Professor Mary Anne Franks testified before the House Committee on Small Business as a minority witness in the hearing titled, "Under the Microscope: Examining the Censorship-Industrial Complex and its Impact on American Small Businesses." In this hearing, Members examined the impacts the Censorship-Industrial Complex is having on American small businesses, including on their revenue streams, as a result of their speech.
In her testimony, Professor Franks said this:
"Even if one assumes that these highly subjective characterizations of the efforts of universities, research organizations, and experts to combat misinformation and election interference are accurate, what they describe is quintessentially protected speech. The First Amendment protects opinions, including aggressive, critical, and partisan ones, especially about matters of public concern. It even protects false statements to some degree in some contexts. The fact that critical speech may lead to negative consequences for those being criticized—including by losing popularity in the marketplace of ideas or experiencing a decline in revenue—does not transform that speech into censorship. The same First Amendment that protects the right to speak also protects the right to reject, discredit, or ignore speech. The First Amendment does not provide protection against criticism. It does not guarantee any speaker a platform or a profit."
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"The individuals, organizations, and research institutions fighting to maintain the integrity of our elections, our public health systems, and our information ecosystem are not censors. Their work may not be free of error or bias—no human work is—but it is speech that seeks to protect the public interest."
Watch more of her testimony below, or read her full testimony here.