President Donald Trump ordered an end to “federal censorship ” on his first day in office — potentially closing the door on the government-censorship complex.
“ Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation, ’ ‘disinformation, ’ and ‘malinformation, ’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens, ” the order reads. “Government repression of conversation is intolerable in a completely society. ”
Trump signed the order, Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship, Monday evening in front of a group at Capital One Arena. This was one of his first steps after returning to business.
“The previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans ’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve, ” the order reads.
The Trouble
The federal government has a censorship hub — the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ). CISA worked with “Zuckbucks ” groups in 2020 and targeted election speech it deemed “mis-, dis-, and malinformation. ”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , Trump’s nomination for secretary of Health and Human Services, blasted the company for targeting himself and another troublemakers.
“President Biden and his White House opened up a portal, and therefore invited the CIA, the FBI, CISA— which is a censorship agency, the center of the censorship-industrial complex — DHS, IRS, and different agencies, to judge me and another political dissidents on social media, ” Kennedy said while suspending his own political campaign.
The State Department even backed the International Engagement Center, which pushed to deplatform traditional papers including The Federalist. But The Federalist, the Daily Wire, and the State of Texas sued the State Department for First Amendment breaches. The GEC was defunded in the latest Home budget act, but it may soon become resurrected under a new title.
Trump himself faced Big Tech repression when Twitter suspended his bill following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol mob — yet as he was sitting president. It was afterwards found in the Twitter Files that federal officials had pressured the business to silence socially uncomfortable data, including the Hunter Biden Laptop history. Former President Joe Biden’s White House worked with Facebook — then Meta — in a similar way to judge Covid data.
A Solution?
Trump’s professional get — just one in a swamp of Inauguration Day steps — seeks to maintain the First Amendment, “essential to the success of our Republic. ”
It sets forth a federal government policy to secure the right to “constitutionally protected speech, ” ban “any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen, ” and “take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech. ”
The purchase also bans any “[f]ederal department, firm, object, official, employee, or agent ” from using “any Federal resources in a way contrary ” to the above procedures.
It mandates the attorney general — “in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies ” — to investigate federal activities from the last four years “inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order. ” The AG must then “prepare a report ” for the president recommending “appropriate remedial actions. ”
It is unclear what steps the Trump administration will take, pursuant to this order, to investigate or shut down agencies or partnerships that constitute the government-censorship complex.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
