President Trump took decisive action to restore free speech by banning “federal censorship,” putting an end to years of the Biden administration’s bullying of social media companies to silence dissenting voices.

Just hours after being sworn in, Trump signed an executive order that marked a new era for free expression. Ironically, Big Tech CEOs, whose platforms were strong-armed by Biden officials into censoring content, were seated mere feet away as Trump took the oath of office.

“In America, we believe in free speech, and we’re bringing it back starting today,” Trump told supporters during his post-inaugural address at the Capitol.

The executive order guarantees Americans the right to exercise constitutionally protected speech and bars federal employees from meddling with that right. It also directs the government to “correct past misconduct” tied to censorship — a clear rebuke of the Biden administration’s aggressive efforts to control the narrative around COVID-19, election integrity, and the scandals surrounding Hunter Biden.

Unsurprisingly, former Biden officials were quick to criticize the move. Nina Jankowicz, infamous for leading the Biden administration’s short-lived disinformation board, claimed the order would “chill critical speech about bad actors who use disinformation as a tool to destabilize our country and profit from lies.”

But many hailed the order as a major victory for free speech.

“This is exactly what we all hoped for, and to see it on the first day is really, really encouraging,” said Allum Bokhari, managing director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. He praised the order’s language for exposing the roots of what he called the “government censorship complex.”

The federal government’s obsession with policing speech ramped up during the Biden presidency, building on a playbook crafted after Trump’s 2016 win over Hillary Clinton. Back then, Democrats blamed so-called Russian disinformation for Clinton’s loss and used it as a pretext to crack down on online speech.

Under Biden, censorship reached unprecedented levels. His administration leaned heavily on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Amazon to suppress content that questioned government mandates on masks, vaccines, and other COVID-19 protocols.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Biden’s aides would “call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse” over content they didn’t like, demanding its removal.

Amazon, YouTube, and Twitter also faced relentless pressure from Biden officials, who targeted posts that questioned or even joked about COVID-19 rules.

But COVID wasn’t the only issue. Biden officials also pushed to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. In an August letter to Congress, Zuckerberg detailed how the FBI pressured social media platforms to bury the damning story, effectively shielding Biden during a critical election period.

“While not always directly coercive, these communications effectively forced social media companies to censor more Americans’ speech or else face the wrath of a hostile administration,” said David Inserra of the Cato Institute.

Trump’s executive order aims to dismantle the federal censorship apparatus, which has been propped up by agencies like the State Department, Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation. The order even includes a comprehensive review of these agencies’ funding and programs tied to censorship efforts.

One of the most notorious programs, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, was shut down in late December. Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured diplomats that censorship-related initiatives would not be revived, declaring in a cable, “Programs that lead or in any way open the door to censorship of the American people will be terminated.”

The Biden administration’s heavy-handed tactics were further exposed through the Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri. The lawsuit revealed how top Biden officials threatened social media companies with legal action if they refused to remove content related to COVID-19 origins, vaccine safety, and election integrity.

“A lot of these people would like to see a European-style, top-down government regulation of speech in the USA,” Mr. Bokhari said. “And that’s just not going to happen in a country with the First Amendment.”

What do you think about this executive order from Trump? Will Donald Trump be a better president for free speech than Joe Biden was? Let us know in the comments below.