Jordan, House Republicans introduced a bill against Brazil’s crackdown on X

FIRST ON FOX – Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida sponsored legislation that said it aims to prevent US taxpayer dollars from “flowing to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote the growth of Brazil. To prevent free speech.”

The bill comes after Brazil’s Supreme Court banned Elon Musk’s X from the country in August, amid ongoing disputes the telecommunications company has complained about censorship.

Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes banned X nationwide after Musk failed to name a lawyer before a deadline in a case where the country wanted some accounts frozen. Those accounts were included in the investigation of so-called digital soldiers accused of spreading false information and hate.

HR 9850 – or the No Funding or Enforcement of Censorship Abroad Act – “would cut off US foreign aid to any organizations that promote censorship and prohibit US law enforcement agencies from cooperating with foreign countries to promote censorship of speech that would otherwise be protected if the Speaker were in the United States ,” Smith’s office said.

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Its provisions include prohibiting foreign aid to companies “developing research on speech that is not protected by speech in the United States;” foreign aid to companies that support the Brazilian government’s “audit directives” on US Internet companies; US law enforcement cooperation with foreign countries to “prevent, facilitate, or promote Internet censorship” of political speech; and US law enforcement cooperation with “the Brazilian government’s investigative directives against Internet companies headquartered in the United States.”

“The House Judiciary Committee and the Special Subcommittee on Federal Armed Forces have discovered how the FBI under the Biden-Harris Administration facilitated foreign government requests for surveillance of Americans,” Jordan said. “This bill is essential in preventing foreign government investigators from using the DOJ or FBI to silence improper views.”

Smith’s office pointed to a report by Civilization Works, a nonprofit research organization that says on its website it was behind the “Twitter files” following Musk’s 2022 takeover. The agency published a report last month titled, “The US Government’s Role in Brazil’s Censorship Industrial Complex.”

“Although they appear to operate independently, Brazil’s Supreme Court and the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) are heavily influenced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded by the US government,” the report said. “In addition, many US agencies and officials are involved in promoting and promoting research in Brazil.”

It says US businesses “directly and indirectly involved in Brazil’s Censorship Industrial Complex” include the Atlantic Council, Congress, the FBI, the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Science Foundation, the State Department, the US Agency for International Development, the White House. and more.

Civilization Works says “the activities of US agencies and government-sponsored groups present a clear campaign to disrupt Brazil’s democratic process.”

FOX Business has reached out to the aforementioned organizations and agencies for comment.

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

“The US National Science Foundation (NSF) does not participate in the evaluation of the speech of the American people,” the statement said in a statement. “NSF is investing in extensive research to help us understand how people use and interact with social media technologies and tools that enable things like deep learning.”

“It is in this nation’s economic security interest to understand how these tools are used and how people react to them in order to improve our overall cyber security,” NSF said. “We know that our adversaries are already using these technologies against us in many ways and fraudsters are using these tools on unsuspecting victims. By understanding how these technologies and tools work and are used, this research can inform policymakers’ decisions as they develop regulations and policies to protect the American public.”

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

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“The Biden-Harris Administration has crippled US foreign aid programs and other measures to promote research in Brazil and has refused to address free speech that is protected under our US Constitution here at home,” said Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. , the statement said. “Freedom of speech is essential to a democracy. It is unconscionable that the United States is using taxpayer dollars to promote this type of censorship that is completely at odds with our American constitutional culture.”

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

UX has suspended operations in Brazil and pulled employees out of the country due to what Musk called “censorship orders” by de Moraes.

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

However, last week, de Moraes issued further demands for X’s extradition, including the withdrawal of Starlink’s complaints.

Rumble chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski issued a statement in support of the bill introduced by House Republicans this week, noting how the Florida-based video platform “pulled its resources out of Brazil following the demands of Brazilian courts.” “People around the world look to America to protect freedom of speech, and this bill is a step in the right direction,” he said.

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Michael Shellenberger, CBR Chair of Politics, Research, and Free Speech at the University of Austin and founder and president of Civilization Works, said that “research funded by the US government has directly affected the American people” and “is a reason to panic, especially since Brazil is at risk to be a test case for what censorship advocates want to do around the world.”

“Perhaps the most alarming thing is that the Brazilian government is not only banning constitutionally mandated speech, it is trying to ban independent journalists and politicians from all major social media platforms, including interfering in elections,” he said.

Brie Stimson of FOX Business contributed to this report.