Religion & Liberty Online

Macron’s Orwellian fake news fix

“On January 3, during his first press event of the new year, French President Emmanuel Macron presented a proposal intended to ‘protect the democratic life’ of France from ‘fake news,’” writes Marcin Rzegocki in this week’s Acton Commentary. Macron would make it “possible for judges to remove fake news stories, delete the links to them, block the sites, or close the offending users’ accounts.”

The French president is not alone with his ideas to limit foreign information in his country. On Monday, the EU assembled a 29-person panel to investigate the problem of “fake news” and present a plan for a coordinated response to the European Commission by April. On Tuesday, the British Parliament held a hearing on “fake news.” Some nations have already taken action.

But in this context, an “important question arises … Who will decide what is truth?”

The full text of the essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton Commentary and other publications here.

(Photo credit: Raul Mee, EU2017EE. This photo has been cropped. CC BY 2.0.)

Rev. Ben Johnson

Rev. Ben Johnson (@therightswriter) is an Eastern Orthodox priest and served as Executive Editor of the Acton Institute (2016-2021), editing Religion & Liberty, the Powerblog, and its transatlantic website. He has extensively researched the Alt-Right. Previously, he worked for LifeSiteNews and FrontPageMag.com, where he wrote three books including Party of Defeat (with David Horowitz, 2008). His work has appeared at DailyWire.com, National Review, The American Spectator, The Guardian, Daily Caller, National Catholic Register, Spectator USA, FEE Online, RealClear Policy, The Blaze, The Stream, American Greatness, Aleteia, Providence Magazine, Charisma, Jewish World Review, Human Events, Intellectual Takeout, CatholicVote.org, Issues & Insights, The Conservative, Rare.us, and The American Orthodox Institute. His personal websites are therightswriter.com and RevBenJohnson.com. His views are his own.