Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Velasco | Join us to hear from Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein speaking about his new book.

Voter fraud, the legitimacy of COVID-19, and fake news are just a few examples of the lies that have recently been spreading like wildfire. Lying has been around for as long as we can remember but today is different, and in many respects, worse. Falsehoods are amplified as never before through powerful social media platforms that reach billions. And unfriendly governments, including Russia, are circulating lies in order to destabilize other nations, including the United Kingdom and the United States. In the face of those problems, Cass Sunstein probes the fundamental question of how we can deter lies while also protecting freedom of speech in his new book Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception.

Meet our speaker and chair

Cass R. Sunstein (@CassSunstein) is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. Professor Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations. His latest book is Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception.

Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

More about this event

The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis.

You can order the book, Liars: falsehoods and free speech in an age of deception, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19