Managing the Misinformation Marketplace: The First Amendment and the Fight Against Fake News

Abstract

Objective: to study how speech protections interfere with the government’s ability to protect political discourse as a process necessary for a democratic state and to propose the government regulations of journalists activity to ensure that people can rely on legitimate news media to receive accurate information.Methods: observation, document study, comparison, analysis and synthesis.Results: based on the carried out research, the author proposes mandatory licensing of professional journalists, as the fake news problem presents a number of threats to U.S. democracy because it undermines people’s ability to rely on information sources and interferes with their ability to form reasoned opinions and make rational decisions as citizens. Both an informed public and a strong press are crucial to democratic self-governance. Fake news threatens democracy by making citizens vulnerable to manipulation that could cause them to vote against their interests, adopt unfounded beliefs, or distrust legitimate media. Scientific novelty: the notion of fake news as a phenomenon threatening a democratic state is formulated; the issues of minimizing its negative effects are considered.Practical significance: the proposal of licensing of professional journalists according to the same principles as other professionals is one of the plausible ways to achieve this balance between protections for speakers and listeners. This is justified by the journalists’ special access to information, as nonlawyers and nondoctors are unable to access specialized information about law or medicine.

Keywords

• fake
• fake news
• mass media
• information
• false information
• freedom of speech
• speech protection
• censorship
• ethics