Marjorie Taylor Greene, Edward Snowden Exchange Views on First Amendment

Two outspoken free speech advocates appear to have fundamental disagreements about the constitutional right protecting it.

In an exchange on Twitter, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene—who has several times been suspended from her social media accounts for sharing misinformation about COVID-19 and the veracity of the 2020 elections—responded to a thread by whistleblower Edward Snowden decrying apparently incorrect reporting by an independent Russian news outlet claiming he lived in a KGB safehouse near the British Embassy.

England has wanted to apprehend Snowden for the past decade after he leaked information about the government's surveillance programs.

"Bonus points for those who notice the absolutely massive train station and shopping complex full of cameras *directly behind* these knuckleheads' 'safe house,' which definitely sounds like a plausible place for a hunted whistleblower to live," Snowden tweeted. "Deeply embarrassed for these people."

"I used to believe that while the media does make mistakes from time to time, 'most' things you read in the news could be relied on," he added. "Nothing robs you of that innocence like becoming yourself the subject of news. When they write on what you know, errors—and lies—are clear."

Greene—who herself has faced immense media scrutiny over her past embrace of right-wing conspiracy theories—seemed to relate.

"I totally and completely relate and agree with this," she tweeted in response. "The media has lied and still repeatedly lies about me too. Freedom of press is not freedom to lie."

While difficult to win, libel cases against media outlets are common and can be won if a defendant can prove malicious intent—actual malice—on a publisher's behalf toward a specific individual or organization.

However, that threshold grows substantially more difficult to overcome in the instance of public figures or officials—like Greene—who are considered more open to scrutiny by virtue of their role in power.

Generally, for a statement to be libelous, it must be proved that a reporter knew it was false or that they acted in disregard for the truth. One prominent recent example includes a case launched by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin against the New York Times in which Palin failed to prove malice by the newspaper in an editorial that falsely linked her campaign rhetoric to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona.

Responding to Greene, who once faced her own defamation suit for social media comments she made about a fired worker at a mortgage company that it claimed were false, Snowden backed off his comments somewhat.

"I actually disagree," Snowden replied. "I hate being lied about, sure, but that's not only the right of every journalist, it's the right of every person. You can't make it a crime to lie without making the government, the cops, and the courts the arbiters of truth. I'd rather suffer the lies."

Greene doubled down.

"I would never hurt or change our 1st amendment rights," she responded. "Of all Members of Congress, I actually defend freedom of speech and press more than most, free Julian Assange for example. But I don't agree with abusing a right to lie about people and it's my right to say that."

While nobody in Congress has proposed similar legislation, some lawmakers in red states have called for modifications to existing law to "open up" libel laws for reconsideration, building on a promise former President Donald Trump made—and failed to deliver on—in 2016.

In 2020, an Arizona Republican lawmaker pushed legislation to include social media comments to Arizona's libel and slander laws as well as scrap the statute of limitations for defamatory statements published online, essentially allowing anyone to sue another individual over social media posts published years prior.

More recently, an Orlando Sentinel investigation published last year found that a top staffer for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—who has sparred numerous times with the press—had apparently worked on a proposal seeking to make it easier for high-profile people to win defamation lawsuits against media outlets.

Newsweek reached out to Greene's office for comment.