The US-invented "Right to Lie" Isn't Freedom of Expression. It destroys it. | Knowledge is Power
The "Right to Lie" is an invention by the corrupt US Supreme Court in 2012 (Alvarez v. United States), and the source of the disinformation chaos in the world today.
Quietly, in 2012, SCOTUS over-ruled the 9th Commandment, and created a Right to Lie. And everyone worshipped the new idol and called it "Free Speech". And it had a child called Cancel. And Truth and the real Free Speech were quietly buried. And Democracy ended with a whimper.
My reply to yet another disinformation site calling itself “the […] Real News” showing biased, half-truths and disinformation to induce irrational hate:
The "Right to Lie" is an invention by the corrupt1 US Supreme Court in 2012 (Alvarez v. United States), and the source of the disinformation chaos in the world today.
(In the Alvarez case, the lie was one of a raft of lies deliberately used by a fraudster to deceive voters into electing him. The Court turned a blind eye to the massive damage such lies cause, and the massive profit gained by the liar from the lies - power, influence, income, opportunity for further dishonest profit. The Court deliberately disregarded the consequences for democracy if voters do not know what they are voting for.)
No other country in history recognizes a “right” to lie. While other countries have laws that protect freedom of expression and information, every country except the United States has laws that prohibit false statements which are defamatory, fraudulent, or misleading. Organisations and individuals can be held liable for deliberately or recklessly spreading false or misleading statements that cause harm to others.
This was the same in America before Alvarez. As was highlighted in Alito J’s dissenting judgment in that very case:
Corporate machinations gradually led to removal of such protections from US public broadcast ‘news’ media. The chilling history of the step by step destruction in America of the integrity of the Fourth Estate - whose sole purpose is to investigate, fact check, ascertain the facts, and report them to us, so every person doesn’t have to do the job of teams of expert trained journalists - is explained in this excellent 2015 documentary by Jen Senko:
Online platforms are immensely empowering to people and democracy. They provide information and a magnifier for speaking truth to power - exposure and pressure by the public, against disinformation and corruption - everything from defective products and services, to misreporting by ‘mainstream’ media (and other platforms), to government policies.
The trouble is the way they are run. They also host, monetise and promote lies and conflict, which has grown a massive disinformation industry used by malign interests for everything from deliberately spreading Covid-19 (bringing massive windfalls to the medical/pharmaceuticals industries), to hiding the true cause of poverty/wealth inequality by blaming race and immigration instead of malignant greed of a few, to protecting and enabling crimes by corrupt dictatorships, to hatchet jobs on governments that act to protect people from exploitation and corruption.
The “right to lie” has licensed platforms, disinformation and trolls to drown out the truth - both from experts and authorities, and from individuals legitimately questioning or challenging wrongdoing.
Privately owned Global online platforms claiming protection of the "right to lie" have polluted every country worldwide which has access to them, with false information and lies, despite laws made by our own elected governments requiring public broadcasting media to report fully, unbiased, and accurately.
(Which is like having laws against train drivers running over people, never updated after cars were invented.)
The disinformation platforms use their enormous influence to stop our individual governments regulating lies, or making them pay for the real investigative work done by our real news media. Look what was done by social media to Ardern, Trudeau, Biden, Harris, and now Starmer (not to mention Zelensky, and and that’s just in the bit of the world that we see).
(Note: the “government legislation” referred to in the FB “notice” screenshot above, only imposes requirements to pay Canadian News providers. Channel 4 News is nothing to do with that, it is a UK news provider. Facebook’s blocking of all news providers has nothing to do with the law, it is censorship used for pure retaliation and blackmail, to mislead the Canadian public that their government is preventing Facebook from showing them news. In fact the law (summarised in the screenshot above) is doing the very opposite: it is a small step to ensure news providers survive by getting at least some part of the income their work generates for online platforms, which is 100% taken by those online platforms. Effectively stealing the news media’s work and selling it for profit.)
The fruits of the “right to lie”:
“Don’t believe mainstream media. They lie and hide the truth.”
Ironically, the number 1 marketing ploy of disinformation is the widest spread lie, that "all" news media lies and hides information. While that is true of many US media owned by corporate giants (which have no interest in providing a service, only in making money and manipulating people to advance their own interests) it is particularly true of social media, which is not even constrained by any need to have a reputation of reliability in order to make huge incomes.
It is not true of regulated media in many other countries, which are required by laws to report fully, fairly and accurately. They provide a service which is essential to democracy - trained expert journalists investigating, fact checking, reporting, and exposing fallacies when they occur. They are under constant public scrutiny which ensures they do their job properly - and face consequences if they don't.
Corrupt countries such as Russia, China and India may have those laws but the governments either themselves violate the laws, and/or do not enforce them.
The rot is spread by US entities buying up media in other countries (such as TV3, Newshub and dozens of other local NZ media bought by US giant Disney Warner) and closing down their investigative reporting; and stealing the work of the remaining investigative news media without compensation, while pocketing the revenue from showing it on their sites. Starving genuine investigation and correction by our professional media, of their disinformation, out of existence.
“All politicians lie”
Even if it was true (which of course it isn’t - yet), how does that make it OK?
We don’t let gang members commit crimes because they “all do”. When we catch them, we arrest them. We apply extra resources to monitor them, like other high risk situations (for example, domestic violence or high crash roads).
Social media violation of laws of other countries
See this discussion (start at 23:44): https://youtu.be/FVsNGvjxn6w&t=1424
The victims
We, and our elected public servants, are the victims.
The so called “useful idiots” and “low information voters” who repeat disinformation are no different from the junior gang member who is taken along to a gang rape, or burglary, and participates, and subsequently encourages others to do so. Except what we are seeing “useful idiots” do is (most unwittingly) participating in the sponsored and organised rape of our information systems, and the theft of our ability to exercise our democratic voting rights, by lies and rage-farming.
That is what we should be enraged about.
This, of course is then used as a convenient, and false, argument for ending democracy. “Low information voters” are not born, they are made. Many are busy business administrators, professionals and academics. All, apart from a few with extreme mental health disabilities, run lives, relationships, households and jobs. They understand the lies and disinformation they are presented with.
They are well able to comprehend the truth and make informed decisions, if they do not have to perform the work of professional journalists to find it. They are not “lazy” - some work 3 jobs and support a family on their own; it is simply impossible to perform the work of the entire 4th estate on top of a job and normal daily commitments. It is not their fault if they are fooled, or give up when faced with mountains of lies, including that “there is no truth”. It is the fault of inadequate education, and the information pollution they are exposed to.
What to do about it
Simple. That’s what laws are for. To protect people and enforce human rights - including freedom of information, and the right not to be defrauded. Our legislative systems seem to have been paralysed by “think tanks” shouting that we have some “right to lie”, and any regulation by laws will be abused to shut down “freedom of speech”.
That’s like saying we shouldn’t have murder laws because they will be abused to shut down freedom of movement and privacy. The answer is, any legal system can be abused. So we have safeguards to ensure it is not. Such as open courts we can see for ourselves (which IMO should be available on live and archive video, as many are in America), appeals, media reporting on them to us, and our elected legislatures to correct laws which are misapplied and to ensure rights are protected.
See footnote for articles on how to protect us safely.2
Given the enormous spread and power of social media, and the billionaire owners’ charming inclination to destroy any government which tries to restrain the lies and hate they make money from, the United Nations is the only entity powerful and co-ordinated enough to properly protect and enforce it’s universally guaranteed rights of freedom of expression, information, and the Press, against these malign giants with their own agendas.3
Conclusion
This US "right to lie" has undermined truth and accuracy in public discourse worldwide, causing harm, social chaos and undermining trust in institutions, governments, and media outlets. Even in truth itself - with recognised consequences of mass psychosis.
The "right to lie" has actually destroyed freedom of expression, drowning it in a sea of disinformation so it cannot be distinguished or often, even seen or heard.
This highlights the need for other countries to be aware of the consequences of the Alvarez decision and to take steps to protect their own citizens and institutions from the spread of false information, while protecting citizens’ access to the miracle of information and communication of the internet. It also underscores the importance of international cooperation and regulation to address the global challenges posed by the proliferation of lies and misinformation by global giants.
Taking part in the running of our countries by democracy used to be interesting, consultative and rewarding. Now it has been turned by disinformation into an off-putting, conflicted nightmare. Which is perfect for forces which don’t want democracy.
We can claim back our power, by insisting on our right to information - to full and fair investigation and reporting of the truth - and protection from lies, supporting and voting for representatives who will enforce it, and listening to our experts over disinformation influencers. And by boycotting the platforms which try to take it away (in particular, the advertisements on those platforms).
Postscript: Facebook removed my post about this article.
(How could this be spam? It was posted once.) After it was removed I posted it 2x more, each time after disputing the decision. This 3 word post was removed three times. After various experiments, I replaced the link with an image. Then, it did not remove my post - yet.
Although I have previously had an image (a screenshot of some text) removed as “disinformation”, which it was not. It was about Project 2025. Clearly all uploaded images are scanned and analysed. So I await developments.
Post-postscript: the same day my posts were removed, Mark Zuckerberg made an 8 second announcement of the end of sovereignty of every government in the world.
In the last 8 seconds of the video below.
No, I am not hyperbolising.
Un-elected tech billionaires whose lives are built on exploitation and deception of others, with no interest whatsoever in people’s safety or welfare, have united and have now openly declared their intent to remove any ability of our elected governments to protect us from them flooding us and our society with hate and lies. They intend to take control of what people in every country in the world, are told.
“Finally, we're going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”
(SEE ALSO:
Chilling.
America, wake up.
The rest of the world - wake up.
This is how we turn into Russia- fast.
Next:
How to cure information pollution - Knowledge is Power
"When private power takes over government, that's fascism.": great truism. Fascism is enabled by, and built on, lies and manipulation of media. Here's one solution. Let's do it.
Next: AI is brainwashing everyone with lies:
Arguing with AI Disinformation - 21st Century Tilting at Windmills | Knowledge is Power
Here are some examples of dangerous disinformation spread by search engines’ AI responses. Brave Search AI acknowledged disinformation and corrected it if challenged. But are the corrections applied in the future? And what about all the other AI search engines?
For corruption of the US Supreme Court, see eg
Further articles - how to stop disinformation (and see more in my substack archive):
How to cure information pollution - Knowledge is Power
"When private power takes over government, that's fascism.": great truism. Fascism is enabled by, and built on, lies and manipulation of media. Here's one solution. Let's do it.
Why "Every person in the world needs media literacy" is astro-turf.
The long history of fake news | Elizabeth Mehren | TEDxBerkeley - is a sales pitch to profit from the disinformation industry. Nobody wants that industry.
Why the Internet should be publicly controlled - Knowledge is Power
The internet is our information road network. It's time to get rid of the gaslight "right to lie" invented by the corrupt US Supreme Court in 2012 and the disinformation "law of the jungle".
The United Nations is our special organisation to maintain international peace and promote human rights. It consists of every country in the world, except one. The Russian Federation, which has never been a member, has hijacked and effectively disabled it since 1991. So, we need to reclaim the UN first. That is easy; how easy it is has been drowned in - haha - 34 years of disinformation. All explained in:
Images - Russia and the UN
The video and documents proving Russia is not in the UN, and it's representatives can be expelled by a simple majority (of members present and voting, abstentions aren’t counted) resolution of the UN General Assembly, within a week. No veto, no "reform".
These always get responses such as “but who will watch the watchers?” which is a legit question when asked in good faith but is often put forward by people who (want us to) assume that there can be no adequate answer.
The truth is that many other countries with such regulations still have had freedom of speech and of the press in every meaningful way for decades.