Lauren Feiner is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Under a new bipartisan bill, Americans could sue for damages if a government official illegally tries to coerce a social media, AI, or broadcasting company to remove their post — regardless of whether the platform actually does it. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the JAWBONE Act on Thursday, which, in addition to letting individuals sue for these kinds of damages, would create new transparency requirements for government communications with social media, AI, and broadcast companies. That could empower someone like Jimmy Kimmel to sue Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who threatened TV stations’ broadcast licenses after the comedian made a joke Carr disliked in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s killing.…