WFB: Jonathan Turley, a noted law professor at George Washington University and a leading liberal voice, has joined conservatives in condemning Democratic efforts to regulate political speech on the internet.
The legal expert is especially concerned about a new proposal to sue readers of websites, such as the Drudge Report and Facebook, who share “disinformation,” the Washington Examiner reported Friday.
Turley compared the new regulation plan for internet speech, pushed by former Federal Election Commissioner Ann Ravel, to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of free speech.
“To combat ‘fake news,’ Ravel and her co-authors would undermine the use of the Internet as a forum for free speech,” Turley wrote of the proposal on Thursday.
“The regulation would include the targeting of people who share stories deemed fake or disinformation by government regulators,” Turley continued. “The irony is that such figures are decrying Russian interference with our system and responding by curtailing free speech—something Vladimir Putin would certainly applaud.”
Turley warned that the proposal would silence political speech on the web, joining key election law Republicans in opposing the proposal, the Examiner noted.
“In one of the most reckless and chilling attacks on free speech, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Berkeley lecturer Ann Ravel is pushing for a federal crackdown on ‘disinformation’ on the Internet—a term that she conspicuously fails to concretely define.”
Turley said that since ‘disinformation’ is not clearly defined, the proposal effectively gives bureaucrats the power to label posts as false or fake and go after those who share the information.
I get really tired of Turley and Dershowitz. They are always in the news decrying democrat initiatives, and yet they are die-hard democrats!
NBC has been pretty much wrong in 9 out of 10 news(?) stories and they want to police conservatives?
Just who will be the gatekeeper, Huff and Puff?
This is a load of fetid road apples.
One more reason to celebrate the electoral college.
Ms Ravel’s plan to tie up free speech in legal knots is starting to unravel.
Operative phrase “FORMER Chair of the FEC”. Thank God. And with the Dems in an ever decreasing position in Congress, it would be a tall order for sweet pants to realize her dystopian dream.
Good luck suing me. I’m so broke I can’t pay attention.
🙂
That this is even being discussed in America is horrifying!
The plan is to go after fake news, etc.
OK, so if Drudge (as an ie) is spreading fake news, then we pick it up, you comment on the article of fake news, and we are ALL busted.
Even if the fake news came from someone on the Left and we are discussing it as being fake news doesn’t matter. We’re all in trouble.
Why are 0bama tactics even given a second glance right now?
Fuck the Left sideways with a dirty fork.
What is disinformation, exactly?
You know it when you see it, I suppose…
We should start selling “Fake News Liability Insurance”.
Who’s to decide whether it’s fake news. So far they haven’t been doing a very good job.
When do they start suing NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo, PuffHo, and all of the Lefty news sites that deal in lies on a daily basis?
The Left has really popped their corks, big time, and they need to be taken out. Thank the Powers That Be, that in that regard, they seem to be doing most of the heavy lifting themselves.
If you are going to regulate “fake News” on the Internet, simply extend it to the MSM (NYT, WaPo), TV News (CNN, MSNBC), documentaries (Michael Moore, Ken Burns). You will immediately see the death of the whole idea.
And so the formation of “Big Brother” is officially considered by our government.
Silly Turley….”disinformation is not clearly defined”.
Of course not, that’s the point.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on the human face, forever” ~ George Orwell 1984