On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to stop and prevent federal government employees and agencies from censoring constitutionally-protected speech, including blocking the kind of collusion that existed between the Biden administration and Big Tech platforms.
Free speech is front and center in the new administration, as Trump signed an executive order protecting free speech and blocking federal censorship efforts live in his presidential parade at Capitol One Arena. Trump later suspended the security clearances of the 51 “spies who lied,” the intelligence officials whose false 2020 claim that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was Russian disinformation served as an excuse for Big Tech to crush the story.
MRC Founder and President L. Brent Bozell posted, “Donald Trump is THE free speech president. It is shocking we need an executive order telling the government to stop violating the First Amendment. This executive order is a great step towards protecting free speech, but Congress needs to step up and make these changes permanent - specifically when it comes to holding government censors accountable and preventing taxpayer money from going to groups that censor Americans.”
MRC Vice President for Free Speech America Dan Schneider agreed, blasting the prior administration, saying, “We must prevent government employees from stealing our rights. And make no mistake, government censorship of speech is an act of theft that deprives individuals of the most fundamental of all our rights.”
Schneider continued, “It is also important to emphasize that depriving people of their right to speech is a direct attack against representational democracy and our entire form of government. Biden and his shills did more harm to our entire system of government than anyone since at least Woodrow Wilson.”
Trump’s pro-free speech order began by hailing the First Amendment as “essential to the success of our Republic.” The amendment “enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference,” the order added.
Trump also recounted the relentless censorship assault under the Biden-Harris administration. “Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms,” he said.
The executive act “secure[s]… speech,” bans federal employees from working to “abridge” free speech, blocks taxpayer funding for such activities, and orders the incoming attorney general to investigate past federal misconduct.
In the order, Trump emphasized: “Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”
🚨 President Trump signs a directive ordering the federal government to restore and protect free speech pic.twitter.com/X085ntnVje
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2025
Trump signed this order during his inauguration event at the Capital One arena, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd while doing so. While Trump ran on promises of protecting free speech, the Biden administration is accused of colluding with Big Tech to censor free speech in the landmark Murthy v. Missouri case. Embattled former President Joe Biden endorsed censorship in his farewell speech.
That wasn’t Trump’s only move against online censorship. The New York Post originally reported that Trump would also be suspending the 51 Intel officials’ security clearances, and Trump subsequently signed the executive order making it official. The officials asserted in 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal had “the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation. Big Tech platforms subsequently launched a censorship campaign against the scandal, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted it was done after FBI priming. MRC polling showed that censorship of the Hunter Biden scandal swung the 2020 election in Joe Biden’s favor.
MRC Free Speech America Associate Editor Luis Cornelio contributed to this report.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide transparency. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
