Guest columnist

• Stuart N. Brotman is the author of the forthcoming book "The First Amendment Lives On." He is the Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law and Beaman Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

NewsGuard is a company created by a team of journalists who assess the credibility and transparency of news and information, including whether a website repeatedly publishes false content.

Recently, it found that 113 websites out of 7,000 reviewed were spreading election misinformation in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 presidential vote and are still active in doing so. Of these, 81% have continued to spread false claims about the election and its aftermath, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Further, according to NewsGuard, “the vast majority of the sites spreading election misinformation a year ago have continued to promote the narrative that the election was not legitimate, while defending, downplaying or redirecting blame for the riot.”

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Under the First Amendment, there is little that government can — or should — do to intervene in limiting this damaging information, however false and repugnant it may be. Moreover, as NewsGuard concluded, the problem is global in scope. Half of the European websites, well outside the legal reach of United States law, also...

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