Biden's White House ran a secret pressure campaign that forced Facebook to delete posts about the pandemic.
Now Ted Cruz has a plan that has every official who touched that operation worried.
And someone just backed it who no one on the Left ever expected.
Biden CISA Officials Forced Facebook to Delete Conservative Posts About COVID Vaccines
Rob Flaherty, Biden's director of digital strategy, opened a sustained email campaign targeting Facebook in the summer of 2021.
Court records show he sent at least twelve separate demands for internal data – what posts were being suppressed, how Facebook was responding, and whether any of it was working.
He told Facebook the White House was "gravely concerned" the platform was "one of the top drivers of vaccine hesitancy."
On July 16, 2021, Biden said the platforms were "killing people."
Four days later, his communications director announced the administration was "reviewing" Section 230 – the one law keeping Facebook out of federal court for user comments on its platform.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already described antitrust enforcement as an existential threat to his company.
Facebook's internal emails, surfaced in litigation, show executives understood exactly what was happening – one described the company's position as not "a great place for us to be."
So Facebook changed its policies.
The Fifth Circuit identified Biden's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – CISA – as the operation's central engine, flagging conservative posts about COVID, election integrity, and Hunter Biden's laptop for removal, and ruled the agency had likely violated the First Amendment.
Last March, the government settled – agreeing to a 10-year consent decree barring CISA, the CDC, and the Surgeon General from ever pressuring social media companies again.
Not one official was sued, charged, or held personally accountable for a dime.
JAWBONE Act Would Give Conservatives the Right to Sue Federal Officials for First Amendment Violations
That changes with S. 4749 introduced by Senator Ted Cruz.
The JAWBONE Act – Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression – creates a federal cause of action against any government official who coerces a broadcaster, a social media platform, or an AI company into suppressing protected speech.
Coercion doesn't require a formal order.
The bill defines it broadly – threatening action, implying the possibility of action, or making communications that a reasonable person would understand as pressure to censor.
A court weighing whether a federal official crossed the line would examine eight specific factors: the word choice and tone of the communication, whether the official held regulatory or enforcement authority over the company, whether adverse consequences were referenced, and whether the platform changed its behavior as a result.
That list covers what Rob Flaherty sent Facebook in 2021.
The bill creates a private right of action – meaning the individuals whose posts were deleted, the doctors whose accounts were throttled, and the conservatives who got deplatformed can sue in federal district court.
They can collect compensatory damages and attorney fees.
No official can escape liability by claiming he believed the speech he was targeting was not constitutionally protected.
Cruz chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which means he controls the action on the bill.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez Just Endorsed the Cruz Plan to Hold Government Censors Accountable
Anna Gomez is a Biden-appointed FCC commissioner and the last Democrat standing at an agency now dominated by Trump.
Punchbowl News reported that she had endorsed the JAWBONE Act.
Her term expired on July 1 – two days after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that the president can remove FCC commissioners without cause at any moment.
Trump can fire her tomorrow.
She endorsed Ted Cruz's plan anyway.
Gomez cited Trump’s use of the FCC to regulate broadcasters like ABC as her reason for backing the bill.
The officials who silenced you about COVID, election integrity, and Hunter Biden's laptop – the ones who ran what a federal judge called an "Orwellian" censorship operation and walked away without paying a cent?
This bill puts a price on what they did.
Cruz now has the bipartisan cover to move it, a committee chairmanship to force the vote, and a Democrat on record who couldn't stay silent – even knowing Trump could end her tenure before the gavel drops.
Sources:
- Senate Commerce Committee, "Cruz, Wyden Introduce Legislation to Guard First Amendment Speech Rights Against Government Jawboning," Senate Commerce Committee, June 11, 2026.
- Brooke Singman, "Biden Agency 'Likely' Violated Free Speech by Working with Big Tech to Censor Election Content," Fox News, October 5, 2023.
- Joseph Mackinnon, "Biden's COVID Censorship Machine Takes a Hit: Missouri Wins Landmark Ban on Federal Threats to Big Tech," Blaze Media, March 25, 2026.
- Houston Keene, "Orwellian Biden-Era Censorship Reined In as Red States Celebrate Historic Settlement," Fox News, March 26, 2026.
