Free Speech

President Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Free Speech

During his inaugural address, President Trump promised to sign an executive order protect free speech from government censorship, which he signed just a few hours later at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

This executive order, Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship, states that under the Biden administration, federal government officials infringed upon the free speech rights of American social media users by “exerting substantial coercive pressure” on social media companies to remove posts. This included posts they deemed to be “misinformation” about COVID-19, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Therefore, this executive order ensures that no federal government officer, employee, or agent engages in any conduct that violates the free speech rights of any American citizen and that no taxpayer resources are used to do so.

This executive order also calls on the Attorney General to investigate the federal government’s activities over the past four years that are inconsistent with this order and submit a report to the President with recommendations for appropriate remedial action to be taken based on its findings.

The issue of government censorship of Americans’ online speech has been an important issue over the past few years, especially last year when the Supreme Court considered Murthy v. Missouri, a case concerning whether the federal government’s requests to social media companies to combat “misinformation” were coercive and a violation of the First Amendment.

In 2022, members of ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force adopted a model resolution urging Congress to pass legislation that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to censor speech or pressure private companies to remove speech. The model also urged Congress to perform robust oversight over any attempts by the Biden Administration to unconstitutionally censor Americans’ speech online.

This model resolution, along with other ALEC model policy that protects free speech is featured in our latest publication, Essential Policy Solutions for 2025.


In Depth: Free Speech

Freedom of speech is paramount for the American system of government and American culture. Born from revolution, American society has been created, evolved and progressed based in part, on the First Amendment. More specifically, free speech allows individual’s to use their own voice to ensure “We the People” would control…

+ Free Speech In Depth