Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans” on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST. The hearing will examine how government agencies have used tactics to pressure Big Tech into censoring speech protected by the First Amendment, a practice known as “jawboning.” The hearing will expand upon the themes in Sen. Cruz’s recently released report on a censorship campaign conducted in secret by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The report demonstrates that the agency infringed on the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to censor Americans that held views different than the Biden administration. CISA faced little pushback from the tech industry or the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, enabling the agency to avoid accountability. Sen. Cruz warns that CISA’s unchecked censorship serves as a cautionary tale for future policy related to artificial intelligence, a new medium to share and receive information, and one that progressives across the world are already trying to control. The hearing will explore legislative solutions to safeguard Americans from jawboning. Upon announcing the hearing, Sen. Cruz said: “The First Amendment is the bedrock of this country, and we have an obligation to defend it. My recently released report on CISA reveals how the Biden administration threatened the First Amendment by pressuring Big Tech companies to censor lawful speech, disproportionately affecting conservative voices. It is dangerous for the government to abuse its authority and act as the speech police. No free society, built on an informed citizenry and public discourse, can thrive when government censors lawful speech and sets itself up as the arbiter of truth. With growing bipartisan interest in protecting free speech, I am increasingly hopeful Congress can advance legislation to stop government jawboning and safeguard every American’s right to free speech.” Witnesses: Mr. Eugene Volokh, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University and Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles Mr. Alex Berenson, Independent Journalist and Author Mr. Sean Davis, Chief Executive Officer, The Federalist Mr. Gene Kimmelman, Senior Policy Fellow, Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy and Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government