The Problem With Global Censorship

One person’s misinformation is another’s sincerely held religious belief.

The Scourge of Misinformation, proposed New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the United Nations last week, must be globally regulated like guns, bombs or nukes.

“But what if that lie, told repeatedly, and across many platforms, prompts, inspires, or motivates others to take up arms? To threaten the security of others? To turn a blind eye to atrocities, or worse, to become complicit in them? What then?” Ms. Ardern asked of dangerous “misinformation” spread on online platforms.

“This is no longer a hypothetical,” she added. “The weapons of war have changed, they are upon us and require the same level of action and activity that we put into the weapons of old.”

“We recognized the threats that the old weapons created,” Ardern added. “We came together as communities to minimize these threats. We created international rules, norms and expectations. We never saw that as a threat to our individual liberties- rather, it was a preservation of them. The same must apply now as we take on these new challenges.”

On its surface, these statements may seem reasonable enough, but for one glaring problem: Guns, bombs and nuclear weapons are obviously, objectively, and always guns, bombs and nuclear weapons; the same is…