North Kentucky News

Representative Thomas Massie has introduced H.R. 8519, a bill aimed at prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds for programs that censor Americans' free speech. "Were it not for Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, claims of government censorship of online speech would be dismissed," said Rep. Massie. "However, after purchasing the company, Mr. Musk released internal documents known as the 'Twitter Files' that showed the government colludes with private companies and universities to violate the First Amendment. The government's censorship efforts even extended to accurate tweets I posted to my official congressional Twitter account."

Rep. Massie further stated, "If a Member of Congress's account can be censored on the pretext of combatting 'misinformation', 'disinformation', or 'malinformation', it can be done to anyone's account." He also quoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who remarked that "'malinformation' is used 'to describe information that Facebook and Twitter and the other social media sites understood was true that the White House and other federal agencies wanted to censor anyway for political reasons because it challenged official orthodoxies.' My legislation will end taxpayer funding for programs the federal government uses to censor speech."

The proposed legislation seeks to prevent any federal department or agency from spending taxpayer funds on "disinformation research grants." It also aims to eliminate funding for specific programs within the National Science Foundation identified by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government as integral to federal censorship efforts. Rep. Massie serves on this committee.

Original cosponsors of H.R. 8519 include Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), and Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX).

The text of H.R. 8519 is available at this link.