The state of California is looking to create an official “fake news” advisory board to ferret out information they determine to be misleading. And guess who’d be on the panel?
Yep. Looks like a whole bunch of liberals.
According to CBS Sacramento, Senate Bill 1424 would establish a board “required to study how false information is spread online and come up with a plan for social media platforms to fix the problem” by April 1, 2019.
“It would need to consist of at least one person from the Department of Justice, representatives from social media providers, civil liberties advocates, and First Amendment scholars,” the report states.
"The Attorney General would then need to present that plan to the Legislature by December 31, 2019. The group would also need to come up with criteria establishing what is 'fake news' versus what is inflammatory or one-sided," CBS adds.
Free speech groups, on the other hand, have argued that government oversight of information is a dangerous road, pointing out that the constitution strictly prohibits government from prohibiting free speech – regardless of whether it’s false.
But hey, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about, here. Because historically speaking, it’s always ended so well when the government gets into the business of deciding what information is and isn’t true or acceptable. In fact, we should just pile up any objectionable books and pamphlets, while we’re at it. There’s no way that could possibly go wrong!