That might sound like an exaggeration. But it’s hard to square the First Amendment with a recent proposal in The New Republic: “Ban Facebook Before Elections.” And yes, the headline accurately represents the text:

“If fake news truly poses a crisis for democracy,” writes Jeet Heer, “then it calls for a radical response. Instead of merely requiring greater transparency of social media and empowering the courts to ban users and websites… perhaps governments should outright ban Facebook and other platforms ahead of elections.

“A model for this already exists. Many countries have election silence laws, which limit or prohibit political campaigning for varying periods of time ranging from election day alone to as early as three days before the election. What if these laws were applied to social media? What if you weren’t allowed to post anything political on Facebook in the two weeks before an election?”