We have previously discussed laws that seek to criminalize “materially deceptive” political content worldwide, including memes and parodies. A civil law was blocked in California, where satirists and comedians opposed a Democratic law barring parodies and other expressions considered misleading. Now, legislators in Hawaii are trying again with a new law (S 2687) that criminalizes “recklessly” distributing “materially deceptive media.” It is clearly unconstitutional and is only the latest such effort to chip away at free speech protections in the United States.
Gov. Josh Green (who is up for re-election) signed S2687 into law in July 2024. It prohibits the distribution of “materially deceptive media” that portrays politicians in a way that risks harming “the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate.”
It also forces distributors of satirical content to post large disclaimers on the satirical nature of the content, which the litigants argue negates the satirical intent.
Violators face jail time, large fines, and lawsuits.
S2687 makes a first-time violation “a petty misdemeanor.” Haw. Rev. Stat. § 11-303(d). Conviction for a petty misdemeanor can result in a sentence of up to 30 days in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. Haw Rev. Stat. §§ 701- 107(4), 706-640(1)(e).
A second violation “within five years of a previous conviction for” S2687 is “a misdemeanor.” Haw. Rev. Stat. § 11-303(e). Conviction for a misdemeanor can carry a sentence of imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to $2,000. Haw Rev. Stat. §§ 701-107(3), 706-640(1)(d).
Violating S2687 “with the intent to cause violence or bodily harm” is “a class C felony.” Haw. Rev. Stat. § 11-303(f). Conviction for a class C felony can carry a sentence of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000. Haw Rev. Stat. §§ 706-660(1)(b), 706-640(1)(c).
The law is enforceable for nine months before every election, with exemptions for “disclaimers, broadcasters, and interactive computer services.”
The Bablyon Bee and a Christian satire website are among the challengers to the law. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the litigants.
Astonishingly, only one legislator voted against the law in Hawaii despite opposition from the Hawaii Office of the Public Defender and Hollywood’s chief lobbying group. It is a chilling measure of the decline of free speech values, particularly in the Democratic Party.
Once again the American left is taking the lead from Europe in such laws. Countries like Germany have prosecuted those who parody politicians.
Leading Hawaii Democrats have been lampooned in satire on sites like Bablyon Bee and those postings would now be treated as criminal matters. That includes Babylon Bee running such items as Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch, Babylon Bee (Oct. 14, 2020).
AI-generated content does raise serious problems for possible legislative changes. However, there are already laws governing the impersonation of individuals as well as forms of fraud. This law sweeps far too broadly in my view to pass constitutional muster.
Thank God the election went the way it did, I can’t imagine living in a world they’ve mapped. Jonathan’s blog would be eliminated and he’d be sent off for reconditioning. These bananas should be given a plot of land away from everyone, where they can live their idea of utopia. Let’s see how long that lasts.
It’s a joke right? Babylon Bee isn’t doing this, right?
BB is satire. What’s next, saying that kindergartens can’t read my two daddy’s?
Funny thing is, that the nightly news from the legacy media should be the first ones prosecuted for its lies and distortion.
President Lincoln was a great president.
Precedent is an established rule or authority.
President Lincoln imposed martial law.
President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.
President Trump must soon impose martial law and suspend habeas corpus—as did Lincoln—to suppress the coordinated rebellion of the juristocracy, sanctuary cities, doxers, ICE rioters et al., and those who would incite the same, such as “8647.”
“President Lincoln was a great president.
Precedent is an established rule or authority.
President Lincoln imposed martial law.
President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus.”
Your 3rd & 4th statements totally contradict the premise stated in your 1st.
*. Didn’t Jerry Falwell start this? If Larry Flynt prevailed then anyone and anything can.
Go Babylon Bee!!!!!!
Even with good intentions, the greatest threat to most politicians is not a foreign enemy nor bankrupting the nation. Most politicians of both parties fear legal First Amendment exercises.
The optics are that Hawaii’s Spirit of Aloha rejects both the 1st and 2d Amendments of the United States Constitution. What’s the back story of CCP involvement. How does this fit in with their designs on the Pacific Ocean?
Think Panama Canal.
Leading Hawaii Democrats have been lampooned in satire on sites like Bablyon Bee and those postings would now be treated as criminal matters
“Peter Marshall: according to the constitution what’s the proper term for our form of government?
Paul Lynne: at the moment shaky or will you accept [Bronx cheer]?”
Instead of challenging the Law preventatively, these satirical groups should put together a truly insulting hilarious mother-of-all memes that eviscerates the Left, and deliberately post it within the forbidden period and hope for an arrest. The resulting trial would have the whole Nation laughing, and show how puny and humorless these Democrats are. Right now it is just a dull, dry, arcane legal matter. It needs a punchline.
Yes, using law enforcement to quell deceptive political infowarfare is a totally wrongheaded approach — it places too much power in government’s hands. The 1st Amendment precludes any such role for gov.t.
That said, manipulative infowarfare should CANNOT be judged acceptable if we want to remain a healthy, well-adjusted, functioning democracy brimming with confidence and trust. Inauthentic, conniving actors and their public frauds must NEVER be accorded the same legal access to the public square as sincere, candid, truth-speaking voices. Otherwise, trust breaks down, and raucus, paranoid zealotry takes over the public conversation. At that point, regrettable public decisions — based on clever fabrications only to be later revealed — become the inevitable outcome.
Gulf of Tonkin scam, Saddam’s secret WMD pact with Al Qaeda, Hunter’s laptop, the “rigged 2020 election”. Is brazen duping of the public covered by the 1st Amendment? It cannot possibly be according to James Madison, because the authority placed in govt. derives from “the consent of the governed”. If that consent be obtained through trickery and deceit, how does the word “consent” be applicable?
The correct approach is to be found in our 250 year tradition of Defamation law. Private lawsuit is the safest means to deter public frauds waged for political advantage. This leaves the power to decide fact from artful fiction in the hands of 12 average Americans after adversarial presentations of evidence. The only reforms needed are faster court processes that can keep up with the pace of scurrilous infowarfare, and removing the restriction that duping the public has to involve reputational injury to a named party. It should be enough that the devious infowarrior seeks to goad and manipulate all of us. That’s repugnant to who we are — but it must be dealt with in the proper way.
I would ask all of our American speech nazis to simply observe all of this globe’s nations that lack free speech and qualify the nature of life in those nations.
Our closest sister nations- Britain, Canada, and Australia all are experiencing gross restrictions of rights because none of them had the prescience to include a Bill of Rights in their governing policies and now they are trampling on their own citizens because progressive ideologies have gained control of their nation’s.
We have a 50-50 chance to prevent the loss of those rights here – will we be brave enough to prevent that?
Bible study once was a required course in Ontario’s public schools.
Those 3 countries will pull out of it. Believe it or not, it will help them do so if you expect them to do it, and say so publicly. We’re all in a learning phase with borderless, anyone-can-publish-instantly digital media.
Did you know that soon after Gutenburg’s moveable type revolution, some of the best selling books were treatises on witchcraft, pulled 100% out of their author’s rear ends, which ignited a century of witch-hunts and murders. Today’s version is no different — religious Islamist zealots pumping out their paranoid fictions, spurring terrorist attacks like we just saw in Boulder.
America is several steps ahead to have 1A, but there are definite abuses of the public square. One is defamation, which is not protected by 1A (except to the extent civil lawsuit and $ judgment is the remedy, not prosecution and imprisonment.) Still, there are social media phenomena such as doxxing, professional cancelling and veiled threats that normal people find cowardly, vile and repugnant. Foreign adversaries, including the CCP, Kremlin and Hamas, believe they have a right to proselytize American youth — parents vehemently disagree on such an extreme definition of free speech.
It will take time to adjust our legal system to these new realities. In the meantime, it would be good to admit that 1A is not “anything goes”, and try to enumerate its exceptions. If we can’t take that nuanced approach, we run the risk of handing our sworn enemies, and the least trustworthy con-artists among us undeserved advantages.
To continue with GEB’s excellent “Ridiculous Speed,” Spaceballs allusion, that is exactly what we have here. They are so afraid that people just might read satire of how someone said or did something dumb and find it amusing.
Ridiculous Speed coming from Ridiculous people, is right.
In the meantime here are two excellent examples of great satire,
Depressed Trump Asks Melania If She’d Put On A Baseball Cap And Say Space Stuff To Cheer Him Up
https://babylonbee.com/news/depressed-trump-asks-melania-if-shed-put-on-a-baseball-cap-and-says-space-stuff-to-cheer-him-up
Not A Good Look: Kilmar Garcia Traffics 7 Kids Into U.S. On Return Flight From El Salvador
https://babylonbee.com/news/whoops-kilmar-garcia-trafficks-7-kids-into-us-on-return-flight-from-el-salvador
Two more to make your morning a little brighter!
Simone Biles Calls For All Female Athletes To Just Give Up Like She Did
https://babylonbee.com/news/simone-biles-calls-for-all-female-athletes-to-give-up-like-she-did
8 Hacks Girls Can Use To Win Track Meets In California
https://babylonbee.com/news/8-hacks-girls-can-use-to-still-win-track-meets-in-california
Hawaii notoriously (and apparently, quite casually) violates both First and Second Amendments. Regarding the latter, it has passed a number of firearms regulations in the past few years that are in obvious violation of the Heller and Bruen SCOTUS decisions. Their Federal District court has upheld those regulations, and the foot-dragging and obfuscation by Coward Edwards and his cohorts has prevented (protected?) SCOTUS from setting these issues to Constitutional rights. Since the State of Hawaii clearly wants to go its own way on such issues, and since it is a substantial net drag on the Federal budget, I would favor accommodating them. Encourage them to secede from the Union; let them pay their own (immense) social welfare expenses; and provide for their own internal and external (international, post-secession) security. This would also help resolve the tremendous cultural dissonance between the 50th state and most of those on the North American continent. Problem solved.
Progressive states understand their constituents are not smart.
https://www.compliancegate.com/bag-suffocation-warning/
“materially deceptive media”
What does that mean?
Suppose I say that a D politician is a two-bit loser. Is that “materially deceptive” because, due to inflation, he’s really a four-bit loser?
It’s more a question of who decides (what is materially deceptive)? Just say “no” to govt. prosecutors.
But a civil lawsuit jury can make very good judgments as to fact vs. fiction. That is exactly the role that juries of 12 average Americans play, and the Founders were brilliant in giving us this legal system. It was this system that held WaPo and CNN accountable for the hatchet-job done on Nicholas Sandmann. It was this system that held Alex Jones accountable for his vile garbage accusing the Sandy Hook victims as having made the whole thing up. The jury found Jussie Smollett guilty — though he only served 7 days behind bars, the fact of what he did was legally established by a jury, and made official.
Who DON’T we want sorting out truth from fabrication? Activist journalists. Politicians. Any one powerful individual.
I note that broadcasters are exempt. So strange. Oh I get it. If that exception was not included then ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Wash Post, New York Times, Boston Globe etc would have to shut down for 9 months before every election in Hawaii. Hawaii is already gorgeous and with all that silence you might have a real boom in vacationers.
Oh that would also require the shutdown of political party advertisements, proclamations from the cities and state.
Can you imagine the disclaimers before any proclamation or comment by the governor or mayor. Maybe 3/4 of the message would be a disclaimer.
On the other hand, with freeing up all that bandwidth, our streaming services would likely speed up to Ridiculous Speed. (Disclaimer-allusion to “Spaceballs”)
Are you trying to be funny old man? You failed.
Anonymous 8:15 AM- and you are doing your tiresome mimicry of Dark Helmet. Fortunately Rick Moranis already had the role and played it well. Return to your place as the paramour of Hades.
GEB,
I think the line “What’s the matter, Colonel Sandurz? CHICKEN?” would apply to this annony moron in this case.
GEB,
Good point about the broadcasters.
I got the Spaceballs reference allusion! Good one! Very fitting to this case.
Again, what is so ridiculous?
Spell it out instead of criticize something you obviously can’t understand.
You’re just the idiot the dems are looking for.
Again, what is so ridiculous?
Spell it out instead of criticize something you obviously can’t understand.
You’re just the idiot the dems are looking for.
When you are morons with moronic policies, the only possible way to win an argument is to forcibly silence opposition.
Just another example of progressive stupidity.
Bunch of morons.
Exactly what is moronic about such a law?
You clearly lack the mental acuity to understand what the intent is.
Well, the only moron here is you.
Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists
Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.
Key points
An Internet troll is someone who enters an online discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation.
“Dark Tetrad” personality traits include narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.
In a study of 1200 people, Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity.
Let’s start by getting our definitions straight: An Internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, in fact, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.
“Upset and disrupt”/ You’re joking right. You think this cesspool is an institution of original democratic thought. Boy are you dumb.
Its rare comment that makes any sense here. All you mindless drones do here us scream at dems and insult anything and everything.
As foir troll, you do make one point clear… you are a troll. By your definition.
The troll posts a comment designed to provoke a response. That’s the purpose. If people can’t help responding, that’s on them.
Why do progressive leaders think you are too moronic to understand the Babylon Bee is satire?
There are warning labels on plastic bags for progressives.
Again, what is so ridiculous?
Spell it out instead of criticize something you obviously can’t understand.
You’re just the idiot the dems are looking for.
Never underestimate the ridiculousness of the left.
Bingo.
Kristin Oren,
Well said. It is all they have to offer. Full Ridiculous Speed ahead leftists!!!