On Thursday, House Democrats unanimously voted against legislation that would prohibit federal officials from trying to block the sharing of certain views and opinions online. The bill was introduced following the release of Twitter’s internal files which revealed that the FBI had put pressure on the company to stop the sharing of the story relating to Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election.
The GOP called up the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act, which was supported by the Republican majority. The bill passed in a 219-206 vote, with all Democrats voting against it on Thursday.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., introduced the bill after the release of the Twitter files which clearly exhibited how the FBI had attempted to push Twitter into suppressing posts that they deemed to contain “disinformation.”
During the Feb. 8 hearing, Comer revealed that the FBI had spent a significant amount of time trying to push for Twitter to suppress the story about Hunter Biden. On Wednesday in the floor debate, Comer noted that the hearing made it clear that the “Biden administration attempted to normalize a policy of federal censorship” by trying to have private-sector social media companies suppress posts and ban accounts that held “politically inconvenient” views.
He added that the First Amendment meant that the federal government was not in a position to decide what views and speech is considered lawful. Democrats however opposed the bill stating that the federal government was important in making sure that “disinformation” was not promoted.
