Article from Reason by Zach Weismueller.
President Trump promised that today he’ll announce the recipients of his “Fake News Awards,” an honor he’s sure to bestow upon unflattering coverage that displeases him, a category that will almost certainly include the book Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s insider tell-all of life in the Trump White House.
But with “fake news” back in the real news, it’s worth reflecting upon how both Republicans and Democrats have utilized the amorphous term to lay the groundwork for the regulation of speech on the internet and why that’s a very bad idea.
Shortly after her defeat, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a press conference decrying the prevalence of fake news on social media, calling it “a danger that must be addressed.”
In October of last year, Democrats in both chambers of Congress took up her call, grilling the attorneys for the tech giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and the role of so-called “fake news” in sowing discord and confusion among the electorate.
Read the entire article at Reason.