Taxpayer Watchdog Praises Bill to Protect Americans’ Free Speech WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act (JAWBONE) Act, which would provide recourse to Americans whose speech against government officials have attempted to suppress. The bill would create a cause of action when government officials pressure social media, artificial intelligence, and broadcasting companies on speech issues and require public disclosures of many communications with such companies. In response to the JAWBONE Act’s introduction, David B. McGarry, Research Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, offered the following statement: “Free speech has met a new threat in the 21st century, in which government officials can remove Americans’ ability to speak out of sight, quietly and behind closed doors, with a phone call or email. A few directives or requests could result in Americans silenced. This state of affairs, clearly, is untenable in a nation founded upon free speech. “The JAWBONE Act represents the best of the legislative process. Sens. Cruz and Wyden saw a problem unaddressed by current law, one which the judiciary had not resolved, one which required a legislative remedy. So, they acted, providing new, badly needed standards to protect the spirit of the First Amendment.”