Could you go to jail for posting a meme? That seems like an absurd question straight from a dystopian novel. But unfortunately, the state of Hawaii has enacted a law that criminalizes posting satirical digital content such as memes.
That’s why The Babylon Bee, a popular Christian satire website, is joining forces with Hawaii voter Dawn O’Brien to file a lawsuit challenging this draconian law.
The Babylon Bee is ‘Fake News you can trust’
When then-presidential candidate Donald Trump coined the phrase “Fake News” in 2016, he of course wasn’t talking about satirical websites. But websites that create faux headlines for a comedic effect have been around since the dawn of the internet. And satire itself is as old as the written word.
From the Ancient Greek Aristophanes to Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” in the eighteenth century, the art of slightly distorting facts about real events, people, and institutions doesn’t just make for good comedy. It’s also an important means for critiquing society and—more importantly—the government.
The Babylon Bee calls itself “Fake News you can trust,” and it has been putting a Christian twist on satirical news since 2016. The Bee does what all great satirists do—comedically distort real events and people by using irony and exaggeration as a way of telling a certain truth about them.
But some government officials want to censor The Babylon Bee and similar websites. They want to force disclaimers on posts and otherwise ban obvious and relevant critiques.
Of course, readers do not need the government to tell them that headlines such as “Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch” or “Dems Solemnly Don Tinfoil Hats Before Questioning Barr On Mueller Report” are satirical. This is about censorship, plain and simple.
If the government gets involved in telling us what is and isn’t true, it not only kills the joke but also harms everyone’s right to free speech. Unfortunately, The Bee has had to defend its right to post satirical content—even to the point of filing lawsuits—since its founding.
Hawaii Law Chills Speech
The latest challenge to free speech The Babylon Bee is facing comes from the Aloha state.
Hawaii recently enacted a new law, S2687, that imposes criminal and civil penalties for posting digitally modified content that risks “harming the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate in an election or changing the voting behavior of voters in an election.”
The broad and vague language of this law means that you could face lawsuits, damages, fines, and, yes, even jail time for posting political memes on social media. These vague terms are simply codewords for censorship and have the effect of chilling speech.
Hawaii has essentially made political memes a crime. We shouldn’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.
This law, which was passed in July of 2024, will be effective from February 2, 2026, until November 3, 2026, during state elections and midterm races.
This is censorship and a clear violation of Hawaiians’ First Amendment rights. Websites like The Babylon Bee would be forced to censor themselves or place disclaimers on many of their stories—ruining the jokes they’re trying to make.
Not only that, but allowing government officials and people who dislike our views to run to court and sue us for posting memes criticizing politicians will chill speech. Sometimes the process is its own penalty. Laws like Hawaii’s aren’t about protecting the truth. They’re about protecting politicians from criticism.
Freedom of Speech is Freedom to Criticize the Government
This isn’t the first time The Babylon Bee has challenged anti-free speech laws in court.
“We’re used to getting pulled over by the joke police,” said The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon. In 2024, The Bee challenged two California laws that similarly banned certain political speech online. Both of these laws were passed after California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on social media that a parody video of then-Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, should be “illegal.”
California passed the first law, AB 2839, right before the 2024 election, applying to any person or group who distributes “materially deceptive content” about candidates, elected officials, or other material related to elections. It also required satirical posts to carry disclaimers. The second law requires large online platforms to sometimes label or even take down posts that the state deems “materially deceptive.”
We’ve seen this all before.
In 2024, a Supreme Court judge in the country of Brazil suspended the online platform X from operating anywhere in the country because it presented a “real danger” of influencing elections. The United Kingdom has garnered criticism recently for its online anti-free speech laws. In 2025, by one estimate, around 30 people were arrested per day in the U.K for online post related incidents.
These stories from abroad serve as a warning to us here in the United States. We must protect our freedom of speech, including the right to make satire about the government. After all, it is a hallmark of a free society to speak critically of those in authority. If we’ve lost that, we’ve lost an important piece of our democratic republic.
The Babylon Bee v. Lopez
- July 2024: Hawaii Governor Josh Green signed S2687 into law.
- June 2025: ADF attorneys representing The Babylon Bee and a Hawaii resident filed a lawsuit challenging the law in court.
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