There is a new U.S. senator in town—and she has already proven herself to be a fierce defender of free speech against Big Tech censorship.
Ashley Moody, the former Florida attorney general, was sworn in Tuesday as the Sunshine State’s newest senator. Filling now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s vacant seat, Moody joins the Republican-led Senate with a track record that positions her as a staunch defender of the First Amendment.
In 2024, Moody took Big Tech companies to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend a state law barring social media companies from deplatforming news organizations. The law, called Senate Bill 7072, aimed to abolish the censorship that became notorious in the lead-up to and following the 2020 presidential election.
“Big Tech cannot just decide to censor users for having certain views by pushing down post prioritization or hiding content,” Moody wrote on X shortly after holding a press conference outside the Supreme Court in February 2024.
We are defending Florida’s right to protect our citizens from Big Tech censorship.
— Senator Ashley Moody (@SenAshleyMoody) February 28, 2024
Big Tech cannot just decide to censor users for having certain views by pushing down post prioritization or hiding content. pic.twitter.com/5fe8xhMFmv
Related: SCOTUS Hears Tech Companies’ Dubious Claims for Right to Censor Americans
A year earlier, in exclusive remarks to MRC Free Speech America, the then-Florida attorney general underscored the importance of shielding the First Amendment from social media platforms that claim protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
“Freedom of speech is so important, but that’s just one thing we need to be protective of as we address this,” Moody said. Aiming at courts, she continued: “Stop interpreting Section 230 so broadly.”
Moody was also a vocal critic of the discredited Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to institutionalize censorship through the Disinformation Governance Board in 2022.
“President Biden is attempting to confuse and distort legitimate criticism and the perspective of American citizens,” she said. “This authoritarian maneuver could be straight out of the novel 1984 and should frighten Americans of all political persuasions."
These remarks and legal actions earned Moody a Media Research Center Free Speech Award in 2024. Moody and other honorees “took the fight to Big Tech, bringing lawsuits and challenging them,” said MRC President Brent Bozell while announcing the award.
Flashback: MRC Announces First Annual Free Speech Award Winners from AGs to Governors, State Legislators & FCC
Now that she has been sworn into Congress, Moody has vowed to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, including strengthening the First Amendment as one of the cornerstones of the republic.
Conservatives are 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.
