In this age of “new” censorship and blunt manipulation of political speech, where is the First Amendment? It is time to ask: Is the First Amendment obsolete? These questions arise because the jurisprudence of the First Amendment was written for a different set of problems in a very different world. Unfortunately, those new censorship tools have become unwelcome imports in the United States, with catastrophic results for our democracy. The Chinese government has perfected “reverse censorship,” whereby disfavored speech is drowned out by “floods” of distraction or pro-government sentiment.

Source: New York Times October 27, 2017 22:54 UTC