“It’s the First Amendment, stupid”

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Trump and a bunch of billionaires, like Elon Musk, are calling for the FCC to punish TV stations by revoking their licenses and using the spectrum for other stuff. In a normal world, this would be idle billionaire wishcasting. Punishing news organizations is one of those things we have a First Amendment to protect against. You know — the one that protects free speech by prohibiting the government from making speech regulations or punishing people for what they say?

But, it turns out, there is a long and complex history of the government regulating speech on broadcast platforms like radio and television — and that history dovetails into many of the problems we have regulating tech companies and social platforms today. Verge senior tech and policy editor Adi Robertson joins me to dive in.

Links:

• The Verge guide to the 2024 US presidential election | The Verge
• FCC chair rejects Trump’s call to revoke CBS license over Harris interview | The Verge
• Florida official who resigned after letter to TV stations blames DeSantis’ office | MSNBC
• “To keep it simple for the state of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid” | The Verge
• How America turned against the First Amendment | The Verge
• Why Sen. Brian Schatz thinks child safety can trump the First Amendment | The Verge
• How the Kids Online Safety Act puts us all at risk | The Verge
• Here’s a bunch of bananas shit Trump said today about breaking up Google | The Verge
• Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet | The Verge
• Why you’re seeing those gross political ads during the World Series | The Verge

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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