“Freedom of speech when it comes to misinformation and hate speech is not guaranteed,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said in 2022.
Waltz on MSNBC Lead-out He spoke about penalties for false information about the 2022 election.
“I want to talk about misinformation, which you mentioned earlier. In the previous chapters of politics, disinformation – telling people the wrong way to vote – was seen as a kind of prank, but it's become something more sinister. Can you talk a little bit about that and what are you going to do to make sure there are penalties for it,” host Maria Teresa Kumar asked.
“Well, a few years ago, it was just a little thing like telling people to vote the day after the election and we would ignore it. Now we know that it's intimidation at the ballot box,” Walz responded. “This undermines the idea that voting by mail is illegal. I think we need to push back against this. Misinformation, hate speech, freedom of speech, especially in our democracy, is not guaranteed. Tell the truth, tell them where the polling places are, who can vote, who can be there.”
It's unclear whether Walz was talking about social media censorship or actual government regulation of individuals who spread misinformation.
Interest in Tim Walz's 2022 comments was renewed this week after former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a television interview that Americans “should be criminally prosecuted” for spreading Russian propaganda.
“I think there are Americans who are engaging in this kind of propaganda, and I think prosecuting them civilly, or even criminally, would be more of a deterrent,” she said in an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
“I think we need to make all the connections clear and make it clear that you can vote however you want, but we're not going to allow adversaries, whether it's Russia or China or Iran or whoever, to try to fundamentally influence Americans on how we should vote when it comes to choosing our leaders,” she added.
