H.R. 4067: Protect the First Amendment Act

This bill, titled the Protect the First Amendment Act, aims to prevent the Federal Government from using taxpayer funds to engage with specific organizations or entities that are involved in what is described as censorship. Here’s a summary of its key provisions:

Prohibition on Funding

The primary focus of the bill is to prohibit the Federal Government from:

• Contracting with or granting awards to covered entities
• Working with nonprofit organizations or other entities that engage in covered behavior

Definitions

The bill provides specific definitions to clarify its terms:

• Covered entity: This term includes:
  • NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. (trading under the name NewsGuard)
  • The Global Disinformation Index, which encompasses entities like Disinformation Index, Inc. and Global Disinformation Index gUG.
• Covered behavior: This refers to activities or operations that aim to diminish or evaluate the credibility of domestic entities, such as news outlets, based on their lawful speech. This includes assessing whether that speech qualifies as misinformation, disinformation, or malinformation.
• Nonprofit organization: An organization defined under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of the same Code.

Overall Purpose

The bill intends to ensure that government funds are not used to support entities that are perceived to engage in censorship by critically evaluating or demonetizing other organizations based on their speech and information dissemination practices.

Relevant Companies

• NGU - NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. may be directly impacted as the bill specifically names it as a covered entity.
• GDI - Global Disinformation Index is also listed as a covered entity and could face restrictions on federal funding.