OPINION:
If you’ve been paying attention over the past few years, you know that the innate human right to freedom of expression has been relentlessly attacked. In the United States, with our First Amendment, we’re supposed to be safe from government interference in our right to speak freely, but that has not always been the case for private citizens. There are also increasing threats abroad.
During President Biden’s four years in office, the White House severely pressured social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter (as X was then known) to do their bidding, censoring posts and suspending users because they held unacceptable opinions. This was even after the platforms banned President Trump while he was the sitting president in early 2021.
Some gripe about how the Trump White House treats the media — changing who serves in the press pool or who flies on the president’s plane — but this is a ridiculous complaint because Mr. Trump is probably the most accessible president in history. Simply deciding that legacy news outlets such as The Associated Press and The New York Times are not the only ones that get to ask questions is hardly an affront to press freedom; in fact, it’s an expansion of it.
The same reporters who squawk about losing their executive platinum status on Air Force One had little to say when regular Americans were silenced on social media by the Biden administration. They pretended it wasn’t happening or even celebrated the muzzling because it aligned with their personal views.
There’s no more of that under the Trump administration, but there’s plenty of free speech suppression from overseas.
Video-sharing platform Rumble and TMTG, the parent company of Mr. Trump’s TRUTH Social platform, have thrown themselves into a battle for free expression against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is notorious for his hatred of speech he doesn’t like. Mr. Moraes ordered Rumble, an American company (and a client of my public affairs firm), to remove video content from a Brazilian dissident who fled to the U.S. four years ago.
Rumble refused to censor the dissident and filed the lawsuit with TMTG, so Mr. Moraes turned off Rumble inside Brazil. TMTG is a co-plaintiff because they depend on Rumble’s cloud services for their own operations.
With the blackout ordered, Rumble filed for a temporary restraining order against Mr. Moraes. Thankfully, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven recognized what was happening and issued a rhetorical beatdown to the marauding justice.
“Plaintiffs are not obligated to comply with [Mr. Moraes’] directives and pronouncements, and no one is authorized or obligated to assist in their enforcement against Plaintiffs or their interests here in the United States,” she wrote, ruling that the temporary restraining order wasn’t needed because there was nothing to enjoin.
The case raises an important point of law because Mr. Moraes is effectively engaged in hostage-taking. Because the Rumble user in question is in America, the justice is attempting to silence speech in one jurisdiction, the U.S., by punishing Rumble in another, Brazil.
He is trying to reach into America to override our First Amendment. Put another way, he wants to block content inside Brazil by attempting to censor it worldwide.
The lawsuit is still pending, but this judge’s ruling is a significant victory for free speech internationally. Now, companies in America and around the world know that renegade, dangerous government censors cannot cross borders with their edicts.
It’s important because Brazil is not the only place where governments think free speech is a menace. Rumble has been hit with censorship demands from France, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, China and Russia.
I just returned from a work trip to Brussels, where I met with members of the European Parliament from various countries. They told me of the onerous censorship they routinely encounter. Indeed, the European Union’s Digital Services Act of 2022 is a massive censorship tool. Its proponents acknowledge it is intended to be weaponized across borders to silence online voices wherever they may offend sensibilities, including in the United States.
All this amounts to a global assault on free speech, and it must be turned away.
To that end, the House Judiciary Committee passed the No Censors on Our Shores Act, regrettably necessary because of such Orwellian laws and because of people like Mr. Moraes. The act would target these censors and make them inadmissible to the U.S. or deportable if they are present.
These anti-speech warriors are strident, aggressive and, unfortunately, empowered by the offices they hold. There’s one thing the sane world should always remember: It’s never the good guys doing the censoring.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and founder of Line Drive Public Affairs. He served as a senior adviser on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign.
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