A bill in the Texas House would make some political speech a criminal offense.
Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican, who was censured and ultimately dropped out of the state speaker’s race last year, has introduced Texas H.B. No. 366. The bill, if passed, would create a “Class A misdemeanor” for anyone sharing altered media, whether serious or satirical, that portrayed politicians saying and doing things which did not actually occur.
The bill itself states, “A person may not cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video recording of an officeholder’s or candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality … unless the political advertising includes a disclosure indicating that the image, audio recording, or video recording did not occur in reality.”
Free speech advocates online, including Blaze Media host Sara Gonzales and podcaster John Dvorak, have pointed out that this censorship bill could even apply to humorous memes.
On her “Come and Take It” show, Gonzales exclaimed, “Wait, I thought we wanted less government here in the state of Texas?” She also pointed out that the bill “doesn’t say, ‘Hey, if this is satire, you get a pass.’”
In response, Phelan reportedly claimed her interpretation was wrong. “I’m not coming for your memes,” Phelan is quoted as having stated. “If you like your memes, you can keep your memes. This has nothing to do with X or Facebook or anything on social media.”
The phrase echoed then-President Barack Obama‘s ultimately false claim about Obamacare that if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. Just as Obama turned out to be a liar, free speech advocates including Gonzales, Dvorak, and journalist Brandon Waltens are skeptical of Phelan’s assurances, given the vague nature of the bill’s language, and the lack of exceptions for satire.
Gonzales reported that Texas Ethics Commission general counsel James Tinley contradicted Phelan’s claim that social media companies would not be affected by the law.
Since Phelan unsuccessfully attempted to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch warrior against censorship who championed Texas’s pro-free speech law, in 2023, this would not be the first time he has attempted to undermine free speech. Paxton was one of the winners of MRC’s 2024 Free Speech Awards.
Podcaster John C. Dvorak also ripped Phelan for his anti-free speech bill. Dvorak compared Phelan’s bill to aggressive censorship legislation in Australia and the U.K.
Satire has been wrongly targeted for censorship in America before. For instance, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted last year that his company had censored satire about COVID-19 under pressure from the Biden administration. Satire site The Babylon Bee, a Free Speech Alliance member, has been censored repeatedly, including in 2022, when Twitter locked the Bee’s account for making “transgender” Rachel Levine the “Man of the Year.”
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech and government be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for alternative viewpoints. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
