Misinformation, Disinformation, State Action & the First Amendment

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

There have been a number of controversies in recent times involving social media companies. One question that has arisen recently is whether Section 230 is protective of free speech or an incursion on it. The resolution of this question may depend on whether and under what circumstances insulation from liability for restricting speech constitutes state action under the First Amendment. A second is whether and when government actors setting up teams to monitor private speech or communicating with social media companies to encourage them to restrict or ban participants on platforms implicates the First Amendment. A third is whether the Supreme Court should consider revisiting the “actual malice” standard for libel set forth in its 1964 decision New York Times v. Sullivan, as Justices Thomas and Gorsuch have urged. A fourth is how the First Amendment should apply to public universities. And there are likely others. This panel proposes to explore these and related issues.

Sub Unit

• Partner Associations / Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

Chair

• Daniel H. Lowenstein University of California, Los Angeles

Presenters

• Kyle Thomas Hammerness The Federalist Society

• Eugene Volokh UCLA

• Charles Capps The University of Chicago

• Jesse T. Richman Old Dominion University