Speaker 1: Welcome back. Attorney Steve Vondran here. We are talking in this video about free speech and limits on free speech. In particular, broadcasting hoaxes. Okay, so this is a lot of people say, well free speech is free. I can say whatever I want. I can do what I want. It's a free country. Well, it's not quite that. It's not quite that good. So at any rate, this video talks about the FCC. Now FCC regulates the airwaves. They regulate broadcasters, radio broadcasters, television broadcasters, things like that. So they are not interested in the regulation of podcasters, however, but I think it's also important if you run a broadcast to be careful about this rule. Just something to think about, okay? There's an old saying, you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, and that's what you want to try to avoid here, okay? But anyway, this is the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, located in Washington DC, and they have a rule out here. You can see it here. It's rule 47 CFR. Anybody know what that is? Code of Federal Regulations 73.1217. So this is a rule, regulation I should say, that prohibits broadcast licensees. Those are the TV, radio people that have to get a license. Or permittees, people that have a permit from broadcasting false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe. A crime or a catastrophe if, number one, the licensee knows the information is false. Two, if it is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm, substantial public harm. And three, broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm. So that's the general rule right there. Note here, we have a disclaimer. Okay, so this is really important. So if you're going to do, say it's April Fool's Day and you've got a radio station and you think this is the perfect time to pull that prank and make everybody laugh and think there's a big catastrophe going on or some crime is in progress. There was one case where online personalities claimed that they were taken hostage and created a big problem there. There was another case where somebody claimed a local trash dump was on fire and so all the first responders went out to try to, you know, take care of it because you know how word travels through the grapevine. So next thing you know you have first responders that are spending time and money and going to these scenes and there's nothing going on there. It's a big hoax. So that's really the problem. But it says here, any programming accompanied by a disclaimer, a disclaimer will be presumed not to pose foreseeable harm if the disclaimer clearly characterizes the program as a fiction and is presented in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. So you know some of the pranks, some of the hoaxes, you may get some leeway but make sure you have some kind of disclaimer in there. Usually with disclaimers as lawyers we talk about clear and conspicuous so that people see them and read them and understand them because again, as you can see here, public harm is something that must begin immediately and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public or, this is the big one, diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties. So if you're taking them away from their duties because you're creating some hoax of some false crime in progress, a false catastrophe, be very careful. This is a rule and regulation. You don't want the FCC down your back through an enforcement action. You also don't want any civil liability. Okay so that's a general look, something about hoax law. I would call this another limitation on free speech. Very similar to the clear and present danger rule. You can't engage in speech that's going to incite a riot or engage in that's going to cause a clear and present danger. So I would tie that in kind of similarly but again, if you need some help with free speech issues, social media, internet law, intellectual property, you know where to find us on the web at attorneysteve.com. That's attorneysteve.com, the first name in legal services. Have a great day. We'll be back. We'll chat again. Don't be afraid to push that like button. It's not going to kill you. Or leave some comments below. Make sure you subscribe. We'll talk to you again. This is general legal information only and not legal advice or a substitute for legal advice.