Barack Obama built his political career on attacking free speech.
Now he's back with his most brazen assault yet on the First Amendment.
And Barack Obama unveiled one awful media scheme that's straight out of the Soviet Union.
Obama floats government control over what Americans read online
Barack Obama resurfaced this week with a terrifying proposal for how government should crack down on social media.
In a newly released video, Obama called for "government regulatory constraints" on social media platforms to control what he labeled "dangerous" voices.¹
"Part of what we're going to have to do is to start experimenting with new forms of journalism and how we use social media in ways that reaffirm facts and separate facts from opinion," Obama stated. "We want diversity of opinion. We don't want diversity of facts."²
Translation: Obama wants government bureaucrats deciding what information you're allowed to see.
"By the way, it will require some government, I believe, some government, um, regulatory constraints around some of these business models in a way that's consistent with the First Amendment," Obama continued.²
There's that familiar refrain from free speech opponents — a meaningless nod to the First Amendment right before explaining how they plan to gut it.
Obama argued government needs to police platforms that "elevate the most hateful voices or the most polarizing voices or the most, uh, dangerous, in the sense of inciting violence, voices."²
Who gets to define "hateful" or "polarizing" or "dangerous"?
Obama and his friends in the Deep State, apparently.
Thomas Massie moves to undo Obama's propaganda legacy
U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) just introduced legislation to roll back one of Obama's most seditious acts against the American people.
HR 5704 would repeal the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 that Obama signed into law.³
That law officially allowed CIA propaganda outlets like Voice of America to flood Americans with government-produced content.
"Taxpayer-funded fake news should not be used by the federal government to wage influence campaigns against the American people," Massie declared.³
The 1948 Smith-Mundt Act erected a firewall preventing the State Department from disseminating propaganda domestically.
Obama tore down that wall in 2012.
His administration claimed the internet made it impossible to wall off foreign-targeted propaganda from American audiences.
But the truth is darker.
Obama legalized what the CIA had been doing illegally for decades through Operation Mockingbird — using journalists as assets to shape public opinion.
The Church Committee investigations in 1975 revealed the CIA had cultivated secret relationships with at least 50 journalists who helped spread government propaganda.⁴
Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone exposé reported that number was closer to 400 press members working as intelligence assets.⁴
Obama didn't just continue this practice — he made it legal.
Massie's bill would shut down the propaganda machine
HR 5704 contains several critical provisions that would protect Americans from their own government's information warfare operations.
The bill would restore the prohibition on domestic dissemination of propaganda by the State Department and United States Agency for Global Media.³
It creates oversight mechanisms allowing Congress to review propaganda materials sent overseas without enabling their exploitation against Americans.
The legislation would ban the State Department and USAGM from creating covert social media accounts, websites, or podcasts targeting Americans.³
Materials would be archived at the National Archives with 20 years of delayed public access and disclaimers identifying the government as the source.
Massie's bill has seven cosponsors including Representatives Scott Perry (R-PA), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Chip Roy (R-TX), Eric Burlison (R-MO), and Mark Harris (R-NC).⁵
The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin endorsed the measure, stating lawmakers have a duty to protect "the integrity of our democratic republic" by supporting it.⁶
"We need independent media informing independent thought, not state-sponsored narratives instilling state-sanctioned opinions," Wisconsin Libertarian Party Chair Reese Wood explained.⁶
Obama's media manipulation goes back decades
Obama's hostility toward press freedom isn't new.
Leonard Downie, the former Washington Post executive editor who handled Watergate coverage, authored a 2013 report for the Committee to Protect Journalists calling Obama's administration "the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration" in controlling information flow.⁷
CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer told the Post that Obama ran "the most manipulative and secretive administration I've covered."⁷
Obama prosecuted more journalists and whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous presidents combined.
That's the real Obama legacy on press freedom — not flowery speeches about transparency, but aggressive prosecution of anyone who challenged his narratives.
Now Obama wants to complete the job by giving government explicit authority to censor social media platforms.
The former President who weaponized the IRS against Tea Party groups and spied on journalists wants Americans to trust him to decide what information they're allowed to see.
Obama's latest censorship scheme proves why Massie's legislation is so critical.
Americans deserve to know when their government is trying to manipulate them.
¹ "WATCH: Obama Demands 'Regulatory Constraints' of Social Media," PJ Media, October 30, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ "Press Release: Rep. Thomas Massie Introduces Legislation to Repeal Smith-Mundt Modernization Act," Quiver Quantitative, October 8, 2025.
⁴ "Operation Mockingbird," Wikipedia, August 3, 2025.
⁵ "Thomas Massie," Congress.gov, October 8, 2025.
⁶ "Libertarian Party of Wisconsin Urges Support for Smith-Mundt Repeal Bill," Independent Political Report, October 13, 2025.
⁷ "President Obama's Dangerous Precedent on Press Freedoms," U.S. News & World Report, January 27, 2017.
