Harvard Legal Scholar Suggests Retooling The First Amendment To Protect Democracy

Harvard legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein, SSRN, July 29, 2019, writes that Times v. Sullivan is an “anachronism” given advances in technology and “new findings in behavioral science.” Given the way agents both domestic and foreign try to manipulate U.S. politics, the Supreme Court may want to reconsider its ruling in 2012 that intentional falsehoods are protected by the First Amendment. Sunstein writes, “Government should have authority to control deepfakes and doctored videos, and also certain kinds of ‘fake news,’ when it threatens political processes. It also emerges that Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms should do far more than they are now doing to control falsehoods, deepfakes, and doctored videos.”