Senator Eric Schmidt New legislation introduced Thursday that would force watchdogs at federal agencies to investigate for any signs Collusion between federal agencies And social media companies inform Congress about such activities.
The Transparency in Bureaucratic Communications Act specifically demands Congress receive a “detailed description” of correspondence between agencies and online platforms, as well as the context behind those communications.
“Let me make it clear that the incoming Republican Congress can no longer allow state bureaucrats to stifle the free speech of our constituents,” Schmidt said in a statement.
“We must continue to expose the full extent of the Biden administration’s censorship schemes against the American people,” he said. “We will find the rot in the bureaucracy and root it out.”
This policy specifically applies to companies that receive protection under Section 230, which clarifies that social media companies are not publishers and, therefore, protects them from major liabilities such as defamation for posts by users.
There are 74 statutory inspectors general – government watchdogs – who audit federal departments and independent agencies.
Those inspectors general already send reports to Congress on more than 20 different topics to address various shortcomings in the federal government.
Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Schmidt served as Attorney General of Missouri from 2019 to 2023. During that time as AG, he led the Missouri v. Biden case, which was combined with similar litigation out of Louisiana that accused the Biden administration of colluding with Big Tech on censorship.
back in june, Supreme Court rejected that challenge, concluding that the plaintiffs lacked standing in the case.
Schmidt and later his successor, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, argued that the administration conspired to “coerce” social media platforms to remove certain posts related to COVID-19 vaccines and other topics.
The Missouri senator alleged that there was a “huge censorship enterprise” going on between the administration and social media.
Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg He appears to be trying to mend differences with President-elect Donald Trump“I believe the government pressure was wrong,” he told Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“I regret that we were not more vocal about it,” he added at the time“I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
Following tech mogul Elon Musk’s acquisition of
Schmidt believes that such transparency led to a public outcry that led some government agencies to change their behavior.
Show-Me State senators are hoping that similar transparency across the government can eliminate any potential collusion between federal agencies and Big Tech.
(Tags to translate)Politics(T)US News(T)Censorship(T)Federal Government(T)Inspector General(T)Republicans(T)Senate
