Jim Jordan spent two years documenting how Europe and Brazil were quietly forcing American companies to delete conservative speech.
Now a third country just passed a law targeting YouTube, Facebook, and X – and it already used the same playbook to trap someone.
What it did to a Trump official on American soil just forced Jordan to act.
South Korea's National Assembly passed an amendment to the country's Information and Communications Network Act last December.
It went into effect last month.
Under the new law, courts can punish news outlets and social media users for spreading what the government decides is "false or manipulated information."
Post an opinion a Korean court has declared false more than twice, and the Korea Media and Communications Commission – the KMCC – can issue a fine of up to 1 billion won.
That's $656,000 – for a social media post.
It specifically targets American platforms – YouTube, Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Under the amendment, those platforms must either remove speech South Korea has deemed false or face massive fines for failing to comply.
Rep. Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fired off a formal letter to the KMCC chairman Thursday alongside three colleagues – Reps. Darrell Issa, Scott Fitzgerald, and Michael Baumgartner.
The letter called the amendment "a major threat to online speech and expression" that would allow South Korea "to coerce American businesses into removing politically disfavored speech, including the speech of American citizens."
Jordan demanded a briefing from South Korean officials by August 20.
The Trump Official Trapped in Seoul Under South Korea's Censorship Law
Morse Tan – a former Trump administration ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice and former dean of Liberty University Law School – is currently trapped in South Korea.
He can't go home.
Tan traveled there in May to monitor elections.
South Korean prosecutors indicted him on July 16 under the Information and Communications Network Act – for a speech he gave at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. the previous year.
Standing on American soil, he told the audience there have been reports that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung "as a youth, was involved in gang-raping and murdering a young lady, and as a result was put in juvenile detention."
Police had already closed the case against Tan, citing his status as a foreign national whose remarks were made in the United States.
Prosecutors overruled them – arguing that defamation jurisdiction applies wherever the harm is "felt."
Now Tan faces potential prison time.
South Korean courts have upheld his exit ban three times.
His lawyers said after the last ruling that the judiciary had "completely forgotten its responsibilities" and proved "the collapse of the separation of powers and constitutional order."
Jim Jordan Has Been Exposing the Foreign Censorship Threat for Two Years
What's happening in Seoul is the third time in two years Jordan has caught a foreign government running the same move.
Jordan's Judiciary Committee spent 2025 and 2026 pulling documents out of Big Tech under subpoena – and what they found was ugly.
The European Union had spent a decade quietly pressuring American platforms to suppress conservative content on COVID-19, mass immigration, and gender ideology – not just in Europe, but globally, including inside the United States.
In Brazil, a single Supreme Court justice was issuing secret orders forcing YouTube and X to ban American accounts and scrub content the Brazilian government didn't like.
The government defines "false information," fines platforms that don't comply, and Americans never know their feed was quietly cleaned up for them.
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald was direct: "No foreign government should have the power to pressure American companies into censoring constitutionally protected speech."
South Korea looked at what Europe and Brazil were doing – and decided to join in.
The difference this time is that a Trump official is already trapped inside the country – and can't get out.
Sources:
- Jon Brown, "Jim Jordan, House Republicans raise concern over 'major threat' from South Korea's 'fake news' law," The Christian Post, August 7, 2026.
- "Trump-linked American facing defamation trial over incendiary comments about South Korean president," The Washington Times, August 4, 2026.
- "Former U.S. Ambassador Remains Under South Korea Exit Ban Over DC Remarks," The Epoch Times, July 17, 2026.
- "Digital regulations in foreign countries are exporting their censorship laws, lawmakers say," Just the News, July 2026.
- "New Report Reveals the Extent of the Brazilian Censorship Regime's Threat to American Free Speech," House Judiciary Committee, April 1, 2026.
