iven the impending glut of AI-altered content that threatens to distort the flow of information on social media platforms, this Article comes at an inflection point. Absent the widespread adoption of a historically-accurate understanding of the obligation of the federal government to facilitate the spread of news and views on current affairs, the public may soon lose its ability to speak, listen, and learn to the extent required by a functioning deliberative democracy.

This is not hyperbole. By 2026, experts forecast that “synthetic” information may account for ninety-percent of online content. The anticipated deluge of AI-altered content will hinder the ability of speakers to reach their intended audiences as well as audience members to locate speakers. Yet, arbitrary and ahistorical tests developed by courts decades after the founding of the country limit and, arguably, foreclose government efforts to prevent a market failure in the marketplace of ideas.

This Article urges a review of the government’s responsibility to maintain a national information exchange. In particular, akin to founding-era congresses expanding the postal network and significantly lowering the postage rate of newspapers, the current Congress should subsidize the creation of “Reality Exchanges” on major social media platforms. These exchanges would only host content unaltered by AI that is also posted by verified individuals or institutions. Such exchanges would align with the historical role of the government in creating and maintaining marketplaces of ideas and avoid some of the major barriers set forth by current First Amendment doctrine.