Springfield Standard

On May 23, 2024, Senator Eric Schmitt addressed a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray regarding the Biden Administration’s potential efforts to censor Americans' protected speech online through alleged collusion with social media companies. Schmitt expressed concerns about what he perceives as a renewed attempt to suppress free speech ahead of the upcoming election.

"Given the Biden Administration’s penchant for censoring Americans’ speech in the past, it’s frightening to see the Administration once again ramping up efforts to fight ‘disinformation’ ahead of the election, which has been used to censor speech in the past – take for example the pre-bunking of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the runup to the 2020 election. To ensure this kind of censorship never happens again, I’m demanding answers. I will never give up the fight of protecting Americans’ rights,” stated Senator Schmitt.

Senator Schmitt has consistently advocated for legislation that defends Freedom of Speech and aims to reduce administrative power. His legislative efforts include:

- The Censorship Accountability Act

- The COLLUDE Act

- The ERASER Act

- Cosponsoring Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) Guidance Out Of Darkness (GOOD) Act

- Cosponsoring Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) Public Service Reform Act

- Cosponsoring Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act

- Cosponsoring Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) Free Speech Protection Act

The full letter can be accessed here.