1/ TODAY the Fifth Circuit REVERSED a trial court decision that drastically curtailed First Amendment protections for satirical online speech.

TechFreedom was proud to team up with @EFF, in an amicus brief urging this result.

techfreedom.org/wp-content/upl…
2/ In March 2020, Waylon Bailey made a joke on Facebook comparing the COVID-19 pandemic to a zombie apocalypse.

Police officers stormed Bailey’s home and arrested him for violating a state anti-terrorism law.

1/ Last week, two business school profs tried their hand at #Section230 and the First Amendment. It went about as well as you’d expect.

They claim that 230 conflicts with itself, but that’s because they don’t understand that law, or how it works.

hbr.org/2021/08/its-ti… 2/ They make bold claims without backing them up about how social media platforms don’t have incentive to protect their brands by moderating content. In reality, platforms are widely held accountable for content they allow, and respond to public pressure all the time!

Tomorrow, @HouseJudiciary will mark up 5 bills to regulate big tech platforms. Two essentially impose common-carrier-style requirements, but are totally unmoored from basic common carriage principles

We explain our concerns in this letter: techfreedom.org/wp-content/upl… 1) the American Choice and Innovation Online Act (HR 3816) & the Ending Platform Monopolies Act (HR 3825) both apply broadly to the offerings of the five biggest tech companies just because they're big

That's not how common carriage works. It's not about size or market cap...

Today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will explore competition in app stores

To understand the enormous value created by app stores, you have to look back at the world before they existed

We explain how app stores benefitted both users & developers
techfreedom.org/wp-content/upl… The value app stores create isn't primarily economic: it's ensuring user trust by protecting the privacy of user data, the security of their devices, and even users' physical safety against those who might stalk them

Justice Thomas jumped into the #Section230 debate to embrace GOP arguments for narrowing protections for content moderation. He might think differently in a case where the issues he raised were actually briefed by both sides—unlike this very narrow case

techfreedom.org/justice-thomas… Thomas often issues such statements when SCOTUS decides not to take a case—to vent his frustrations about the state of the law

But this is the first time SCOTUS has ever considered taking a case involving #Section230. The briefs here did not even address the issues Thomas raises

Sen @HawleyMO is so painfully wrong about #Section230, someone oughta sue Yale Law School for his opinions

Just kidding. That’s not how law works! But it’s about as nuts as suing websites for what users say

Let’s start with why Rep. Chris Cox (𝙍-CA) wrote 230 back in 1995...

https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1268629250069987333

#Section230 protects “tech platforms” just as it protects National Review’s site, or a user’s (ahem, Trump's) retweet of someone else’s defamatory statements

230 DOES Internet media differently from other print & broadcasting, because they ARE different

https://twitter.com/PatHedger18/status/1268638846801100803

BREAKING: Trump’s new Executive Order purports to protect free speech online techfreedom.org/wp-content/upl…

That’s not how the Constitution works. The First Amendment protects Twitter from Trump—not Trump from Twitter

And #Section230 doesn’t change that

Here’s why... WEBSITES AREN’T PUBLIC FORA: Supreme Court jurisprudence and case law DOES NOT support the EO’s claims that they are. The EO cites two cases that don’t apply to social media platforms:

1/6 @LindseyGrahamSC's #EARNIT Act would give AG Barr a blank check—via #Section230—to crack down on Internet services, effectively ban secure #encryption & impose other de facto mandates that could never get through Congress as legislation

Could be worse than #FOSTASESTA!

https://twitter.com/techdirt/status/1223337180405358592

2/6 AG Barr could use Graham’s bill to force Apple to give law enforcement a backdoor on iMessage, iCloud or even iPhones—effectively banning end-to-end encryption

CNN reports on a leaked summary of the White House's draft Executive Order about anti-conservative bias

Ironically, for all Republicans' complaints about "censorship," this order would ACTUALLY create an Internet speech police at the FCC & FTC

Our take: techfreedom.org/draft-social-m… Trump’s order would transform the FCC & FTC from consumer protection agencies into regulators of online speech

Rs complain about ‘censorship’ by private companies. But this order would mean REAL censorship, empowering regulators to decide what kinds of speech are allowed online

Anyone thinking about amending #Section230 to make online intermediaries responsible for content they didn't create...

should read the 7 principles released today—supported by 50 academics/experts and 27 civil society orgs across the political spectrum

techfreedom.org/academics-civi… We value the balance between freely exchanging ideas, fostering innovation, & limiting harmful speech. Because this is an exceptionally delicate balance, #Section230 reform poses a substantial risk of failing to address policymakers’ concerns and harming the Internet overall.

TRUMP: I would work with Democrats to regulate social media platforms to rein in their power

Guys, c'mon. You can't possibly be dumb enough to fall for this. He's been on the warpath about social media companies "censoring conservatives" (without actual evidence) for months

1/7 You REALLY want to give Trump broad power to crack down on a website just because user content on the platform pisses him off?

Jeff Sessions has been rallying state AGs to do just this

Fortunately the antitrust laws probably won't allow that. Read: techfreedom.org/doj-inquiry-re…

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