Last September, US Congressman Darrell Issa and several of his Republican colleagues introduced HB 9605 – the No Censors on Our Shores Act – to the House Judiciary Committee, and now this body has approved the bill, which needs to be passed in the Senate and the House to become law.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
Nevertheless, it is hailed by some outspoken anti-censorship advocates, like Twitter Files journalists Mark Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger as “a big step” and “wonderful news.”
Given the ongoing disputes between US social media companies and Brazil’s censorship-prone judiciary, Justice Alexandre de Moraes in particular – which is currently producing another flare-up involving Rumble and Truth Social – it is no wonder that the bill prominently addresses this problem.
However, in his reaction, Taibbi made a point that Brazil is not the only place where the values tied to free speech (or lack thereof) will be causing political clashes with the new US administration – the EU and a number of its laws, including the DSA, is another.
As for the bill in question, it seeks to make engaging in censorship of American speech by foreign officials “inadmissible and deportable.”
This would be achieved by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to include a provision related to censorship, by introducing entry bans against any person who, while serving as a foreign government official, was either responsible or directly carried out, “at any time, any act” against a US citizen in the US that – had this been done by a US official – “would violate the First Amendment.”
The same Act would also be changed to render such an individual deportable from the US.
The White House is treating foreign governments carrying out censorship against Americans as an issue of sovereignty, in addition to free speech, and so a statement that came shortly after the Judiciary Committee approved the proposed legislation noted, “Respect for sovereignty is a two-way street.”
Earlier this month, Congressman Issa announced the No Censors on our Shores Act of 2025 to point the finger directly at Moraes, at that time singling out the Brazilian Supreme Court justice’s clash with X and Elon Musk, and calling it “a shameful abuse of power” by the court.
“The Biden Administration and its allies did nothing to stop this and much to encourage it. That’s over. Wherever the free speech rights of Americans are under attack around the world, we won’t just see it – we’ll stop it,” Issa stated.
