UNCjigga
Lifer
Thought this was an interesting piece from Axios:
https://www.axios.com/us-laws-dont-...ion-b45267dc-270f-4cc9-bb79-a5b61e60ffc0.html
The big picture: There is no U.S. law that prevents candidates, parties or political groups from launching their own disinformation campaigns, either in-house or through a contractor, so long as foreign money isn't involved.
Broadly, U.S. campaign finance laws don't regulate free social media accounts. Even a vast network of inauthentic bot and troll accounts would likely be treated as a protected form of political speech.
"The Federal Election Campaign Act does not address this situation," said Charles Spies, the leader of Clark Hill's global political law practice. He noted that an aggressive prosecutor might try to find clever ways to apply seemingly unrelated statutes — just as they might for any other action that seems wrong but has no directly applicable law.
The only firm rules are the boundaries political actors set for themselves.
Oh this was rather telling...
Axios reached out to the parties to see if they took active stances on the issue.
"The DNC does not hire outside entities to generate inauthentic content, and we advise campaigns against engaging in these activities," Democratic National Committee chief security officer Bob Lord told Axios. [Note: There’s no guarantee individual campaigns or PACs aren’t engaging in social media propaganda campaigns...only that DNC isn’t funding them directly]
The Republican National Committee did not respond to several requests for comment.
So...what’s your opinion? What are the limits of constitutionally protected free speech (and should there be limits when it comes to campaigns for public office?)
How would you sue a fake social media account for libel, much less pursue thousands of them?
https://www.axios.com/us-laws-dont-...ion-b45267dc-270f-4cc9-bb79-a5b61e60ffc0.html
The big picture: There is no U.S. law that prevents candidates, parties or political groups from launching their own disinformation campaigns, either in-house or through a contractor, so long as foreign money isn't involved.
Broadly, U.S. campaign finance laws don't regulate free social media accounts. Even a vast network of inauthentic bot and troll accounts would likely be treated as a protected form of political speech.
"The Federal Election Campaign Act does not address this situation," said Charles Spies, the leader of Clark Hill's global political law practice. He noted that an aggressive prosecutor might try to find clever ways to apply seemingly unrelated statutes — just as they might for any other action that seems wrong but has no directly applicable law.
The only firm rules are the boundaries political actors set for themselves.
Oh this was rather telling...
Axios reached out to the parties to see if they took active stances on the issue.
"The DNC does not hire outside entities to generate inauthentic content, and we advise campaigns against engaging in these activities," Democratic National Committee chief security officer Bob Lord told Axios. [Note: There’s no guarantee individual campaigns or PACs aren’t engaging in social media propaganda campaigns...only that DNC isn’t funding them directly]
The Republican National Committee did not respond to several requests for comment.
So...what’s your opinion? What are the limits of constitutionally protected free speech (and should there be limits when it comes to campaigns for public office?)
How would you sue a fake social media account for libel, much less pursue thousands of them?
