Jordan, Republicans in the House present a bill to counter Brazil’s repression on X

FIRST ON FOX – Republican Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Chris Smith of New Jersey, and Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida have co-sponsored legislation that they say aims to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars “flowing to progressive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that They are promoting Brazil’s escalating crackdown on free speech.”

The bill comes in response to Brazil’s Supreme Court’s decision to shut down Elon Musk’s X in the country in August, amid ongoing legal battles that the social media company denounces as censorship.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes imposed a nationwide ban on X after Musk failed to appoint a legal representative before a deadline in a case in which the country sought suspension of some accounts. These accounts had been implicated in investigations into so-called digital militias accused of spreading disinformation and hatred.

H.R. 9850 – or the No Funding or Enforcement of Censorship Abroad Act – “would terminate U.S. foreign assistance to any entity that promotes censorship and would prohibit U.S. law enforcement agencies from cooperating with foreign countries to promote censorship against speech that would otherwise protected if the speaker was in the United States,” Smith’s office said.

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Its provisions include a ban on foreign assistance to entities “promoting censorship of speech that would be protected speech in the United States”; foreign assistance to entities that support the Brazilian government’s “censorship directives” against U.S. Internet companies; U.S. law enforcement cooperation with foreign countries to “cause, facilitate, or promote online censorship” of political speech; and U.S. law enforcement cooperation “with the Brazilian government’s censorship directives against U.S.-based Internet companies.”

“The House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on Arms the Federal Government uncovered how the FBI under the Biden-Harris administration facilitated a foreign government’s censorship requests against Americans,” Jordan said. “This bill is critical to preventing foreign government censors from using the Department of Justice or the FBI to silence unfavorable views.”

Smith’s office referred to a report from Civilization Works, a research nonprofit that claims on its website to have been behind the “Twitter Files” following Musk’s acquisition of the platform in 2022. The organization released a report last month titled “The U.S. Government’s Role in Brazil’s Censorship Industrial Complex.”

“Although it appears to operate independently, the Brazilian Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) were heavily influenced by U.S. government-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs),” the report states. “Additionally, numerous U.S. agencies and officials played a role in encouraging and facilitating censorship in Brazil.”

It states that U.S. entities “directly and indirectly involved in Brazil’s censorship industrial complex” include the Atlantic Council, Congress, FBI, National Endowment for Democracy, National Science Foundation, State Department, U.S. for international development, the White House and more.

Civilization Works states that “the activities of U.S. agencies and government-funded groups represent a clear campaign to interfere in Brazil’s democratic process.”

FOX Business has reached out to the above-mentioned organizations and agencies for comment.

In response, a spokesperson for the US National Science Foundation declined to comment on the pending legislation, as well as the Civilization Works report directly.

“The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) does not engage in censorship of the speech of Americans,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “NSF invests in a wide variety of research to help us understand how people use and interact with the technologies and communications tools that enable things like deep fakes.”

“It is in this nation’s national and economic security interests to understand how these tools are used and how people respond to them so we can improve online safety for all of us,” NSF said. “We know that our adversaries are already using these technologies against us in multiple ways and that scammers are using these tools on unsuspecting victims. By understanding how these technologies and tools work and are used, this research can inform policymakers’ decision-making as that are developed. regulations and guardrails to protect the American public.”

Smith’s office said the Civilization Works report documents the Biden-Harris administration’s “support for censorship in Brazil.”

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“The Biden-Harris administration has weaponized U.S. foreign assistance programs and other means to promote censorship in Brazil and suppress free speech that would be protected by our U.S. Constitution here at home,” Smith said, senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. , we read in a statement. “Free speech is fundamental to democracy. It is unconscionable that the United States would use taxpayer dollars to promote this type of censorship that completely contradicts our entire American constitutional tradition.”

“The United States must defend Elon Musk from the attacks of Alexandre de Moraes and other forces of socialism in Brazil,” Salazar said in a statement. “The United States must uphold the principles of its constitution and stand with its citizens whenever they face censorship abroad “.

X suspended operations in Brazil and moved staff out of the country in response to what Musk called “censorship orders” from de Moraes.

Earlier this month, Brazilian justice unblocked the bank accounts of Starlink, X and Musk’s satellite internet company, after seizing $3 million in fines.

However, just last week, de Moraes issued further calls for X to be reinstated in the country, including Starlink withdrawing its appeals.

Rumble President and CEO Chris Pavlovski released a statement in support of the bill introduced by House Republicans this week, noting that the Florida-based video platform “withdrew its services from Brazil following requests of censorship by the Brazilian courts”. “People around the world look to America to protect free speech, and this bill is a step in the right direction,” he said.

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Michael Shellenberger, CBR Chair of Politics, Censorship and Free Speech at the University of Austin and founder and president of Civilization Works, said that Brazil’s “U.S. government-funded censorship has directly affected Americans” and is “reason to be alarmed, especially because Brazil risks being a testing ground for what censorship advocates want to do globally.”

“Perhaps most alarming is that the Brazilian government is not only censoring constitutionally permitted speech, but is seeking to ban independent journalists and politicians from all major social media platforms, which constitutes election interference,” he said.

FOX Business’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.