To prohibit Federal employees and contractors from directing online platforms to censor any speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill establishes key definitions for the Act including covered information, covered platform, employee (including contractors and the President/VP), executive agency, and provider, defines congressional findings establishing the constitutional basis for the bill, citing First Amendment protections and Supreme Court precedents on free speech, and prohibits federal employees from directing, coercing, or encouraging platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech, with severe penalties including termination, civil fines of at least $10,000, loss of pension. It relies on compliance mandates, definition changes, reporting requirements, and liability protections. The main policy areas are Civil Liberties, Technology, and Science & Space.
Who Benefits and How
Social media users and content creators could face lower compliance burdens, News media organizations and content creators could face lower compliance burdens, and Department of Homeland Security could face lower compliance burdens.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal employees and contractors would take on compliance duties, Executive agency employees communicating with platforms would take on compliance duties, and Employees of the Disinformation Governance Board could lose revenue opportunities.
Key Provisions
- Establishes key definitions for the Act including covered information, covered platform, employee (including contractors and the President/VP), executive agency, and provider.
- Defines congressional findings establishing the constitutional basis for the bill, citing First Amendment protections and Supreme Court precedents on free speech.
- Prohibits federal employees from directing, coercing, or encouraging platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech, with severe penalties including termination, civil fines of at least $10,000, loss of pension...
- Requires executive agencies to report every 90 days on all communications between agency employees and social media/platform providers, with reports published on a public searchable website.
- Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to report within 180 days on any CISA employee actions since November 16, 2018 that would have violated the new prohibition on directing platforms to censor speech.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill establishes key definitions for the Act including covered information, covered platform, employee (including contractors and the President/VP), executive agency, and provider, defines congressional findings establishing the constitutional basis for the bill, citing First Amendment protections and Supreme Court precedents on free speech, and prohibits federal employees from directing, coercing, or encouraging platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech, with severe penalties including termination, civil fines of at least $10,000, loss of pension.
Key Policy Areas
Civil Liberties, Technology, Science & Space
Primary Purpose
The bill establishes key definitions for the Act including covered information, covered platform, employee (including contractors and the President/VP), executive agency, and provider, defines congressional findings establishing the constitutional basis for the bill, citing First Amendment protections and Supreme Court precedents on free speech, and prohibits federal employees from directing, coercing, or encouraging platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech, with severe penalties including termination, civil fines of at least $10,000, loss of pension.
Policy Domains
Free Speech Defense Act
Identified Gains
- Social media users and content creators
- News media organizations and content creators
- Department of Homeland Security
- Social media platform operators
- Political commentators and news publishers
Identified Costs
- Federal employees and contractors
- Executive agency employees communicating with platforms
- Employees of the Disinformation Governance Board
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
- Secretary of Homeland Security
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Paul (for himself, Mr. Lee, Mr. Schmitt, and Ms. …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Employees of the Disinformation Governance Board
Positive-direction: Department of Homeland Security
Negative-direction: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Employees of the Disinformation Governance Board, Executive agency employees communicating with platforms, Federal agencies administering grants, Federal agencies processing FOIA requests, Office of Management and Budget, Secretary of Homeland Security
Social media platform operators, Social media users and content creators
Social media platform operators faces effects in multiple directions
Journalists and researchers seeking government records, News media organizations and content creators, Political commentators and news publishers
General public exercising free speech rights, Individual social media users
Academic researchers studying misinformation, Federal grant recipients
Fact-checking organizations, Non-profit organizations focused on media literacy
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_director"
- → Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Homeland Security
- "executive_agency"
- → Executive agency as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105, including Executive Office of the President
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Information relating to phone calls, digital communications, photos, shopping history, location data, IP addresses, metadata, search history, user demographics, and calendar items
Interactive computer service as defined in 47 U.S.C. 230(f), and any platform through which a media organization disseminates information (broadcast, print, online, or other)
Employee of an Executive agency, including contractors working under agency contracts, and the President and Vice President
A provider of a covered platform
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology