Report: Federal Policy Proposals to Protect Digital Free Speech in the United States
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liber-net is proud to release our latest initiative which addresses the broad pattern of overreach by the U.S. federal government to target “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.”
It has become increasingly clear that a network of NGOs, academic institutions, think tanks, and technology companies worked directly with, or were pressured by the U.S government to censor online content. The scale and scope of this operation demonstrates the urgent need to fortify free speech protections at the federal level.
This document, which complements our recent research into digital free speech-related legislation at the state level, lays out a series of discussion points and policy proposals for how a future administration might accomplish these critical reforms.
We also include an overview of the U.S. government funding landscape for information suppression programming across all departments, agencies, and federal institutes, outlining key trends and takeaways from liber-net’s research into active and recent historical grants.
The report considers policy and personnel reforms across the federal government, covering the areas of government coercion, social media, public health censorship, protecting children, and realigning US foreign relations. Our paper includes several proposed executive orders, integrates existing ideas from previously introduced legislation, features a list of important digital free speech-related government positions for political appointment, and ends with an appendix of free-speech related bills introduced over the past few Congresses that could serve as models for future efforts.
Open discourse is the central pillar of a free society, essential for holding governments accountable and fundamentally protecting and empowering vulnerable groups. It is always in the interests of citizens to protect the First Amendment, regardless of state of political discourse or which party controls the government.
This full set of recommendations is intended to contribute to a broad and growing movement across the country and the world to protect the first and most fundamental principle of human liberty: free speech
A PDF of the proposals is available for download here.
Originally released in November 2024, our Federal Policy Proposals to Protect Digital Free Speech in the United States was most recently updated on January 13, 2025.