Mis and Dis and Mal
Disinformation experts blast Trump’s executive order on government censorship
One of President Donald Trump’s first actions as he returned to the Oval Office on Monday was signing an executive order aimed at “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship” of US citizens.
The order bans federal officials from any conduct that “would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen” and instructs the attorney general to investigate if the Biden administration engaged in efforts to censor Americans.
“Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the order states.
Right-wing media figures and some Republicans in Congress have for years decried what they claim are efforts by Democrats and technology platforms to censor their speech online, especially around the Covid-19 pandemic and elections. The Supreme Court ruled last year the US government can contact social media companies about mis- and disinformation swirling on their platforms, handing the Biden administration a major victory.
Are lies protected free speech? Or are they just lies?
Is perjury a crime? Or is it just free speech?
Is libel a thing? Or is it just free speech the target doesn’t like?
Not sure if rhetorical …
It’s always been my understanding that lies can be protected under free speech unless they cause harm or fall into unprotected categories such as defamation, fraud, or incitement to violence. Otherwise we couldn’t even have typical marketing puffery like “best flapjacks this side of the Mississippi”. Perjury is a specific exception to the general freedom, as lying under oath undermines the judicial process. Libel falls under the aforementioned defamation exception.
Nullius, Ken White has written extensively and authoritatively (well, at least as much as one can with an increasingly ideologically driven SCOTUS) about free speech and where lies and misinformation sit in the debate. he’s also discussed the exceptions and what their scope and limits are. He also writes quite well, so it’s very accessible.
The EO referenced above is performative. No free speech was prevented by the Government. The Government exercised its own free speech to say ‘that appears to be wrong because.’ More speech is not censorship.