Hillary Clinton went on MSNBC this week and told Rachel Maddow that she thinks Americans who spread “misinformation” and Russia propaganda should be prosecuted.
In a conversation about the recent Justice Department indictment of several alleged Kremlin-run websites and Russian state media employees, Clinton said it’s important to indict Russians who interfere in our elections but there are also Americans “engaged in this kind of propaganda” and that if they were civilly or criminally charged it would be “a better deterrent” because it’s unlikely any Russians will ever stand trial in the United States.
What she’s describing is of course odious and totally incompatible with the First Amendment. Americans are free to spread as much Russian propaganda as they want, whether they believe any of it or not. We can shout all kinds of things from the street corner, hand out conspiracy theory pamphlets in the grocery store parking lot, and post the craziest stuff you’ve ever heard all day along on social media. If Hillary Clinton doesn’t like it, she can go pound sand.
More to the point though, “misinformation” isn’t actually a thing. Neither is disinformation or malinformation. These are Soviet terms that relate to psychological warfare. When Clinton and Maddow and other Democrats use these terms what they really mean is, “facts I don’t like and opinions I disagree with.”
But fine, for the sake of argument if Clinton wants to go down this road, let’s go. Let’s say we’re going to start criminally prosecuting American citizens for
