Rand Paul Proposes Amendment to Prohibit Federal Bureaucrats From Censoring COVID Information

Sen Rand Paul (R.-Ky) recently introduced a doomed amendment, which was ultimately struck down, to Senate bill S.61 , the “Combating Cartels on Social Media Act.”

Via Rand Paul’s Senate site:

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) forced a vote during a committee business meeting regarding his amendment to protect free speech and prevent further government censorship on social media and other online outlets.

The federal government at the highest level was intimately involved in a hands-on way with directing COVID-19 censorship. This was blatantly unconstitutional on its face and yet they just did it anyway, and no law enforcement body stopped them.

We are regularly making sure social media platforms are aware of the latest narratives, dangers to public health… The false narrative that remains active out there about COVID-19 vaccines causing infertility… And we want to know that the social media platforms are taking steps to address it…. And that is an example of the kind of information that we are flagging, or facing.

–White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, July 16, 2021

Psaki’s defense, and her colleagues’, was that the White House was merely offering “suggestions” to the social media companies, and that there was no coercion involved.

This is nonsense. The social media companies currently predicate their entire business models on maintaining immunity from liability for users’ speech under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

The moment it starts acting as an editor — i.e., curating content to filter out “misinformation” or whatever — it violates the premise that they are not a publisher and are therefore immune from the laws that normally apply to publishers.

The social media companies and their lawyers understand the legal predicament they are in with 230 over their heads, so they play ball when the government calls.

Continuing from Paul:

“Recent unsettling disclosures, including those within the Twitter files, illustrate how the federal government has leveraged taxpayer-funded resources to collude with social media companies and censor disfavored speech on topics from COVID-19 to U.S. elections…The freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is one of the bedrock principles of our founding, and Congress must defend this right against government censorship,” said Dr. Paul. “It is against this backdrop that I call up my amendment which would prohibit federal employees from using their official position to censor speech on social media and other outlets..”

The full text of the amendment can be read here. Of course, the text of the First Amendment already prohibits the activities I have described previously of Jen Psaki and government actors like her.