National security officials, Democratic politicians, and media figures frequently list the dreaded scourge of misinformation as one of their top concerns. Mainstream news organizations incessantly warn their readers and viewers that right-wing provocateurs, Republican politicians, and foreign agents are flooding social media with falsehoods. Tech regulators all over the world—from Brazil to the European Union—are using the threat of misinformation as a pretext for censorship. In the U.S., the First Amendment makes it much more difficult for would-be censors to directly criminalize misinformation, though that won't stop politicians from trying; Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz has already suggested—incorrectly—that misinformation and hate speech are not protected speech.
This claim is itself an example of misinformation, in that it is a false statement; the Supreme Court has steadfastly maintained that hate speech, for example, is protected by the First Amendment. Yet when mainstream Democrats express clearly incorrect statements, they seldom attract the misinformation label. This speaks to the one-sidedness of the concept—a one-sidedness that was perfectly illustrated during a CNN panel on Sunday.
