House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) is looking to protect speech both domestically and abroad.
American tech companies have a global reach and often face government demands for censorship—meaning foreign requests can end up silencing Americans. Jordan and four other congressmen warned in a Tuesday letter to EU Commissioner Michael McGrath that Poland’s censorship push under Prime Minister Donald Tusk could threaten free speech on both sides of the Atlantic.
Jordan wrote to McGrath “to express concern about recent allegations that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government is weaponizing Poland’s justice system to target and censor political opponents … [and] how these allegations affect the potential that Europe’s censorship regime will affect free speech in the United States.”
Jordan’s warning came as part of the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing probe into how “foreign laws, regulations, and judicial orders compel or coerce companies to censor speech in the United States,” Jordan wrote.
Jordan cited several examples of weaponized legal action, including the Tusk government’s removal of legal immunity for Law and Justice party (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński before a defamation trial.
He also pointed to reports of harassment targeting political dissidents, including the controversial arrest of PiS ally and Catholic priest Father Michał Olszewski. Polish right-leaning media has also been under attack by the Tusk government, Jordan stated, noting that the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has been used to suppress speech.
The Judiciary Chairman then zeroed in on Big Tech examples. “Documents obtained to date in the course of the Judiciary Committee’s oversight have revealed that the Tusk government is willing to attempt to censor online content with which it disagrees,” Jordan wrote. He explained his particular interest:
“The DSA requires social media platforms to have systemic processes to censor ‘misleading or deceptive content,’ including so-called ‘disinformation.’ Because many social media platforms generally maintain one set of content moderation policies they apply globally, restrictive government censorship laws like the DSA may set de facto global censorship standards and thus restrict Americans’ online speech. In this way, laws like the DSA violate the fundamental principles embraced by liberal democracies like the United States and the EU member countries.”
Even Chinese government-tied TikTok has objected to requests for censorship on critiques of electric cars, Jordan explained. If the EU is to live up to its stated goal of upholding the rule of law, Jordan maintained, it needs to address the unfolding free speech crisis in Poland.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
