The JAWBONE Act is a bipartisan federal bill introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on June 11, 2026 that would bar federal agencies and employees from coercing broadcasters, online services, or AI services into changing content. The bill extends longstanding "jawboning" concerns — informal government pressure on private speech intermediaries — to AI services explicitly, placing AI model providers alongside broadcasters and online platforms as protected parties (Source: arstechnica.com).
Key provisions
As described in reporting on its introduction, the bill would:
- Prohibit coercion. Bar federal agencies and employees from coercing broadcasters, online services, or AI services into changing content.
- Create a private right of action. Allow affected parties to sue for compensatory damages regardless of whether the coercion succeeded in changing content.
- Require transparency logging. Require agencies to log their communications with AI and social media companies in a public portal.
(Source: arstechnica.com)
Support
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the Knight First Amendment Institute, and Americans for Tax Reform back the bill (Source: arstechnica.com).
Context
By naming "AI services" as a protected category, the bill situates AI model providers within the jawboning debate that has previously centered on social media content moderation. It runs alongside, and in some tension with, the contemporaneous federal push for government visibility into and access to frontier models under the June 2 AI cybersecurity executive order and NSPM-11, which encourage developers to give the government pre-release model access. Where those measures expand the channels between AI labs and federal agencies, the JAWBONE Act would constrain how agencies may use such channels to influence model outputs.
Relationships
- related: EO — Promoting Advanced AI Innovation and Security (Trump, signed June 2, 2026), AI and Surveillance, AI and the First Amendment
- supports: AI and the First Amendment — extends speech-intermediary protections to AI services
Sources
- Ars Technica, June 11, 2026: "Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden try to fight censorship with bipartisan JAWBONE Act" — (Source: arstechnica.com)