Lawmakers are right to worry about platforms’ power over public discourse and democracy. But legislative responses too often seek to empower the government to set new rules for online speech. Courts have rightly held that such laws violate the First Amendment. Attempted work-arounds like using Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authority or statutory immunities to target “lawful but awful” speech have similar problems.
For some lawmakers, this constitutional barrier is a bug. For the rest of us, it is decidedly a feature. The First Amendment is meant to protect us from the short-sightedness about state power that afflicted many Democrats during the Biden administration, and Republicans in this one.
Read full post at Just Security
- Date Published:4.2.2025
- Original Publication: Just Security