Hearings to examine Big Tech and silencing Americans.

Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

2025-10-08

Source: Congress.gov

Summary

This meeting of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee addresses critical concerns regarding free speech, government influence on media, and digital platform censorship. Speakers from both sides of the aisle express commitment to the First Amendment, yet engage in a contentious debate about which political actors pose the most significant threat to these freedoms. The discussion features specific allegations of governmental overreach, personal testimonies of alleged censorship, and calls for legislative action to protect open discourse in the digital age.

Themes

Government Censorship and "Jawboning"

Several participants highlighted concerns about government entities, directly or indirectly, influencing speech on private platforms. Senator Schmitt detailed the "Missouri v. Biden" lawsuit, alleging a vast censorship enterprise by the Biden administration that pressured big tech companies to suppress disfavored viewpoints, including the Hunter Biden laptop story and COVID-related speech. [ 00:22:12-00:23:07 ]

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 Alex Berenson testified about his Twitter suspension, claiming it resulted from a "deliberate and relentless campaign" by the Biden administration and a Pfizer board member, for which Twitter later admitted was unwarranted. Sean Davis recounted The Federalist's demonetization by Google, which he attributed to collusion with a UK organization due to their political commentary. Professor Volokh differentiated between permissible government "persuasion" and unconstitutional "coercion," suggesting that FCC Chairman Carr's threats against ABC over Jimmy Kimmel's remarks exemplify coercion. Democratic senators, including Senator Cantwell and Senator Markey, echoed these criticisms of Chairman Carr, emphasizing that such threats against broadcasters undermine free speech and are unprecedented.

Role of Big Tech and Media Consolidation

The discussion also focused on the power of large technology companies and the effects of media consolidation on speech. Senator Schmitt asserted that Big Tech engaged in censorship before presidential intervention and will likely continue to do so, citing examples like Google banning COVID skepticism and Twitter shadow-banning conservatives. [ 00:23:43-00:24:30 ]

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 Gene Kimmelman, a policy fellow, raised concerns about the concentration of power among media and information distribution platforms, arguing that it leads to "private censorship" and reduced competition. He cited recent mergers, such as Nexstar with Tegna and Skydance buying Paramount, as alarming examples of this trend, and emphasized the need for updated laws and antitrust tools to promote diverse and independent media. Alex Berenson highlighted that social media companies often yield to government pressure to censor users, even if they internally disagree, to maintain favorable relationships with administrations.

Definition and Protection of Free Speech

Many speakers underscored the foundational importance of the First Amendment to American democracy and civil society. Professor Volokh noted the inherent difficulty in drawing a clear line between government coercion and mere persuasion, especially when powerful regulators interact with regulated industries. Both Alex Berenson and Sean Davis argued that terms like "hate speech" and "misinformation" are frequently deployed to silence speech that is simply disliked, rather than genuinely harmful. Senator Klobuchar and Senator Hickenlooper clarified that free speech is not absolute, and does not protect incitement to violence, but they both stressed the importance of consistently defending the right to speak freely for all individuals. Sean Davis starkly warned that censorship can be the first step on a dangerous path that escalates to the violent elimination of speakers.

Tone of the Meeting

The meeting's tone was notably partisan and highly confrontational. While speakers across the political spectrum generally affirmed the importance of the First Amendment, the discussion quickly devolved into accusations of hypocrisy and selective outrage. Republican members primarily focused on alleged censorship by the Biden administration and its collaboration with tech companies to suppress conservative voices. [ 00:21:56-00:23:07 ]

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 Conversely, Democratic members vehemently condemned former President Trump and current FCC Chairman Carr for what they described as direct, unprecedented, and "mafia-like" threats to media organizations over critical coverage. This led to several sharp exchanges and strong accusations, illustrating a deep partisan divide over the perception and causes of threats to free speech in the current political climate. [ 01:19:04 ]

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Participants

Transcript

Thank you.
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee meeting to order.  The author of the great book Dune, Frank Herbert, set the table for what techno-totalitarianism looked like.  Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free, but that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.  In the West, we're headed down this path towards thought crime enslavement.   In the United Kingdom, 30 Brits are arrested per day for speech-related offenses.  In the EU, the Digital Services Act is creating a censorship regime that would make communist China blush.  In the United States, before President Trump's return to power, the American vast censorship enterprise sought to control speech, to control how we think, and to influence national discourse and elections.   In 2022, as the Attorney General of Missouri, I filed the landmark lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, which Justice Alito called one of the most important First Amendment cases in American history.   Though my loss through the lawsuit uncovered a vast censorship regime perpetrated by the Biden administration.  I saw all the emails.  I saw all the text messages.  I deposed senior government officials, including Anthony Fauci.  Missouri versus 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 that they disagreed with.   Jen Psaki boasted about flagging disinformation with Facebook.  The Biden White House was revealed to have been backchanneling with YouTube about suppressing disfavored speech, suppressing things like the lab leak theory.  White House Digital Director Rob Flaherty pressured platforms like Facebook and YouTube to censor all kinds of COVID-related speech.
Joe Biden said Facebook was killing people.  Last week, Chairman Cruz and the Senate Commerce Committee released a report   that revealed more details about how the Biden administration, as part of this larger censorship operation, weaponized the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, or CISA, into an agent of censorship pressuring big tech to police speech.  The Biden administration's collusion with big tech and non-governmental organizations to censor speech infringed on the individual freedoms of millions of Americans,   to limit what they could say, what they could hear, and what they could read.  Fortunately, President Trump won a historic victory, and on January 20th, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, President Trump signed an executive order titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.   But the story of censorship does not begin and end with the federal government.  Big Tech was censoring long before presidential jawboning and I imagine will continue to censor long after.  Here are some instances of pre-Biden censorship.  All of Big Tech censored the Hunter Biden laptop story.  Google banned COVID skepticism.  Twitter shadow banned and suspended conservatives.   Facebook throttled posts from pages like The Federalist and The New York Post.  Facebook flagged and removed posts questioning voter ID laws and ballot harvesting.  Two of today's witnesses, Alex Berenson and Sean Davis,   Were direct targets of this censorship operation and were de platformed shadow banned and silenced for their viewpoints.  Congress should address this problem with decisive legislative action like my collude act or my censorship Accountability Act, both of which hold big tech and government sensors accountable.   I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about what Congress and this committee can do to make sure that no American, regardless of their political leanings, ever learns that the federal government, trusted with protecting their First Amendment rights, is actually working to undermine them behind closed doors.
Our founding fathers recognized that freedom of speech is vital.  Protecting it is 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.  The First Amendment is the beating heart of our Constitution.  Free speech is not just instrumental.   but an end to 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.  I want to thank the witnesses for being here today and look forward to their testimony.  And I will, before I turn it over to the ranking member for her opening remarks, request that Chairman Cruz's opening statement be entered into the record.  Without objection.   Ranking Member Campbell.
Thank you.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and welcome to our witnesses.  Thank you for joining us this morning.  These issues of the media and consumers and free speech, very important issues for us to discuss.

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