Government has no business rooting out and flagging ‘misinformation’By David Harsanyi
January 30, 2022
Asked by MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski about the alleged misinformation spread by the popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast and Facebook users, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy responded with a homily about how “we” must “root out” misleading speech.
“We” don’t have to do any such thing. Government officials have no role in dictating appropriate speech or lecturing us on what we can or can’t say. In fact, they have a duty not to.
Murthy’s comments wouldn’t be as grating if it weren’t so obvious that the Biden administration has been pressuring Big Tech companies, who oversee huge swaths of our daily digital interactions, to limit speech and set acceptable standards.
You might remember that last summer, Press Secretary Jen Psaki causally informed the media that the White House was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” Can you imagine the explosive reaction from the establishment media if it had learned that the Trump White House was keeping a list of speech crimes?
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield also argued that social-media companies “should be held accountable” for the ideas of those who use their platforms. President Joe Biden, who previously accused Facebook of “killing people,” this month made a “special appeal to social media companies and media outlets: Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows. It has to stop.”
It doesn’t. I happen to believe that tech companies should enjoy unencumbered free-association rights and be free to keep or kick off anyone they desire from their products. But that position becomes unsustainable if these same corporations, which often spend tens of millions each year in Washington rent-seeking and lobbying for favorable regulations, also take orders from state officials on permissible speech.
And no authentic journalist would turn to a government official for guidance on the matter.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/01/30/government-has-no-business-rooting-out-misinformation/
