Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in 2022 that there is “no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.”
Walz made an appearance on MSNBC’s The ReidOut in 2022 where he talked about penalties for disinformation on elections.
“I want to talk about what you just mentioned about misinformation because oftentimes before, in previous political chapters, disinformation, telling people where to vote the wrong way, that was kind of — these were called — considered shenanigans, but it’s becoming more ominous. Can you talk a little bit about that and what you will do to ensure that there are penalties for that?” host Maria Teresa Kumar asked.
“Yeah, years ago, it was the little things, telling people to vote the day after the election, and we kind of brushed them off. Now we know it’s intimidation at the ballot box,” responded Walz. “It’s undermining the idea that mail-in ballots aren’t legal. I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy. Tell the truth, where the voting places are, who can vote, who’s able to be there.”
It remains unclear if Walz was speaking about censorship on social media or actual government regulations on individuals spreading misinformation.
Interest in Tim Walz’s 2022 statements resurfaced this week after former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a television interview that Americans should be “criminally charged” for spreading Russian propaganda.
“I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda, and whether they should be civilly or even in some cases, criminally charged, is something that would be a better deterrence,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview.
“I think we need to uncover all of the connections and make it very clear that you could vote however you want, but we are not going to let adversaries, whether it is Russia, China, Iran, or anybody else, basically try to influence Americans as to how we should vote in picking our leaders,” she added.
