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Washington, D.C.— Today, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing reviewing the federal government’s efforts to combat mis- and disinformation from foreign actors. During the hearing, Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) dispelled unfounded claims of government censorship of small businesses and discussed the need for the committee to focus on issues that small businesses care about.

There is simply no evidence that anyone in the small business community is being censored by the government for legitimate political speech,” said Ranking Member Velázquez. “A quick look into the FACTS of my colleagues’ investigation reveals a baseless effort to stir up anger and fear as we approach election season. It’s the oldest trick in the book and a cynical misuse of Committee resources.”

Much of the hearing focused on the work of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which is tasked with countering foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation targeting the United States and its interests. Republicans focused on GEC’s award to a company to develop technology that detects misinformation patterns in other languages overseas.

During the hearing, legal scholar Dr. Mary Anne Franks, testified on the true nature of the GEC’s work and pushed back against claims that the federal government is censoring small businesses.

“Counter speech is not censorship. Criticism is not censorship. Research, even when government-funded, is not censorship. Providing information to advertisers or businesses about what content their ads appear next to is not censorship,” said Dr. Franks, the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School. “Efforts to convince consumers, business, and the public that certain kinds of content are false, fraudulent, harmful, extremist, harassing, or exploitative—regardless of whether that content is protected by the First Amendment—is not censorship.”

“This committee should be using its power to bring attention to real issues facing small businesses,” continued Ranking Member Velázquez. “While we may disagree on tax or regulatory policy, or the best way to help small firms access capital, we can actually agree that those are real issues.”