USA11 June, 20262 min read
Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden Introduce JAWBONE Act Letting Americans Sue Federal Jawboning Officials
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Prohibits federal agencies and employees from coercing broadcasters, social media, or AI platforms to censor. Allows Americans to sue federal officials for First Amendment violations when coercion occurs.
JAWBONE Act introduced
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden introduced the “Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act,” or JAWBONE Act, to let Americans sue federal officials who coerce social media companies, AI platforms, or broadcasters to change or take down protected speech.
The bill is framed as a response to “jawboning,” described as government pressure on private parties rather than direct censorship, and it would create a cause of action “against any government agency or employee that jawbones companies involved in social media, AI, or broadcasting, regardless of whether the jawboning succeeds.”
FIRE said the legislation would also require the government to publicly report its communications with these companies, so victims know when they’ve been targeted by government censors.
In a separate account, The Verge said the bill would allow damages even “regardless of whether the platform actually does it,” and it would require public disclosures of government correspondence with social media companies.
Cruz, Wyden trade examples
Cruz and Wyden tied the bill to past government pressure, with Cruz charging that “The Biden administration weaponized the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to pressure Big Tech into ‘canceling’ Americans who spoke out against vaccine mandates and election fraud.” Wyden, in turn, emphasized that “Nearly all of Americans’ speech—including TV news, online streams and social media—flows through private corporations that are highly susceptible to government pressure,” arguing regular Americans “can’t count on those companies to stand up to government jawboning.”
The Verge connected the bill to FCC Chair Brendan Carr, saying it “could empower someone like Jimmy Kimmel to sue Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr,” after Carr threatened TV stations’ broadcast licenses following a joke Carr disliked. Roll Call added that Cruz and Wyden’s effort comes after Commerce Committee hearings on government jawboning, including testimony where executives from Meta and Google offered qualified support for anti-jawboning legislation while leaving room to decide based on the bill text.
Legal path and supporters
The bill’s supporters say it would address barriers under current law, including that “a plaintiff must show that the government caused a removal or a change to the expression at issue,” and that judicial inquiry can focus on whether coercion succeeded. Roll Call said the Cruz-Wyden bill would set up monetary, but not punitive, damages, require the government to defend employees in potential cases, and establish a portal for the government to report communications about platforms’ content decisions.
FIRE’s Carolyn Iodice said the JAWBONE Act “fixes that,” arguing there is “currently little to no recourse for victims to fight back against this pernicious kind of censorship.” The Verge reported that the bill has a bipartisan sponsorship and a pool of supporters including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which it said could “lend credence to the bill.”