{"id":219407,"date":"2026-01-05T15:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=219407"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:16:12","slug":"how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press","title":{"rendered":"How a COVID-era Law Banning \u2018Fake News\u2019 in Puerto Rico Targets the Press"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1764,1763,1783,1750,2024,1752,1755,1769,1753,1768],"class_list":["post-219407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-advocacy-news","metadata-context","metadata-general-commentary","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-longform","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-national-affiliate-staff","metadata-plain-text","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":219441,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"Two journalists are challenging a law that threatens press freedom in an attempt to ban misinformation.","authors":[196501],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Puerto Rico passed a law attempting to ban \u201cfake news,\u201d two journalists feared the ban would open them to prosecutions against their reporting that was critical of the government, its officials, or their emergency response measures. Under the law, anyone accused could face up to three years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.\r\n\r\nThe law targeted anyone accused of raising \u201ca false alarm\u201d or spreading false information that resulted in a risk to life, health, or property during a declared public emergency on the island. The ACLU and the ACLU of Puerto Rico filed suit to challenge the law in May 2020, representing Sandra Rodr\u00edguez Cotto and Rafelli Gonz\u00e1lez Cotto, both longtime journalists who have reported on public emergencies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which will decide the law\u2019s constitutionality, heard oral arguments in the case in October.\r\n\r\n\"I believed it was essential to pursue this litigation because the government had crossed a line that threatened the very core of democratic participation,\u201d said Gonz\u00e1lez Cotto. \u201cWhen the state gives itself the power to decide what information is true or false, especially during an emergency, it opens the door to censorship, intimidation, and the silencing of legitimate scrutiny.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn this installment of Press in Peril, we\u2019ll examine the ACLU\u2019s challenge to that law in Puerto Rico and why protecting \u201cfake news\u201d from government regulation protects all news."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Laws against misinformation can limit government accountability ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The lawsuit argues that allowing the government to become the arbiter of public debate violates the First Amendment. In this case, the law attempted to criminalize reporting the government considers dangerously false, putting the rights of every journalist at risk and endangering the public in the process. In 2017, for instance, the governor\u2019s chief of staff publicly accused Rodr\u00edguez Cotto of lying after she exposed the government\u2019s severe undercount of the death toll from Hurricane Maria; had the law been in effect at that time, she could have been prosecuted.\r\n\r\nPuerto Rico is hardly the only place that has introduced a \u201cfake news\u201d law, but if the law is allowed to stand, it will find itself in troubling company, as the University of Georgia Law School\u2019s First Amendment Clinic pointed out in an <a href=\"https:\/\/firstamendment.law.uga.edu\/work\/amicus-pr-false-information-law\/\">amicus brief<\/a> on behalf of free speech and free press groups. Hungary, for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.article19.org\/data\/files\/medialibrary\/2714\/11-09-01-REPORT-hungary.pdf\">prohibits<\/a> \u201cimbalanced\u201d coverage and requires outlets to register with the state. Russia has <a href=\"https:\/\/cpj.org\/2023\/12\/russia-brings-new-charges-against-imprisoned-journalists-alsu-kurmasheva-and-maria-ponomarenko-targets-exiled-journalist-masha-gessen\/\">harshly<\/a> punished journalists for their coverage of the government under the guise of combatting \u201cfalse news.\u201d Egypt has <a href=\"https:\/\/cpj.org\/2023\/10\/egypt-bans-mada-masr-website-for-6-months-over-report-on-israel-gaza-war\/\">banned<\/a> outlets for \u201cpublishing false news\u201d about Israel and Gaza.\r\n\r\n\u201cA free people requires a free press,\u201d says Brian Hauss, deputy director of the ACLU\u2019s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project and lead counsel on the case. \u201cIf the Trump Administration\u2019s recent attacks on the media, from CBS News to Jimmy Kimmel, have taught us anything, it\u2019s that the government can\u2019t be allowed to dictate what we debate or how we debate it. But that\u2019s exactly what this law tries to do.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn 2023, a federal judge agreed and struck down the law: \u201cCourts must be vigilant to ensure the First Amendment is not weakened during periods of declared emergencies. The watchdog function of speech is never more vital than during a large-scale crisis.\""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Can the government regulate fake news and hoaxes? ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The law in Puerto Rico is startling precisely because of its broad language: it could let the government control all sorts of information during crises like a pandemic or a hurricane. Such sweeping censorial powers, and the attendant chilling effect on speech that differs from the government\u2019s official narrative, could endanger people by limiting their news sources and deterring journalists and individuals from contradicting those in power. For example, as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press described in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/rodriguez-cotto-v-gonzalez-colon\/\">amicus brief<\/a> on behalf of media organizations, \u201cfake news\u201d laws like the one in Puerto Rico could have deterred reporters from challenging the George W. Bush Administration\u2019s attempts to downplay the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.\r\n\r\nAlthough Puerto Rico insists that its \u201cfake news\u201d law is essential to prevent false alarms from causing dangerous mass panics, the FCC\u2019s broadcast hoaxes rule from the 1990s shows that it\u2019s possible to write a law that protects public safety without undermining press freedoms. That rule was introduced as a way to combat radio hoaxes common beginning in the 1970s. Several radio shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.repository.law.indiana.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1226&amp;context=fclj\">staged hoaxes<\/a> on air for promotion, ranging from fake confessions of violent crimes to fake kidnappings of hosts. In one high profile example, the station director of WALE-AM in Rhode Island falsely announced that the host of the show, Steve White had been shot in the head outside the studio on a cigarette break.\r\n\r\nThe announcement caused police and media to respond to the station, wasting public resources and causing panic among listeners. After decades of similar hoaxes with varying degrees of public response, the FCC created the broadcast hoaxes rule based on feedback from broadcasters and the public. The regulation punishes the broadcast of false information about a \u201ccrime or catastrophe\u201d if the station knows the information is false, it is practically certain that the speech will cause immediate and substantial public harm, and the broadcast does, in fact, create that harm.\r\n\r\nMost stations know that the hoax rule can be invoked only if they aired, say, a fake bomb threat or a hoax broadcast about a mass shooting. That is in stark contrast to the broad language in the Puerto Rico law, which potentially criminalizes speech on any topic during a declared emergency, ranging from speculation about the origins of COVID-19 to reporting on the outcome of an election.\r\n\r\nAs the Supreme Court has held, the government does not have the authority to punish false speech, especially on matters of public concern, except in very limited contexts, such as prohibiting perjury or impersonating a police officer. Puerto Rico\u2019s law goes well beyond those limited contexts and violates the First Amendment."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Protecting the right to a free press for Puerto Ricans\u2019 and beyond ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"For Puerto Rico, the future is up in the air. The government appealed the 2023 ruling that struck the law down, and the First Circuit heard the appeal in October. The result will have implications far beyond newsrooms on the island.\r\n\r\nFor Gonz\u00e1lez Cotto, this is the point: \u201cTo me, the stakes were \u2014 and still are \u2014 whether Puerto Ricans get to live in a society where questioning the government is protected, not criminalized,\u201d he said. \u201cThis case was never just about one statute. It was about setting a precedent that prevents future administrations from weaponizing vague laws to silence dissent.\u201d\r\n\r\nHistory teaches that without a robustly free press, the government can get away with abuses of power with little opposition. For Gonz\u00e1lez Cotto, journalists are a means through which the public can exercise its power to question, verify, and hold institutions accountable. \u201cA free press ensures that no government, corporation, or powerful interest can operate unchecked,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the press is restricted, the public becomes vulnerable. When the press is free, the public becomes invincible.\u201d\r\n\r\nAt a time when the government is clamping down on press access and using the FCC to punish comedians, maintaining that freedom is more important than ever. Allowing the government to decide what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not is dangerous for us all. But history has also taught us something else: when we fight for it, the First Amendment is strong enough to weather the storm."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148398],"issues":[46479],"related_content_cases":[105539],"related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two journalists are challenging an anti-misinformation law that threatens press freedom.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Law Banning Fake News in Puerto Rico Targets the Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two journalists are challenging an anti-misinformation law that threatens press freedom.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-05T20:13:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-09T20:16:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pr-fake-news-measure-social.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sam LaFrance\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pr-fake-news-measure-social.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press\",\"name\":\"How a Law Banning Fake News in Puerto Rico Targets the Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-05T20:13:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-09T20:16:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"Two journalists are challenging an anti-misinformation law that threatens press freedom.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/how-a-covid-era-law-banning-fake-news-in-puerto-rico-targets-the-press\"]}],\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/sam-lafrance\",\"name\":\"Sam LaFrance\",\"jobTitle\":\"Communications Strategist, First Amendment, \",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/sam-lafrance\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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