Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) led a Senate Commerce Committee hearing titled “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans” in Washington, D.C. In his opening statement, Schmitt called for legislative action to protect free speech from government censorship.
Schmitt referenced author Frank Herbert to highlight concerns about technology enabling control over thought and expression. He pointed to examples in the United Kingdom and the European Union, where he said legal measures have been used to limit speech. Schmitt argued that similar trends have appeared in the United States, particularly before President Trump’s second term.
Schmitt discussed his role as Missouri Attorney General in filing Missouri v. Biden, a lawsuit he described as uncovering a large-scale censorship operation by the Biden administration. “Through my lawsuit, I uncovered a vast censorship regime perpetrated by the Biden administration. I saw all of the emails. I saw all of the text messages. I deposed senior government officials, including Anthony Fauci,” Schmitt said.
He further alleged that the administration pressured technology companies to suppress certain viewpoints, especially regarding COVID-19 and other topics. “Missouri v. Biden uncovered for the American people how the Biden administration built one of the largest censorship operations in American history by working in secret through third parties, pressuring, bullying, threatening, ‘jawboning’ Big Tech into suppressing viewpoints with which they disagreed,” he said.
Schmitt cited actions by White House officials, including Jen Psaki and Rob Flaherty, as well as President Joe Biden’s public statements criticizing social media platforms.
He also referred to a recent report released by Chairman Cruz and the Senate Commerce Committee detailing how the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was involved in efforts to influence content moderation by technology companies.
Schmitt stated that while federal government involvement is significant, private technology companies also censored content independently before recent administrations. He listed examples such as censorship of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop and restrictions on COVID-19 skepticism and other topics on major social media platforms.
Two witnesses at the hearing, Alex Berenson and Sean Davis, were described as having been affected by these moderation efforts.
Schmitt called on Congress to pass legislation such as his COLLUDE Act or Censorship Accountability Act to address what he described as collusion between government entities and technology companies.
“Our Founding Fathers recognized freedom of speech as vital, protecting it first and foremost in the Bill of Rights. While some argued that free speech was already protected because the Constitution did not give the government power to censor, the Framers went further, affirmatively restricting government intrusion,” Schmitt said.
He concluded, “The First Amendment is the beating heart of our Constitution. Free speech is not just instrumental but an end in itself. In the digital age, with all the peril and possibility that accompanies it, the struggle for free speech is the struggle for civilization itself.”
