Federalist Radio Hour Inside The Legal Fight Against Global Censorship
Aug 19, 2025
Ryan Bangert, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Alliance Defending Freedom, dives into the growing trend of online censorship affecting political speech. He highlights a controversial law in Hawaii that restricts political satire, exploring its implications for First Amendment rights. The conversation shifts to the clash between AI and free speech, using the Babylon Bee case as a key example. Bangert also addresses pressing issues like debanking and government influence in financial practices, as well as the global scope of censorship challenges.
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Digital-Modification Laws Threaten Political Satire
- Hawaii's S.2687 criminalizes digitally modified content that might harm a candidate's reputation or change voting behavior, sweeping in satire and parody.
- The law undermines political speech by effectively outlawing typical campaign critique and forcing ruinous disclaimers on satire.
Satire Is Not Defamation
- Lawmakers frame parody as defamatory or false advertising to justify censorship, but satire is intentionally nonliteral and protected historically.
- Treating parody as defamation is a dishonest rationale to suppress political critique.
Protect Citizens' Right To Judge Content
- Courts should protect citizens' right to evaluate information and resist government attempts to
