First Amendment & defamation lawyer. Free Speech Counsel @techfreedom. Illini/music junkie/oofnik.
Tweets my own.
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Jan 31 • 111 tweets • 15 min read
Senate Judiciary is having a hearing today on "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," in which senators will yell at a bunch of social media platform CEOs and likely say some very wrong things. Follow along in this thread, if you dare.
judiciary.senate.gov/committee-acti…2/ Durbin kicks off by showing a video from victims of online CSE and their parents. Undeniably horrible stories, and if the hearing really focuses exclusively on platform efforts to combat CSE/CSAM, I'll be on board--platforms SHOULD be doing more.
But that's unlikely.
Aug 8, 2023 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
1/ I must respectfully take issue with this piece, for a few reasons.
First, as a normative matter, to mee it comes too close to equating the harms of CSAM with the effects of minors looking at porn. Whatever you think about the latter, the former is *inestimably* worse.
2/ Second, the "secondary effects doctrine" is a heaping MESS that gives government an end-run around the First Amendment, even for non-porn speech. Expanding it to the online world rather than physical locations would be terrible.
SED should be retired, not broadened.
Jun 30, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1/ So @MiamiSeaquarium, which tortures Orcas by keeping them in confined spaces, have filed suit because Phil published drone pictures and criticized them.
It's evident that they didn't like being criticized, and are trying to shut him up.
In case you're unfamiliar with the litigation, let me refresh your memory & explain why it's important.
2/ In April 2021, a video started circulating on social media showing a man accosting a teen taking pre-prom pictures with his boyfriend at a hotel restaurant, because the teen was wearing a dress.
Super normal stuff.
When Kathy saw the video, she tweeted about it a few times.
May 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Oh hey, did you know that you can wreck a @Target display and doing that enough will get them to pull the products you're vandalizing about?
The War on Christmas is gonna be EPIC this year. Get ready, @Target!
May 21, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I'm sorry that you don't believe that people accused of crimes deserve legal representation and for the state to prove their case--kind of a fundamental principle that this country was founded on.
Someone here is "scum," but it's not who you think.
Seems @wontbackdown83 deleted his original tweet so that he could turn off replies. Very brave man.
May 17, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
When senators respond to questions about Dianne Feinstein with statements about their friendship with/respect for her, they are LITERALLY telling you that their club membership is more important to them than serving their country.
At worst, she's being controlled by unidentified, unelected, and unaccountable people.
That's bad for democracy no matter what party you're in.
May 16, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
This conference has drawn differences in stark relief: other countries agree that vaping is much lower-risk, and see it as a plus. People like nicotine. Make it safer.
US regulators, in contrast, are puritanical nutjobs out to eliminate any nicotine use (lol) no matter the cost.
The entire FDA presentation is an attempt to justify its prohibitionist bent, but it's hard to make that land when you're following hours of presentations about how that approach is steaming garbage that makes people less safe and substitutes govt judgment for individual agency.
Apr 26, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
In a deeply silly turn of events, MT Gov. Greg Gianforte issued an amendatory veto.
And not in a good way.
Aside from missing the *entire* First Amendment point, his proposed changes seem to actually ban *all* social media from the state.
2/ The proposed amendments basically try to accomplish the same effect, just without *naming* TikTok.
That's nice, I guess.
But it does nothing to address the fact that a sweeping ban of an entire platform, unjustified by any proffered harms, raises First Amendment Concerns.
Apr 25, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Some cool development going on at Bluesky, a protocol-based initiative that solves many centralized social media problems (e.g., interoperability, algorithms, impersonal content moderation, a giant baby with the emotional maturity of a staple remover buying it, etc.)
2/ It also addresses some of the problems with Mastodon (e.g., shitty user interface, no ability to quote posts, migrating servers is a pain and causes weird issues, content moderation is hit-or-miss, no search, limited ability to sift through posts).
Here's what I like so far:
Feb 26, 2023 • 20 tweets • 6 min read
1/ These FCC complaints about the Super Bowl halftime show are...exactly what you would expect from people who would take the time to complain to the government about something they didn't like on TV.
Some highlights:
2/ Come for the bigotry, stay for the sneaking suspicion that he doesn't care all that much about decency.
Also, why didn't he send it to the old papers?
Feb 25, 2023 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
The first rule of writing about how America feels "lawless" is: make sure you understand basic things about American law.
The first of his complaints is, of course, that America feels lawless because govt isn't doing anything about Fox News.
2/ It may surprise @umairh, but the United States isn't Europe, and it's weird to base a claim that America feels lawless on the fact that we follow our own laws and not...Europe's.
Short answer: America has the First Amendment. Europe does not.
Feb 24, 2023 • 30 tweets • 10 min read
1/ Though my work is on speech issues, those who know me well know that #HarmReduction is an issue I care deeply about. Both because keeping people healthier & alive is good, and because it highlights the danger of overly intrusive govt.
So I want to talk about #vaping & #ecigs.
2/ A section of @POTUS' State of the Union Fact Sheet that didn't make it into the speech addressed the harms of smoking, and the importance of cessation and prevention.
As our coalition explained in February, OAMA's original language invited endless lawsuits when apps were excluded from app stores for editorial reasons, or weren't listed in curated app sections.
1/ What would a day ending in "day" be without a Texas legislator not understanding the First Amendment.
This time it's @JaredLPatterson, with a performative, unconstitutional nonsense bill to ban minors from social media and require platforms to verify all users' identity.
The bill's brevity belies the magnitude of its stupidity.
Dec 8, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Considering turning this into an account dedicated to shaming the person on the phone at a crowded gate at DCA, whose end of the conversation I can hear clear as day from like 50 feet away.
Things I have learned: 1) She's kind of a unique case and feels the need to explain why she's doing this (whatever she's talking about, not her being obnoxious) 2) She's a special assistant to a two-star, plucked to build a program for the navy. 3) She worked her ass off
Dec 6, 2022 • 23 tweets • 12 min read
1/ As Congress wraps, members are trying to ram through their terrible tech bills, consequences be damned—including the Kids Online Safety Act
Today. @TechFreedom & scholars warned Congressional leaders that #KOSA will *harm* kids—and the First Amendment techfreedom.org/wp-content/upl…2/ To hear @SenBlumenthal tell it, you'd think the bill has been through a gauntlet of hearings & experts.
But in truth the actual text of #KOSA has been discussed for less than 20 minutes in committee meetings (mostly non-substantively), all at the July 27 markup.
Nov 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Let's be honest: this site has way too much amazing chaotic energy for me to jump ship at this point.
And after signing up for Mastodon (@aricohn@masthead.social), I'm not convinced it's ready. Not being able to see follower/ing lists from users on other servers is not good.
If you want a decentralized social network to work, you need to make it easy to find people and follow them even if they are on other servers.
Being able to see/interact with people no matter what the server is only half the equation.
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