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23 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol. 111 (2018-2019)
How to Tell a Fake: Fighting Back against Fake News on the Front Lines of Social Media

handle is hein.journals/trlp23 and id is 123 raw text is: How TO TELL A FAKE: FIGHTING BACK AGAINST FAKE NEWS ON THE FRONT LINES OF SOCIAL MEDIA RYAN M. WALTERS* ABSTRACT In the span of afew years, fake news slithered out from the recesses of the web to ultimately become one of the greatest threats to civil political discourse. This digital menace has capitalized on the consumer shift to online news consumption-in particular, the increasing trend of news consumers migrating to social media sites. However, the incredible breadth ofFirst Amendment restrictions, including broad protection for false political speech, significantly limits the viability of most potential statutory and regulatory solutions to fake news. Another fundamental obstacle in the fight against fake news has been that even scholars cannot agree on a consistent definition for it. Fake news has a notoriously amorphous meaning which creates signficant confusion about what it actually is. To remedy this problem, this Article proposes a straightforward definition for fake news that accurately describes the phenomenon, specifically: (a) content holding itself out as a news piece (b) that makes objectively false assertions that given events have occurred (c) in a materially false manner. Building off this definition, this Artile proposes an objective falsity standard to identifyfake news. This standard offers ajlexible tool that scholars and courts can apply in a wide variety of contexts where fake news rears its ugly head. Lastly, this Article proposes statutory enhancements to the federal Communications Decency Act given its central role in society's defense against fake news. Without violating any First Amendment restrictions, the immunity that this statute grants to website providers allows them to wage the constant battle online against fake news.

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