What is fake news? Facebook and Google offer mea culpas for spreading it and hire legions of staff to counter it. Congress investigated how the Russians promoted it during the 2017 Presidential election. President Trump calls out "fake news"organizations in tweets several times a week. Has the term itself lost its meaning? A recent survey by the Freedom Forum Institute reveals many Americans believe fake news is a major threat, even over hate speech. What more can be done to separate fake news from facts?
Ballard Spahr: First Amendment Bars Trump from Blocking Critics on Twitter, Court Rules
Reprinted with Permission from Ballard Spahr A federal judge has ruled that the First Amendment prohibits President Donald J. Trump from blocking Twitter users because of political disagreements. Last summer, […]
President Trump Takes Fake News Accusations To New Level Tweeting Negative Coverage Equals Fake News
Presidents make use of all forms of communication to get their message out to voters. No other President has so effectively used Twitter as President Trump who has called it his "own form of media" used to counter "fake news." In his latest deluge, President Trump equates negative news coverage with "fake news" and threatens to revoke press credentials (again). The central role of the First Amendment is to protect the people in their writings about government affairs and government officials—and especially when it is negative, as that is when the government is most likely to try to punish writers. As James Madison wrote in his Virginia Report of 1800, freedom of the press protects the "right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right.”
States Debate How To Tackle Disinformation On Social Media Platforms
Maryland, Washington State, New York, California and a growing number of other states are introducing bills to take on fake ads and social media bots that have polluted the internet […]
What International Journalists Have to Worry About After President’s Recent Twitter Tirade
The Atlantic asks how is the U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint against the proposed AT&T–Time Warner merger related to President Trump’s subsequent tweet against CNN International which caused much consternation on Twitter […]
Gene Policinski Commentary – To Trump On NBC ‘License’ Tweet: NO!
The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment expert, Gene Policinski, originally published this commentary on the Newseum blog, and have given First Amendment Watch permission to reprint. There’s only one appropriate, spirit-of-freedom […]
ESPN Anchor Suspended for Repeated Controversial Tweets
When is a tweet a fireable offense? ESPN anchor Jemele Hill has been posting comments that have come under increasing scrutiny. Under Connecticut law, ESPN is bound by First Amendment principles of freedom of speech. The network's recent suspension of Hill for her latest tweets may be an employer stating an employee violated social media guidelines or an action that can be challenged in court.