| Date | Title | Description |
| 03.06.2025 | Techdirt Podcast Episode 420: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry | We’ve got a cross-post episode for you this week, courtesy of the Tech Policy Podcast by TechFreedom, hosted by Corbin Barthold. Both TechFreedom and The Copia Institute submitted comments on the FTC’s inquiry into social media censorship, ... |
| 06.02.2025 | Spam Emails, Spam Lawsuit: The GOP Tries To Break Gmail By Court Order | In 1872 California enacted a law declaring that “every one who offers to the public to carry persons, property, or messages, excepting only telegraphic messages, is a common carrier of whatever he thus offers to carry.” In 2022 the Republic... |
| 25.07.2024 | The Messy Reality Behind Trying To Protect The Internet From Terrible Laws | The recent Supreme Court case, Moody v. NetChoice & CCIA, confronted a pivotal question: Do websites have the First Amendment right to curate content they present to their global audiences? While the opinion has been dissected by many, ... |
| 28.06.2024 | As Silicon Valley becomes more conservative, Donald Trump eyes campaign funds | Listen to this article
As Silicon Valley becomes more conservative, Donald Trump eyes campaign funds
1 min
New: You can now listen to articles.
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
SILICON VALLEY, California: With its concentration of wea... |
| 18.03.2024 | Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think | Both troubled teens and government agencies are asking, “How thin is thin enough?” The teens are thinking about how thin they want to look, while the government is thinking about what’s too thin to post online.
The refrain is always the sam... |
| 12.12.2023 | Josh Hawley Back To Try To Hotline His Awful AI/Section 230 Bill | Last week, we wrote about the potential for Senator Josh Hawley to “hotline” the bill that he put together with Senator Richard Blumenthal to remove Section 230 from anything touching artificial intelligence. As we noted at the time, even i... |
| 27.07.2023 | Congress Pretends It’s Fixed All The Problems With KOSA; It Hasn’t | On Wednesday, the Senate revealed an amended version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) for today’s hearing over the bill. One would hope with so much public pushback over the bill, they might do something crazy like trying to fix the bil... |
| 20.06.2023 | Texas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not Exist | Over the past two years, there has been a concerted push by state legislatures to regulate the Internet, the likes of which has not been seen since the late 90s/early aughts. Content moderation, financial relationships between journalists a... |
| 02.05.2023 | Bipartisan Panic: 26 Senators Support Terrible, Dangerous, Unconstitutional ‘KOSA Act’ | Passing blatantly unconstitutional dangerous laws “to protect the children” based on totally unsubstantiated moral panics appears to be part of a bipartisan mass hysteria these days. The Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, is officially back. ... |
| 24.03.2023 | Utah’s Governor Live Streams Signing Of Unconstitutional Social Media Bill On All The Social Media Platforms He Hates | On Thursday, Utah’s governor Spencer Cox officially signed into law two bills that seek to “protect the children” on the internet. He did with a signing ceremony that he chose to stream on nearly every social media platform, despite his ass... |
| 07.12.2022 | Content Moderation Sacrificed in Left-Right Deals on Tech Reform | With the clock ticking on the postelection lame-duck session of Congress, tech reformers are pushing for votes on a package of bills that stalled over the summer. Three bills—the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the Open App Marke... |
| 27.09.2022 | Social Media Transparency Rules, Zauderer Standard Head to Supreme Court | In 2021, Florida passed SB 7072, a pathbreaking (in a bad way) social media speech law. This May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a significant opinion, NetChoice v. Moody, on that law’s constitutionality. One side... |
| 28.07.2022 | After Dobbs, Democrats and Republicans Switch Places on Speech Policy | The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade is likely to have a sweeping effect on abortion and privacy, but it will also set the stage for a battle over what people can and can’t say online. Democrats and Republicans are already p... |
| 15.03.2022 | What Happened the Last Time Congress Amended § 230 | Editor’s note: This piece is a modified excerpt from the author’s Brookings Institution paper, “The Politics of Section 230 Reform: Learning From FOSTA’s Mistakes.”
For most of its 26-year existence, Section 230 of the Communications Decenc... |
| 11.03.2022 | Ignoring EARN IT’s Fourth Amendment Problem Won’t Make It Go Away | A month ago, the controversial EARN IT Act sailed through a markup hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. If enacted, the bill would strip the providers of online services of Section 230 immunity for their users’ child sexual exploitati... |
| 23.02.2022 | The GOP Knows That The Dem's Antitrust Efforts Have A Content Moderation Trojan Horse; Why Don't The Dems? | Last summer, I believe we were among the first to highlight that the various antitrust bills proposed by mainly Democratic elected officials in DC included an incredibly dangerous trojan horse that would aid Republicans in their “playing th... |
| 23.02.2022 | The GOP Knows That The Dem's Antitrust Efforts Have A Content Moderation Trojan Horse; Why Don't The Dems? | Last summer, I believe we were among the first to highlight that the various antitrust bills proposed by mainly Democratic elected officials in DC included an incredibly dangerous trojan horse that would aid Republicans in their "playi... |
| 10.02.2022 | The Top Ten Mistakes Senators Made During Today's EARN IT Markup | Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the EARN IT Act and sent that legislation to the Senate floor. As drafted, the bill will be a disaster. Only by monitoring what users communicate could tech services avoid vast new ... |
| 12.03.2021 | No, Florida Can’t Regulate Online Speech | Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has promised that Florida will soon enact “the most ambitious reforms yet proposed” for “holding ‘Big Tech’ accountable.” The bill would force large “social media platforms”—entities that enable users to acc... |
| 09.02.2021 | Section 230 Lets Tech Fix Content Moderation Issues. Congress Should Respect That | Congress is on the brink of destroying the internet as we know it. |
| 03.02.2021 | The Wall Street Journal Misreads Section 230 and the First Amendment | When private tech companies moderate speech online, is the government ultimately responsible for their choices? This appears to be the latest argument advanced by those criticizing Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996—sometimes... |
| 03.11.2020 | What The Election Means For Tech | |
| 03.11.2020 | What The Election Means For Tech | For Republicans, bashing “Big Tech” has become as central to the Culture War as bashing the “Big Three Networks” once was. Demanding “neutrality” from social media companies has become what “net neutrality” has been for Democrats: the issue... |
| 24.07.2020 | The First Amendment Bars Regulating Political Neutrality, Even Via Section 230 | At the end of May, President Trump issued an Executive Order demanding action against social media sites for “censoring” conservatives. His Department of Justice made a more specific proposal in mid-June. Clearly coordinating with the White... |
| 09.04.2020 | The EARN IT Act Creates A New Moderator's Dilemma | Last month, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators unveiled the much discussed EARN IT Act, which would require tech platforms to comply with recommended best practices designed to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or no ... |
| 02.04.2020 | Senator Blumenthal Is Super Mad That Zoom Isn't Actually Offering The End To End Encryption His Law Will Outlaw | Richard Blumenthal has been attacking internet services he doesn't understand since before he was even a US Senator. It has carried over into his job as a Senator, and was abundantly obvious in his role as a co-sponsor for FOSTA. His hatred... |
| 02.04.2020 | Senator Blumenthal Is Super Mad That Zoom Isn't Actually Offering The End To End Encryption His Law Will Outlaw | Richard Blumenthal has been attacking internet services he doesn’t understand since before he was even a US Senator. It has carried over into his job as a Senator, and was abundantly obvious in his role as a co-sponsor for FOSTA. His hatred... |
| 05.03.2020 | Senators Hawley & Feinstein Join Graham & Blumenthal In Announcing Bill To Undermine Both Encryption And Section 230 | In late January, we had an analysis of an absolutely dreadful bill proposed by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal — both with a long history of attacking the internet — called the EARN IT Act. The crux of the bill was that, in t... |
| 05.03.2020 | Senators Hawley & Feinstein Join Graham & Blumenthal In Announcing Bill To Undermine Both Encryption And Section 230 | In late January, we had an analysis of an absolutely dreadful bill proposed by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal -- both with a long history of attacking the internet -- called the EARN IT Act. The crux of the bill was that, in... |
| 25.02.2020 | Barr's Motives, Encryption and Protecting Children; DOJ 230 Workshop Review, Part III | In Part I of this series on the Department of Justice’s February 19 workshop, “Section 230 — Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability?” (archived video and agenda), we covered why Section 230 is important, how it works, and how pa... |
| 21.02.2020 | Why Section 230 Matters And How Not To Break The Internet; DOJ 230 Workshop Review, Part I | Festivus came early this year — or perhaps two months late. The Department of Justice held a workshop Wednesday: Section 230 – Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability? (archived video and agenda). This was perhaps the most offici... |
| 31.01.2020 | Lindsey Graham's Sneak Attack On Section 230 And Encryption: A Backdoor To A Backdoor? | Both Republicans and Democrats have been talking about amending Section 230, the law that made today’s Internet possible. Most politicians are foggy on the details, complaining generally about “Big Tech” being biased against them (Republica... |
| 19.06.2019 | Senator Hawley Proposes Law To Force Internet Companies To Beg The FTC For Permission To Host Content | Senate newbie Josh Hawley has made it clear that he’s no fan of big internet companies and has joined with others in suggesting that Section 230 is somehow to blame for whatever it is he dislikes (it mainly seems to be he thinks the public ... |
| 11.04.2019 | Grandstanding GOP Senators Continue To Mislead About Social Media Bias, Demand A 'Fairness Doctrine' For The Internet | We’ve talked for a while about the sheer silliness of (mainly) Republican politicians whining about supposed “anti-conservative bias” on social media platforms. As we’ve pointed out, the actual evidence hasn’t shown any evidence of bias. Th... |
| 24.09.2018 | In Which A Bunch Of Us Try To Explain The 1st Amendment To Jeff Sessions Concerning 'Social Media Bias' | A few weeks back, we did a post trying to explain how the planned meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a group of state Attorneys General to “discuss” how to deal with the imaginary problem of “political bias” on social media ... |
| 28.08.2018 | Conservatives: Stop Crying Wolf On Tech Bias Or No One Will Ever Take You Seriously | In an article picked up by Drudge Report and then tweeted by President Donald Trump himself, PJ Media editor Paula Bolyard makes the shocking claim that Google deliberately manipulates its search results to favor left-wing views and undermi... |
| 01.05.2017 | Too little, too late? FCC wins net neutrality court case | Flickr user: Steve Rhodes reader comments 116 with 59 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
If the Federal Communications Commission still intended to enforce net neutrality rules, a court... |
| 22.03.2017 | “Dig once” bill could bring fiber Internet to much of the US | Enlarge
Getty Images | tiero reader comments 120 with 80 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
Years in the making, a proposal to mandate the installation of fiber conduits during federall... |
| 11.08.2016 | ISPs and FCC Republicans celebrate FCC’s court loss on muni broadband | Epic Fireworks reader comments 148 with 89 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
A trade group representing ISPs rejoiced over a court decision that allows states to limit the growth of mu... |
| 05.07.2016 | The Week That Will Be | Event Announcements (More Details on the Event Calendar)
Wednesday, July 6th at 1:00 pm: The Stimson Center will host a panel on Drone Data and Transparency: Putting New Drone Casualty Data into Perspective to discuss the data the White Hou... |
| 09.05.2016 | Netflix Settles Throttling 'Controversy' By Letting Mobile Users Throttle Themselves (Or Not) | Last month, you might recall that Netflix found itself at the center of some “controversy” after it admitted it was throttling AT&T and Verizon customer Netflix streams to 600 kbps. At the time, the company stated it was only doing so t... |
| 28.03.2016 | Cable group: Net neutrality rules for Netflix! (But not for us) | Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
JD Lasica reader comments 103 with 78 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
Since Netflix's admission last week that it throttles video on most mobile networks t... |
| 19.02.2016 | What Happens If You Don't Register Your Drone with the FAA Today | If you own a drone and live in the United States, today is your last day to register with the federal government—at least, if you're planning on complying with its new and controversial regulations for small remote-control aircraft.
Registr... |
| 07.01.2016 | T-Mobile’s Binge On: When throttling may not break the rules | T-Mobile CEO John Legere.
T-Mobile reader comments 158 with 78 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
T-Mobile USA will soon meet with the Federal Communications Commission about whether it... |
| 07.10.2015 | EU Strikes Back Over Snowden Leaks, But Blow Hits US Startups | This post appears courtesy of the Ferenstein Wire, a syndicated news service. Publishing partners may edit posts. For inquiries, please email author and publisher Gregory Ferenstein.
The technology industry is scrambling to understand how i... |
| 23.04.2015 | Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal looking more doomed every day | reader comments 89 with 57 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
The Department of Justice isn't the only federal agency that appears to be skeptical of a merger of the nation's two larges... |
| 13.03.2015 | Net neutrality is “Big Brother ObamaNet,” and other brilliant criticism of FCC | Aurich Lawson reader comments 418 with 141 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
Broadband regulation opponents filled up reporters' inboxes with angry reactions to the Federal Communicati... |
| 27.02.2015 | White House Drops ‘Consumer Privacy Bill Of Rights Act’ Draft | In a late-Friday release, the White House published a draft of its proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. You can read the full text here. The bill sets out to, in its own words, “establish baseline protections for individual privacy in ... |
| 29.01.2015 | FCC Redefines Broadband As 25 Mbps, Angering Broadband Industry Perfectly Happy With Previous, Pathetic Standard | For a few months now, the FCC has been hinting that it was preparing to raise the base definition of broadband, and now it has officially made it happen. Voting 3-2 along party lines (because having goals is a partisan issue, you know), the... |
| 11.11.2014 | Anti Net Neutrality Crowd Reaches Deep For The Craziest Possible Response To President Obama's Call For Real Net Neutrality Rules | Well, we already wrote about President Obama’s somewhat surprising decision to come out strongly in favor of Title II reclassification for broadband (with strong forbearance) to setup some real net neutrality rules. We also covered the unha... |
| 11.07.2014 | FTC Goes After Amazon For Kids' In App Purchases As Apple Begs FTC To Go After Google As Well | As was expected since last week, the FTC has officially announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Amazon for the way it handled in-app purchases, specifically arguing that the company made it way too easy for children to rack up huge bi... |
| 17.02.2014 | The Nation's Entirely Objective Think Tanks And Consultants Want You To Know Comcast Deal Is Secretly Awesome | Comcast faces obvious regulatory and public relation obstacles in getting its $45.2 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable approved, given concerns about vertical integration and scale. Comcast last week got a running start on selling the... |
| 09.01.2014 | AT&T plan to turn data caps into more cash could come to home Internet | Chris Young reader comments 102 with 74 posters participating
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
AT&T announced three days ago that it would start charging content providers for the right to bypass data ... |
| 05.12.2013 | The IRS And SEC Want To Snoop Through Your Email Without A Warrant; Don't Let Them | We’ve talked a lot about ECPA reform — which is the incredibly outdated “electronic communications privacy act” which actually makes sure that you have less privacy than other forms of communication. This isn’t necessarily on purpose, but b... |
| 05.12.2013 | Why you should care about Internet policy reform | We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
Eva Arevuo is the communications manager for Engi... |
| 03.12.2013 | An Important Week To Speak Up To Protect Innovation And Privacy | Two separate, but equally important, issues are getting extra attention this week, and if you’re concerned about innovation you should speak up on both of them. First, it appears that the House is set to vote on the Innovation Act, the pate... |
| 26.09.2013 | The Second Century Of The Federal Trade Commission | You may not know much about the most important agency in Washington when it comes to regulating new technologies. Founded 99 years ago today, the Federal Trade Commission has become, for better or worse, the Federal Technology Commission. |
| 17.04.2013 | CISPA Renders Online Privacy Agreements Meaningless, But Sponsor Sees No Reason To Fix That | CISPA’s sponsors insist the law is 100% voluntary—it doesn’t compel companies to do anything. But as we’ve been warning for a year and warned again yesterday, the bill’s blanket immunity provision doesn’t merely clear a “legislative thicket... |
| 20.12.2012 | FTC's Overzealous Attempts To 'Protect The Children' May Do Serious Harm To The Internet | Earlier this year, we were reasonably worried about the FTC’s plan to expand COPPA. COPPA — the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act — is one of those laws that appears to have the best of intentions. Who doesn’t want to protect the priv... |
| 03.08.2012 | Hey, We Finally Have A Privacy And Civil Liberties Oversight Board… After Being Left Dormant For Almost Five Years | With all the efforts to pass cybersecurity legislation, along with all the fears of government violating our privacy (4th amendment? Whazzat?), you might think it would be somewhat useful to have an agency in charge of watching the governme... |
| 23.02.2012 | Could A Consumer Privacy Bill Of Rights Even Work? | The White House is making a big deal over its introduction of a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights concerning corporation’s use of personal data. Unlike Europe, where there are a bunch of privacy protection laws, the US has gotten by without s... |
| 21.12.2011 | Demolishing The Reasoning Behind Senators Bogus Grandstanding Against Google | I have no problem calling out Google when I think the company does questionable things, but I’m really at a complete loss over the desire of some in DC to attack the company these days. The best I can figure it out, they don’t like the fact... |
| 05.10.2011 | RIAA Law Lets Law Enforcement Ignore 4th Amendment, Search Private Property With No Warrants | One of my favorite historical stories that really demonstrates how a “legacy” industry can take regulatory capture to extreme lengths to protect their monopoly rights is the story of the French button-makers guild in 1666, as relayed by fam... |
| 11.07.2011 | Google working on a marketplace for advertisers to buy and sell your data | We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
Google is working to create an online exchange wh... |
| 11.07.2011 | Google working on a marketplace for advertisers to buy and sell your data | Google is working to create an online exchange where digital marketers can buy, sell and trade data on individuals, according to an Ad Age report.
Google deflected many questions we had about the service with a single, short statement.
“We’... |
| 27.04.2011 | What You'll Be Missing If You Don't Attend Our Dinner Salon On Privacy | A few weeks back, we announced that we’re hosting an Insight Dinner salon in Santa Clara, in partnership with the Privacy Identity Innovation 2011 conference (pii2011). The idea behind the dinner is to get a lot of smart people in the room ... |
