US House Passes Bill Prohibiting Government Workers From Censoring Speech in Official Role

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent federal government employees from censoring speech in their official capacity, amid hearings by congressional committees on the collusion between tech companies and the government to "moderate" content online.

House lawmakers passed the Protecting Speech From Government Interference Act along partisan lines on Thursday in a vote of 219-206.

The bill prohibits employees of executive agencies or those otherwise in the competitive service from using their official authority to influence or advocate for a third party, including private entities, to censor speech.

"Government agencies such as the FBI and the State Department have been working behind-the-scenes with Big Tech to silence American citizens expressing conservative views online," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a statement on the bill. "Americans have the right to express themselves lawfully online without the government controlling the narrative."

Earlier on Thursday, a House select subcommittee held a hearing with authors of the so-called Twitter Files to hear testimony on the collusion between Big Tech, government agencies and private organizations - dubbed the Censorship-Industrial Complex - to moderate, suppress and censor online content.

The Twitter Files have revealed how the US government collaborated with Big Tech companies such as Twitter to suppress information related to COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop story, among others.