Presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has declared her intentions to see the spread of ‘disinformation’ online become a crime if she is elected president, CNBC reports.
In a campaign statement, Warren said that she will “push for new laws that impose tough civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating this kind of information,” which she claims “undermines the basic right to vote.”
Her statement is largely directed at the Big Tech companies themselves, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google, but she did not differentiate between punishing the companies and punishing individual users as well. She also gave no specifics about what exactly would account for “disinformation” in her definition.
Warren’s declaration is most likely a desperate attempt to regain polling momentum as the Iowa caucuses draw nearer. Warren experienced a massive polling surge in the fall last year but has fallen and stagnated since. She is now battling for either third or fourth place in Iowa, as Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) has become the new frontrunner.