In the week since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, some Republican members of Congress have struck a different tone on social media content moderation of political speech.
GOP members spent much of the Biden administration concerned about government-driven censorship of political speech online, including hearings on the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the federal government’s role in social media platform’s censorship and moderation of election, health and other information.
But since the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk, key Republicans have said social media platforms have a responsibility to suppress posts they say celebrated political violence, a stance experts say could violate the First Amendment’s free-speech rights.
