R.9448 | Sponsor: Rep. Clyde, Andrew S. (R-GA)
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
Free Speech Defense Act
This bill addresses issues relating to the federal government and social media. For example, the bill (1) terminates the Disinformation Governance Board; and (2) prohibits the federal government from encouraging a social media company to remove a user or label content as misinformation, with certain exceptions.

To prohibit the Federal Government from taking certain action relating 
           to social media companies, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Free Speech Defense Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning 
        religion, expression, assembly, and petition of the government. 
        The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of expression by 
        prohibiting the government from restricting the press or the 
        right of an individual to speak freely. The First Amendment 
        also guarantees the right of an individual to assemble 
        peaceably and to petition the government.
            (2) The Fourth Amendment states that each individual is 
        secure from unreasonable searches and seizures of property by 
        the government. The Fourth Amendment protects against arbitrary 
        arrests, wiretaps, and other forms of surveillance conducted 
        without a search warrant.
            (3) In July 2021, the White House press secretary, Jen 
        Psaki, admitted that the White House was working with social 
        media companies to identify ``misinformation.''
            (4) Specifically, Psaki said, ``[W]e're regularly making 
        sure social media platforms are aware of the latest narratives, 
        dangerous to public health that we and many other Americans are 
        seeing across all of social and traditional media.''. Psaki 
        also said, ``[W]e work to engage with them to better understand 
        the enforcement of social media platform policies.''.
            (5) 286 pages of documents produced in July 2022 by the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in response to a 
        Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the America 
        First Legal Foundation, revealed shocking information, 
        including the following:
                    (A) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
                sent to officials of Twitter a chart of tweets that the 
                Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined 
                to be ``misinformation''.
                    (B) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
                held regular BOLO (Be On The Lookout) meetings in which 
                the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would 
                share with social media companies, including Twitter 
                and Facebook, what the Centers for Disease Control and 
                Prevention determined to be ``misinformation''. In the 
                meetings, the Centers for Disease Control and 
                Prevention would provide slide decks requesting, among 
                other things, ``[p]lease do not share outside your 
                trust and safety teams''.
                    (C) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
                recommended to Twitter that information about the 
                Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System be added to 
                tweets.
                    (D) Officials from the Centers for Disease Control 
                and Prevention directly engaged with Facebook, 
                requesting that Facebook flag certain posts as 
                disinformation and ensure that ``verifiable information 
                sources'' were not blocked because posts on Facebook by 
                State Health Departments were being blocked as vaccine 
                misinformation.
                    (E) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
                created a COVID-19 Misinformation Reporting Channel for 
                the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 
                Census Bureau to make reports to Facebook and held a 
                ``training meeting'' about the Misinformation Reporting 
                Channel.
                    (F) $15,000,000 of Facebook advertising credits 
                were provided to the Centers for Disease Control and 
                Prevention and the Department of Health and Human 
                Services as a ``non-monetary gift'' to promote 
                vaccines, social distancing, travel, and priority 
                communication messages, which may have violated the 
                limitation on voluntary services described in section 
                1342 of the Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. 1342).
            (6) The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, 
        failed to provide clear answers to Congress about the so-called 
        ``Disinformation Governance Board'' and the selection of Nina 
        Jankowicz to lead the Disinformation Governance Board.
            (7) Damning whistleblower documents revealed by Senators 
        Josh Hawley and Chuck Grassley show the shocking extent to 
        which the Disinformation Governance Board was willing to spy on 
        Americans, without a warrant, and flag posts for social media 
        companies as so-called ``disinformation''.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that:
            (1) The records produced by the Centers for Disease Control 
        and Prevention in response to the Freedom of Information Act 
        request described in section 2(5) reveal the extent to which 
        the Biden Administration is willing to engage in 
        unconstitutional and otherwise unlawful activities in total 
        disregard of the rights of the American people.
            (2) The ``Disinformation Governance Board'' established by 
        the Department of Homeland Security is unconstitutional and 
        should be terminated immediately.
            (3) The failure of Secretary Mayorkas to provide clear 
        answers about the Disinformation Governance Board is 
        disqualifying, and Secretary Mayorkas should resign 
        immediately.
            (4) The antidote to ``misinformation'' and 
        ``disinformation'' is not censorship but more information, so 
        the American people can make informed decisions independently.
            (5) The Federal Government should not be allowed to 
        circumvent the Constitution of the United States through 
        intermediaries and third parties to violate the rights of the 
        American people to information and freedom from intrusion by 
        the Federal Government, even if the information is not 
        consistent with the views of officials in the Federal 
        Government.

SEC. 4. PROHIBITION AGAINST FEDERAL REGULATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA 
              COMPANIES.

    (a) Prohibition Against Regulation.--
            (1) Prohibition.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
        Federal Government may not direct or encourage a social media 
        company to--
                    (A) remove or suspend a user from the social media 
                platform of the social media company;
                    (B) label content on the social media platform of 
                the social media company as information, 
                disinformation, true, false, or any other similar 
                characterization; or
                    (C) share with the Federal Government data or 
                information about a particular topic or group of users 
                on the social media platform of the social media 
                company, including--
                            (i) the name, age, or demographic of the 
                        users; and
                            (ii) the content such users share on the 
                        social media platform of the social media 
                        company.
            (2) Exception.--The prohibitions described in subparagraphs 
        (A) and (C) of paragraph (1) do not apply to an action taken by 
        the Federal Government pursuant to a warrant--
                    (A) issued by a Federal court of competent 
                jurisdiction in accordance with the procedures 
                described in rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal 
                Procedure; or
                    (B) issued by a State court of competent 
                jurisdiction.
    (b) Prohibition Against Public-Private Partnerships.--
            (1) Prohibition.--The Federal Government may not enter into 
        a public-private partnership with a social media company to 
        monitor any content disseminated on the social media platform 
        of the social media company.
            (2) Termination of existing public-private partnerships.--
        Any public-private partnership described in paragraph (1), if 
        in existence on the date of the enactment of this Act, is 
        terminated.
    (c) Termination of Disinformation Governance Board.--
            (1) Termination.--The Disinformation Governance Board 
        established by the Department of Homeland Security, if in 
        existence on the date of the enactment of this Act, is 
        terminated.
            (2) Prohibition against federal funding.--Federal funds may 
        not be used to fund any other entity that is substantially 
        similar to the Disinformation Governance Board terminated 
        pursuant to paragraph (1).
    (d) Prohibition Against Soliciting or Accepting Free Social Media 
Advertising.--
            (1) In general.--An agency employee may not solicit or 
        accept, or enter into a contract or other agreement (including 
        a no-cost agreement) for, free advertising or other promotion 
        on the social media platform of a social media company.
            (2) Limitation on funds.--No Federal funds may be obligated 
        or expended to--
                    (A) enter into a contract or other agreement 
                (including a no-cost agreement) for free advertising or 
                other promotion on the social media platform of a 
                social media company; or
                    (B) pay the salary or expenses of any agency 
                employee to solicit or accept free advertising or other 
                promotion on the social media platform of a social 
                media company.
    (e) Private Right of Action.--An individual whose account, content, 
or information on the social media platform of a social media company 
has been affected in violation of this Act may file a civil action 
against the United States in the United States District Court for the 
District of Columbia for reasonable attorneys' fees, injunctive relief, 
and actual damages.
    (f) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, the Attorney 
General, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for Civil 
Rights, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a 
report evaluating the compliance by the Federal Government with this 
Act, including a description of any action by the head of an agency 
to--
            (1) consult with a social media company about labeling 
        content on the social media platform of the social media 
        company as described in subsection (a)(1)(B); or
            (2) engage in any other prohibited activity under this Act.
    (g) Severability.--If any provision of this Act, or the application 
of any such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be 
unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, and the application of 
such provision to any other person or circumstance, shall not be 
affected by the holding.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Agency.--The term ``agency'' has the meaning given such 
        term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Homeland Security, the 
                Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on 
                Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives; 
                and
                    (B) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
                Governmental Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary 
                of the Senate.
            (3) Social media company.--The term ``social media 
        company'' means a company that provides, in or affecting 
        interstate or foreign commerce, a social media platform.
            (4) Social media platform.--The term ``social media 
        platform''--
                    (A) means a website or internet medium that--
                            (i) permits a person to become a registered 
                        user, establish an account, or create a profile 
                        for the purpose of allowing users to create, 
                        share, and view user-generated content through 
                        such an account or profile;
                            (ii) primarily serves as a medium for users 
                        to interact with content generated by other 
                        users of the medium; and
                            (iii) enables one or more users to generate 
                        content that can be viewed by other users of 
                        the medium; and
                    (B) does not include--
                            (i) any such platform that serves fewer 
                        than 100,000 users;
                            (ii) an email program, email distribution 
                        lists, multi-person text message groups, or a 
                        website that is primarily for the purpose of 
                        internet commerce;
                            (iii) a private platform or messaging 
                        service used by an entity solely to communicate 
                        with others employed by or affiliated with such 
                        entity; or
                            (iv) an internet-based platform whose 
                        primary purpose is--
                                    (I) to allow users to post product 
                                reviews, business reviews, travel 
                                information and reviews; or
                                    (II) to provide news or 
                                entertainment content, but that may 
                                also include a comment section for 
                                users to discuss such news or 
                                entertainment content.
            (5) State.--The term ``State'' means each State of the 
        United States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, 
        territory, or possession of the United States, and each 
        federally recognized Indian Tribe.
                                 <all>