The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Missouri, Louisiana and five individuals who were either banned from social media during the pandemic or whose posts, they say, were not prominently featured.

In a major case testing the role of the First Amendment in the internet age, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday hears arguments  focused on the federal government’s ability to combat what it sees as false, misleading or dangerous information online.

Last September, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative federal appeals court in the U.S., issued a broad ruling  that barred key government officials from contacts with social media companies. Among the personnel targeted in the order were officials at the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Surgeon General, the FBI and an important cybersecurity agency.

The appeals court said that individuals at those agencies likely violated the First Amendment by seeking to coerce social media platforms into moderating or changing their content about COVID-19, foreign interference in elections and even Hunter Biden’s laptop. The Supreme Court has put that ruling on hold while it examines the tricky issues in the case.

  • Snot FlickermanEnglish
    12·
    5 months ago

    to quote Trump, “Fake News!”?

    Can we admit that like “woke” and “politically correct” and every word that the Right steals, turns on its head, and makes into a slur, didn’t start with these chucklefucks.

    It’s like how everyone suddenly forgot that “woke” actually originated in black culture and was a positive phrase.

    Before Trump ran with it, several news commentators, Hillary Clinton herself, and a Washington Post article all used the term “fake news” in reference to pro-Trump lunacy spreading online. Trump stole the phrase, ran with it, and it’s become a fucking shitshow.

    So, at the very least, if we’re going to reference “fake news” can we not attribute it to this thoughtless loser motherfucker who definitely couldn’t come up with something on his own because he is devoid of creativity. He only mimics and copies.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-propaganda-effort-helped-spread-fake-news-during-election-experts-say/2016/11/24/793903b6-8a40-4ca9-b712-716af66098fe_story.html

    This was posted in November 2016. Trump would first Tweet “Fake News!” on December 10th, 2016. This was the major news story that promoted the term “fake news.” I remember because I remember valid skepticism around the PropOrNot organization. There is still a disclaimer on this article related to PropOrNot. (Interestingly enough, the genesis with PropOrNot supports your point that fact-checkers can be biased, and that can lead to issues that we would rather avoid)

    Anyway, fuck Trump, can we not give him shit like this? He didn’t coin it, he’s a fucking idiot.

    https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-10-2016