Sen. Marshall one of only two Republicans to vote in favor of freedom of speech amendment

The ‘Twitter Files‘ have shown that the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI) has been hard at work censoring every day Americans on social media platforms on a wide range of issues. To keep the feds from such collusion with big tech platforms, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment to stop this overt First Amendment violation. 

Serving as the Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), Sen. Paul forced a vote on Wednesday, June 14, for his amendment that was offered on SB 61, the Combating Cartels on Social Media Act. This amendment would prohibit government agencies from being able to request, suggest, or direct platforms to remove protected speech, preserving free speech rights for not just citizens, but platforms and their business owners.

“Recent unsettling disclosures, including those within the Twitter Files, illustrate how the federal government has leveraged taxpayer-funded resources to collude with social media companies and censor disfavored speech on topics from COVID-19 to U.S. elections. The freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is one of the bedrock principles of our founding, and Congress must defend this right against government censorship,” said Dr. Paul. “It is against this backdrop that I call up my amendment which would prohibit federal employees from using their official position to censor speech on social media and other outlets.”  

Unfortunately, as it turns out, both Republicans and Democrats actually don’t care about free speech as the amendment failed in committee 2-13 with five Republicans voting against it: Sens. Ron Johnson (WI), Josh Hawley (MO), Mitt Romney (MA), Rick Scott (FL), and James Lankford (OK). 

It’s hard to think of a good reason to be against something like this. However, despite the failure of the amendment, and the total lack of care for the constitution and people’s freedom of speech rights, Kansans should feel good knowing that Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) stood with Sen. Paul in voting in favor of protecting freedom of speech against big government overreach.