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For Immediate Release
Contact: massie.press@mail.house.gov
Contact #: 202-225-3465

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Representative Thomas Massie announces the introduction of H.R. 8519, legislation designed to prohibit the expenditure of taxpayer funds on programs that censor the free speech of Americans.
  

"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."

"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," Rep. Massie continued. "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was correct when he told me that the term '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."

H.R. 8519 prevents taxpayer funds from being spent by any federal department or agency on "disinformation research grants." In addition, the legislation eliminates funding for specific programs within the National Science Foundation that the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has identified as key to the federal government's censorship efforts. Rep. Massie is a member of the Weaponization Committee.

Original cosponsors of Rep. Massie's legislation 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.

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