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Comment by ryanwaggoner | Hacker News Reader

Is this anything more than a slippery slope argument? Should the government have no power to regulate media entities owned by hostile foreign governments? Should Congress be allowed to take actions to stop Russia from spreading misinformation designed to destabilize the US?

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> Should the government have no power to regulate media entities?

Yes, you got it. Perfect. We have 200 years of first amendment jurisprudence, there are limited cases where it's acceptable.

There's a VERY big difference between regulating a company's right to operate in the US and the government controlling what content is allowable while they operate. The latter is very strongly protected by over a century of jurisprudence. The former is not.

When you're making the decision entirely based on concerns with their speech, that starts sounding like a technicality to me.

Congress can write whatever law they want, as long as it doesn't violate the First Amendment.

That's not true; all powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government belong to the states, and congress doesn't have the right to override that.

Zero power is a good start

> hostile foreign governments

China has been financing the US for years. That's not what I would define hostile.

> Should Congress be allowed to take actions to stop Russia from spreading misinformation designed to destabilize the US?

Then it becomes easy to frame any dissent as "enemy sponsored" and ban it. You are thinking like WW3 blown up already.

Slippery slope is a logical fallacy, not a rhetorical fallacy. Defeating the Nazis is nothing more than a slippery slope. We have to stop the Russians in Ukraine or else they'll get greedier and more belligerent is just a slippery slope.

Your argument is a slippery slope you decided to slide down. You're saying, if we do this one thing we'll end up with no power to regulate.

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