Event
Lies and Elections
How exceptional should we consider the electoral context when it comes to the regulation of lies?
How should the government regulate election-related speech? Should lies about where, when, or how to vote be illegal? What of lies about election results, as in Trump’s “Big Lie”? Should such lies be regulated more aggressively by the social media platforms, or even the government? Other election-related lies also raise thorny free speech questions. Can or should foreign actors be able to intervene in electoral speech in the run-up to elections? How much should campaign finance law be used to patrol misinformation and disinformation about election donations and spending? Is it possible to regulate election-related speech more stringently without giving government officials power to undermine the integrity of the democratic process? More fundamentally, how exceptional should we consider the electoral context when it comes to the regulation of lies? And how do race, nationality, and gender play into both election-related disinformation and its regulation?
Schedule
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Online
Featuring
Richard Hasen, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Janell Byrd-Chichester, Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Atiba Ellis, Marquette University Law School
Matt Perault, Center on Technology Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Moderated by
Genevieve Lakier, Knight First Amendment Institute
Speakers
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Janell Byrd-Chichester
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Atiba Ellis
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Richard L. Hasen
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Genevieve Lakier
Knight Institute Senior Visiting Research Scholar 2021-2022; University of Chicago Law School
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Matt Perault
UNC-Chapel Hill