Attorney Ari Cohn, a specialist in First Amendment and defamation law, called out Sen. Elizabeth Warren over a statement her office put out “regarding concerns that Amazon is peddling misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments through its search and “Best Seller” algorithms.”
Cohn tweeted that, contrary to Warren’s letter, “nothing even remotely ‘potentially unlawful’ about Amazon selling books containing ‘misinformation'” and if Sen. Warren “doesn’t know that, that’s embarrassing”:
There's nothing even remotely "potentially unlawful" about Amazon selling books containing "misinformation." If @SenWarren doesn't know that, that's embarrassing.
If she does, @ewarren should be ashamed of her blatant disregard for the First Amendment.https://t.co/XEMAU568Xu pic.twitter.com/23OHQCLue4
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) September 14, 2021
No, the potential harmfulness of ideas contained in books absolutely does *not* justify threatening letters from legislators or retaliatory government action.
Just in case you planned to ask.
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) September 14, 2021
So many people replying "sHe dOEsn'T MeNtIOn b00ks" without reading the letter.
The link is there for a reason. Don't be lazy.
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) September 15, 2021
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Maybe she skipped this day in law school?
Uh. Sitting Senator telling a company that 1st Amendment protected speech is "unlawful" is… not cool. Not cool at all. https://t.co/UyxpBfdOSM
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) September 14, 2021
But we do wonder about that whole Harvard Law School professor gig she secured:
Wow this is really beyond the pale bad @ewarren. There is no world in which telling book sellers what books they are and aren't allowed to sell is a "progressive" position. C'mon. We all want to end this pandemic — throwing the constitution out the window is not the way to do it https://t.co/MtI5aMjC6Q
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) September 14, 2021
As Cohn said, just “embarrassing”:
Yes we should just ban books containing misinformation. That always works out well https://t.co/VV6RJfOYaC
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) September 15, 2021
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