Obama Calls for Gov't Control of Speech

By: John Semmens

Contending that “there is too much crazy” on the Internet and social media, former President Obama said “government has to filter out misinformation before it seriously damages the country's unity.”

He offered examples of content that should not be allowed to be spread via electronic media. “Right now about 40% of Americans appear convinced that the current president was elected fraudulently and that the election was rigged. This is nuts. It has to be stopped. While we have no viable means of totally silencing the spread of this insanity by word-of-mouth we can and should prevent it from being spread via blogs and tweets.”

“Another example is that about a third of the population refuse to get the covid vaccination,” he said. “This endangers their health and that of every person they come into contact with. The vaccines are a medical miracle. The public health requires that everyone be vaccinated. The Internet and social media must not be used to undermine this truth.”

“I and all rational people deserve to be protected from the spread of erroneous ideas,” Obama insisted. “Up until now Twitter and Facebook have been doing an admirable job of scrubbing their platforms of dangerously wrong ideas. However, now that Elon Musk has inserted his unwanted and unnecessary personality into the equation I fear this nation will be even more vulnerable to the risk of false consciousness of individual freedom that Marx warned us against.”

“I reject the idea that freedom of speech prohibits the government from providing protection against wrong speech,” Obama said. “I believe in freedom of speech as a principle, but this freedom does not include the freedom to lie or foster rebellion against government programs designed to help people. I feel confident that the majority of Americans agree with me on this and will sensibly be made to appear to have elected Democrat majorities in both the Senate and House this November.”

Obama Calls for Gov't Control of Speech

Contending that “there is too much crazy” on the Internet and social media, former President Obama said “government has to filter out misinformation before it seriously damages the country's unity.”

He offered examples of content that should not be allowed to be spread via electronic media. “Right now about 40% of Americans appear convinced that the current president was elected fraudulently and that the election was rigged. This is nuts. It has to be stopped. While we have no viable means of totally silencing the spread of this insanity by word-of-mouth we can and should prevent it from being spread via blogs and tweets.”

“Another example is that about a third of the population refuse to get the covid vaccination,” he said. “This endangers their health and that of every person they come into contact with. The vaccines are a medical miracle. The public health requires that everyone be vaccinated. The Internet and social media must not be used to undermine this truth.”

“I and all rational people deserve to be protected from the spread of erroneous ideas,” Obama insisted. “Up until now Twitter and Facebook have been doing an admirable job of scrubbing their platforms of dangerously wrong ideas. However, now that Elon Musk has inserted his unwanted and unnecessary personality into the equation I fear this nation will be even more vulnerable to the risk of false consciousness of individual freedom that Marx warned us against.”

“I reject the idea that freedom of speech prohibits the government from providing protection against wrong speech,” Obama said. “I believe in freedom of speech as a principle, but this freedom does not include the freedom to lie or foster rebellion against government programs designed to help people. I feel confident that the majority of Americans agree with me on this and will sensibly be made to appear to have elected Democrat majorities in both the Senate and House this November.”