WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee today passed the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act (JAWBONE Act), a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Endorsed by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the bill would create new safeguards against government coercion of private speech intermediaries, including social media platforms, broadcasters, and providers of AI systems.
“Government officials are free to speak, persuade, inform the public, and enforce the law. What they cannot do is use threats or regulatory power to coerce private intermediaries into suppressing protected speech,” said Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “The JAWBONE Act would create an important mechanism for accountability when government jawboning crosses the constitutional line. We welcome the committee’s effort and urge the Senate to pass this legislation quickly.”
The bill would establish a federal cause of action against federal agencies and officials who unlawfully coerce or attempt to coerce private intermediaries into suppressing protected speech. It would also establish new transparency measures, including standards for logging covered communications between federal officials and private intermediaries and a public portal for certain covered communications.
The Knight Institute has long warned that government jawboning can distort public discourse and evade meaningful judicial review. When officials pressure social media platforms, broadcasters, or other intermediaries to suppress protected speech, the burden often falls on the speakers and listeners who are excluded from public discourse or whose access to information is restricted. At the same time, the Institute has emphasized that not every communication between the government and private intermediaries is coercive. Government officials must remain free to share information, advocate their views, respond to emergencies, and enforce existing law consistent with the First Amendment. The JAWBONE Act recognizes this distinction by targeting coercive efforts to induce content actions while preserving space for lawful government communication.
Read the JAWBONE Act as introduced here. Read more about the Knight Institute’s “Jawboning and the First Amendment” initiative here.
For more information, contact: Lorraine Kenny, lorraine.kenny@knightcolumbia.org.