People’s vulnerability to fake news means that they are far less likely to receive accurate political information and are therefore unable to make informed decisions when voting. Because a democratic system relies on an informed populace to determine how it should act, fake news presents a unique threat to U.S. democracy. Although fake news threatens democratic institutions, First Amendment protections for false speech present a significant obstacle for regulatory remedies.

 

To have a functioning framework of democracy you need a shared frame of reference, which itself depends on a baseline of generally agreed on facts. From that basis you can proceed to discussion, reasoned argument, and ultimately a consensus necessary for the democratic process, as opposed to that of a dictatorial state. But when you lack that shared frame of reference—in a sense, that commonly recognized reality—then there’s no common ground. And that’s where we have landed.