[throwaway66920]

If the government offers special interest groups special laws to impose economic penalties on others for saying certain things, then free speech has been restricted, just by different mechanisms. I understand this says “libel” laws but does not mean they are fair or only preventative of actual fraud. In many cases they’re used against claims which are actually true or said without the intent to deceive.

This is a better source than the Wikipedia I provided.

https://cldc.org/aeta-veggie-libel/

[beerandt]

If anything that article proves the law is working as intended. Truthful claims were allowed.

[throwaway66920]

They did, but the court fees were high, and are high enough to dissuade people who aren’t billionaire talk show hosts from saying similar things. As I said, America is quite good at free speech. But it has its gaps, much like most other countries which would self identify as free speech countries. In the grand scheme, they really don’t matter.