Restoring American Freedom Act

Key Points

• The bill prohibits State Department employees, officers, agents, and any entity receiving State Department funds from censoring or facilitating the censorship of Americans' constitutionally protected speech. This includes pressuring social media companies to remove or suppress posts.
• Federal funding from the State Department would be cut off for any organization that publishes or uses "advertising blacklists"—curated lists designed to discourage advertisers from supporting specific people because of the content of their speech.
• Groups that create, test, or distribute censorship tools would also lose State Department funding unless the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy determines the tools have sufficient safeguards to prevent their use against Americans.
• If the State Department learns that an employee or funded entity has censored a citizen's speech, the Secretary of State must notify the relevant congressional committees and the affected citizen within 7 days and take corrective action for past misconduct.