A recent Supreme Court decision rules that the U.S. government can talk to scientists and social media companies to curb online falsehoods
The US Supreme Court has ruled that the government can continue communicating with researchers and social-media platforms in an effort to reduce misinformation on subjects such as elections and vaccines. The decision stops short of declaring that such activities are protected as free speech under the US Constitution, but it nonetheless represents a win for researchers who continue to face lawsuits alleging that they worked with the government to suppress conservative opinions.
Many conservative activists and politicians thought that these efforts were politically motivated and targeted Republican voices, including those who posted online — incorrectly and without any evidence — that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged. They have launched congressional investigations and brought multiple lawsuits, including the one against the US government that the Supreme Court decided today.
It remains to be seen how today’s ruling will impact lawsuits against scientists, but legal scholars and misinformation researchers contacted by, a misinformation researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was involved in both academic efforts to combat misinformation., kicked off in early September 2020 and ran for 11 weeks.
For its part, Stanford University has ended its rapid-response work on the misinformation projects and laid off two staff members involved, although researchers will continue to work on election misinformation this year. The decision to halt the rapid-response work had nothing to do with a fear of litigation or congressional investigations, says Jeff Hancock, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory.
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