On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) reacted to Meta shifting its misinformation policies by stating that “free speech doesn’t mean that you have sexual harassment and intimidation and hate speech on a platform” or that you “have the type of misinformation that is going to hurt people’s health or hurt the public health.”
Khanna said, [relevant remarks begin around 32:50] “I’m for free speech, but free speech doesn’t mean that you have sexual harassment and intimidation and hate speech on a platform. It doesn’t mean that you have bots running amok, which aren’t even human beings, and they aren’t tackling any of that. And it doesn’t mean that you have misinformation related to public health that could lead to sickness, disease, and even death.”
He added that there is “no evidence” that there was pressure on Meta over COVID and they “said it was their own decision. And the reality is, when it comes to health and public health, there has long been a doctrine, even under the First Amendment, that you can’t have the type of misinformation that is going to hurt people’s health or hurt the public health. Do you want platforms to be giving misinformation about what medicine someone should take for heart disease or what medicine they should take — or treatment for cancer? Of course, these are regulated for the public good.”
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