Protect The 1st Endorses Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Ron Wyden’s JAWBONE Act

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (Left) and Ted Cruz (Right)

The word “jawboning” was popularized by John Kenneth Galbraith during World War II. Galbraith picked up the term after witnessing bureaucrats at the federal Office of Price Administration using verbal intimidation to harass businesses into keeping their prices low.
 
The federal government no longer uses jawboning to control prices. But during the Biden administration it tried to do something much more sinister: use jawboning to control speech. At one time, teams of government agents – from the FBI to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – were tasked with monitoring social media and contacting platforms to demand that certain content be taken down. What began as a crackdown on those who questioned the efficacy and safety of vaccines soon expanded to suppress wide range of conservative speech. Some sites, like PragerU, actually disappeared for a while from Google and YouTube, being placed in “restricted mode.”
 
“These people from the Biden administration would call up our team and scream at them and curse,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan on his podcast last year. As a result, many conservatives began to wonder why their posts and organizations were being shadowbanned, de-posted, deplatformed, and demonetized.
 
This dangerous use of secret power created a situation in which the federal government was actively managing the national conversation. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said last year:

“It is dangerous for the government to abuse its authority and act as the speech police. No free society, built on an informed citizenry and public discourse, can thrive when government censors lawful speech and sets itself up as the arbiter of truth. With growing bipartisan interest in protecting free speech, I am increasingly hopeful Congress can advance legislation to stop government jawboning and safeguard every American’s right to free speech.”
 
That bipartisan interest bore fruit. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to introduce the JAWBONE Act to stop federal agencies from pressuring social media and tech companies to censor lawful speech. The legislation aims to provide Americans with a robust legal right to sue and seek monetary damages if the government pressures platforms to remove, demonetize, or suppress their content. 
 
What the JAWBONE Act Does
 
The JAWBONE Act outright bans government coercion of platforms, whether it is to remove or add content. Observing the legal principle that a right without a remedy is no right at all, this bill contains a provision that gives Americans a private right of action against government officials who violate their First Amendment rights.
 
The bill would also compel the government to disclose its attempts at jawboning, revealing certain communications with social media and AI companies, and broadcasters.
 
This bill, as it moves forward, might be clarified on some points. For instance, does the ban on jawboning – which covers government officials and employees – extend to the president and vice president? Does it extend to Congress? After all, presidents can exert enormous power over platforms. Powerful committee chairs in Congress can issue subpoenas and launch investigations.
 
It is also not clear whether the bill would restrict the use of regulatory authority – like that exercised by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson – in pressuring news organizations to change their coverage.
 
But this bill meets the central and urgent task of confronting what has become a common practice – that of violating American norms and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
 
Bob Goodlatte, former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and PT1st Senior Policy Advisor, said:
 
“Protect The 1st is proud to endorse the JAWBONE Act, and we commend Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden for crafting this legislation. This bill addresses the insidious, behind-the-scenes use of government pressure to control and censor speech in America. The JAWBONE Act counters this toxic trend, including with a sorely needed remedy for First Amendment violations. We look forward to working with the senators to advance this bill into law.”

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