January 2017

Are some news articles like acai berry fat-loss supplement offers? The answer could help determine whether US elections can shed the weight of false information. In an article published by the New Jersey State Bar Association, MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber argues that the news is as much a product as a diet pill — and that the fake variety could be regulated by the Federal Trade Commission in the same way as phony claims about the belly-blasting power of a certain botanical.

It's a complicated contention. “Absent the existence of libel, Supreme Court precedents suggest that the First Amendment protects a citizen expressing lies or their version of fake news,” conceded Melber, who has a law degree from Cornell. “Political operatives have strong case law to defend deceptive assertions as protected speech, especially if they show that the lies are part of some wider expression, be it political, satirical or artistic.” However, Melber added, “the court has ruled that some commercial speech, like advertising or communication concerned solely with business, gets less First Amendment protection than political speech.” If the FTC and the court system could agree that fake news isn't really a form of political discourse but is, instead, a kind of commercial offering in which “the political misinformation is the product,” then perhaps the nation's consumer-protection agency could stop some of it, he says.

Major computer companies are concerned with President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily banning refugees and immigrants from a handful of countries, even those with valid US visas. "We appreciate the checks and balances of our judicial system," said Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) President Ed Black, "but the disregard for legal norms and due process shown by the Administration in issuing this order is alarming." The reference to checks and balances was because a judge over the weekend stayed the returning of some immigrants being held at US airports, citing the possible threat to their safety if they were returned per the President's executive order. “Many of our industry’s most successful companies were founded by immigrants. Immigrants help our industry to export goods and services around the world while creating jobs here at home," said Black. "Targeting lawful U.S. residents and visa holders for discriminatory treatment based on their national origin or faith is not in our national interest. It is not in our economic interest. It is not who we are."