A bill that would allow Jimmy Kimmel to sue Brendan Carr has arrived

Under a new bipartisan bill, Americans could sue for defamation if a government official tries to force a social media, AI, or broadcast company to take down their site — regardless of whether the platform actually does so.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced the JAWBONE Act Thursday, which, in addition to allowing people to sue over these kinds of threats, could lead to new transparency in government communications with social media, AI, and the broadcast industry.

That could give someone like Jimmy Kimmel the power to sue Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who threatened television licenses after the comedian made a joke Carr didn’t like after the Charlie Kirk murder. (Carr he refused the comments were threatening.) It could also empower prominent social media users whose posts about medical malpractice or criticism of Kirk were removed or censored, if they believe it was due to government pressure.

Cruz at first he mocked the bill after Carr’s comments about Kimmel, which the senator called “from Goodfellas.” But he says he has worked on the bill since before that, and has repeatedly criticized the messages Biden administration officials sent to companies about medical misinformation during the pandemic, which has become an epidemic. Supreme Court case. (The Supreme Court concluded that the plaintiffs had no cause of action, and its decision found a lack of clear evidence that the platforms were controlled by government pressure.)

Bipartisan support and a coalition of supporters including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, could pass the bill. Cruz’s and Wyden’s comments each point the finger at the party’s management for taking action against them. “The Biden administration used the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to pressure Big Tech to ‘ban’ Americans who oppose vaccination pressure and fraud,” Cruz said. “The most obvious example is Trump threatening the cable industry because he doesn’t like their late-night shows, but jawboning is not discriminatory, and it’s not new,” Wyden said. If passed, the law could make such cases the subject of costly litigation, including bitter political battles.