Listening to the oral arguments on Texas's social media law and ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
One of the judges just conflated "interactive computer service" with "internet provider"
The same judge does not seem to recognize Twitter or Facebook as websites.
Another seemed surprised that Twitter could wake up one day and decide to ban all LGBT speech, and then asked why Verizon's phone business, a common carrier, can't decide to block individual phone calls based on the speech expressed in those calls.
The hearing has wrapped. It's obviously foolish to predict what the court will do but the questioning seemed to reveal a poor grasp of the basics underlying the case.
On the Verizon point, there was a whole lot of yammering about past net neutrality litigation that should have produced an easy answer to this but somehow they never got there. The answer being, websites are not regarded as common carriers
Only at the end of the hearing did one of the judges correctly observe that Section 230 is "irrelevant" to the question of whether Twitter is exercising a First Amendment right when it moderates content.
Whether Twitter's moderation activity is protected by the 1A is the basis for the injunction written by the lower court and that is being challenged before the appellate court.
I am amazed that the appellate court barely touched on that question in 40 minutes of argument.
I'm going back through my audio recording to find some of these amazing exchanges. Here's one in which Judge Oldham needs to be reminded of the 1A limitations on government-compelled speech and also discovers the arbitrary power of private platforms.
And here's the exchange on Verizon. As I understand it, the reason Verizon cannot do what Oldham is proposing — and yet Twitter can — is precisely because Verizon has common carrier obligations in its phone business (but not its broadband business!) and Twitter does not.
And here is the exchange on whether Twitter is even a website at all, and if it is, whether it is covered by Section 230.
This is insane. The fact that websites like Twitter *are* covered by 230 is the entire reason why there's a whole movement underway to change or repeal 230!
Having to literally re-litigate this stuff, poorly, in order to have a hope of reaching the fundamental question of whether Twitter has a First Amendment right to moderate its own platform does not offer reassurance in the 5th Circuit's ability to rule competently in this matter.
I just… GAHHH
Just as an aside, this seems to me a direct consequence of the appification of the web and the siloing of information into private warehouses. People really forget that services operate on top of websites!
A short little story: Earlier this year, after @dotMudge's whistleblower allegations against Twitter became public, I filed a FOIA request to the FTC asking for all of Twitter's third-party compliance reports filed pursuant to its 2011 consent order.
These reports, which companies under order are usually required to submit to show they're abiding by their consent decrees, are public record and usually gettable.
But in this case, the FTC denied my requests for all five reports.
The FTC claimed that it didn't have to hand over the records under FOIA exemption 7(A).
7(A) lets agencies withhold records compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only if revealing those records "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings." 🤔
Our full story on Elon Musk's Twitter Q&A with advertisers today, wherein he sketched out his plans for the platform's future and pleaded with brands to use the service more: cnn.com/2022/11/09/tec…
Here are a few highlights:
– Banking is coming to Twitter, with P2P payments, a "money market fund" and debit cards/checks
– Twitter Blue subscribers' tweets get shown by default but non-paying users' tweets will have to be manually sought out
Like many of you, I've been rethinking my relationship to Twitter. For me, it kind of began after I went on parental leave a year ago. I've always been pretty good at unplugging on off hours (or maybe just bad at my job?) but becoming a dad *really* tanked my drive to be on here.
As more of the experts and sources I follow head to platforms like Mastodon, though, I have to decide how and where to spend my attention. Starting over on a new site sounds exhausting (hello, network effects!) but until it's clear we've hit a tipping point, I'll be on both.
Good morning from Capitol Hill, where Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko is set to testify before US lawmakers on his damning allegations against his former employer. Things kick off at 10 ET, but our liveblog is already up and running: cnn.com/tech/live-news…
And here we are:
The Twitter whistleblower hearing is now getting underway. Follow live updates here: cnn.com/tech/live-news…
NEW: Twitter execs have tried to conceal enormous security vulnerabilities that put users, investors and even US national security at risk, according to a damning new whistleblower report by the company’s former head of security: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
Among its allegations, the disclosure obtained by CNN claims half of Twitter employees, including all engineers, enjoy excessive access to the live Twitter product and user data, and coding/testing happens right in the product rather than in a sandbox: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
It alleges serious breaches of Twitter's 2011 privacy settlement with the FTC, which legal experts including former FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz told CNN could lead to billions in new fines: cnn.com/2022/08/23/tec…
If you’re not following this week’s court decision on Texas’s social media law, you need to tune in. Right frickin’ now. cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…
This week’s decision letting Texans sue social media companies is hugely significant. Three reasons why.
1. The law is in effect—right now. A wave of suits may be being prepared as we speak. Plaintiffs have never had a law like HB 20 to help them before. cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…
2. Lots of uncertainty on how social media is allowed to work in Texas going forward. Companies need to figure out how to comply. Do they stop all moderation? Shut down and pull out? Do they need to engineer Texas-specific systems? What’s the impact to UX? cnn.com/2022/05/13/tec…