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“A Social Media Platform May Not Intentionally Fact Check” a User’s “Religious or Political Speech”

Alaska Senate Bill SB214 would accomplish this in part, as sponsored by Lora Reinbold (state senator) and Mia Costello (state senator).

Some restrictions regarding platforms’ ability to delete posts may be considered constitutional, according to my Use social media platforms as common carriers article or these posts extracted from that article): Justice Breyer (from the dissenting view, but on an issue which, with the majority, was not disagreeable with and which, however, other majority opinions supported),

Sometimes, it is perfectly legal for the government to ask someone to speak at a conference.

But banning fact checking doesn’t just require platforms to host speech on their property—it expressly bars them from engaging in their own speech, since “fact checking” simply means “speech that expresses the platform’s view, or the view of someone selected by the platform, about whether some statement is accurate.” This violates platforms’ First Amendment rights.

While some fact-checking might not be legal and can be taken to court on these grounds, the bill bans all fact checks of any platform user’s religious or political speech. This would apply regardless of whether or not it is constitutionally protected speech (such opinion or truthful statements of facts) or constitutionally unprotected speech libel.

Mike Masnick from Techdirt for the tip.