Senior Counsel @ProgressChamber | Adjunct Law Prof @santaclaralaw | Xoogler | Nerdy about 1A, #Section230, & Gen AI 🤖 | meme docent | tweets = mine
Apr 15 • 25 tweets • 11 min read
If you're going to talk about me, why not @ me? Are you afraid of my response?
At no point did I say my tweets are representative of my employer. And you know that -- as you said, I'm tweeting on a Sunday afternoon, outside of working hours.
[the following is my own opinion, not my employer's].
Last night, @ CreatureDesigns (Mike Corriero) posted an image of @brianlfrye, a Jewish law professor, depicted as hitler + an image implying Brian's pending execution.
Pure violence and hatred.
Apr 11 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
That's one of the major issues with the current discourse around Gen AI and 230. We have to understand the Gen AI stack before we can even consider liability.
In assessing liability we have the platforms that provide the Gen AI services, the developers who create and fine tune the models. We have the folks who create the datasets and the folks who implement the datasets to train their models. We have users who supply inputs.
Apr 9 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Yeah so this bill is laughably bad.
The Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024 requires anyone using a dataset to train AI to disclose any copyrighted works in the set to the U.S. Copyright Office to be displayed via a public database. 🧵 schiff.house.gov/imo/media/doc/…
Copyright attaches automatically to any creative works fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
So, pretty much all works used to train an AI system will require disclosures, regardless of fair use considerations.
(btw you don't "train" a dataset but details).
Mar 28 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit filed its order in Diep v. Apple. They had me in the first half...
Strong #Section230 ruling regarding Apple's content moderation efforts. Until the Court got to the UCL claims...creating yet another bizarre 230 loophole. sigh. 🧵
Hadona Diep is a cybersecurity professional.
She downloaded an app called "Toast Plus" from Apple's App store thinking it was the "Toast Wallet" for storing cryptocurrency.
It was not the Toast Wallet.
Mar 19 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
[Lack of] @CommonSense published an explainer on AB 3172 (which adds statutory damages for online harms to kids).
The explainer is laughable and deserves to be publicly mocked for championing the erosion of Californians' speech and privacy rights. 🧵
But they accidentally said the quiet part out loud: the goal is effectively a prior restraint, forcing online publishers to restrain their protected editorial decisions, if those decisions could "harm" a younger user.
Mar 19 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Just finished listening to the Murthy oral arguments.
The Court appears poised to decide for the Biden Admin on standing grounds, based on lack of traceability and the absence of any threat of future imminent harm.
Transcript / Audio: supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments…
Notably Justice Kagan's reference to platforms as "speech compilers" and recognition of Facebook's policy enforcement as reflective of its viewpoints perhaps foreshadows the Court's direction in the soon-to-decided NetChoice & CCIA cases...
Feb 27 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
Ventured into the lion's den to oppose the Senate ELVIS Act today, standing alone against RIAA and their cronies.
Despite the bill's passage, we secured a small win: the Senate stated for the record the law exempts AI services from liability for 3rd-party misuse.
My name is Jess Miers and I serve as Senior Counsel for Chamber of Progress, where we champion technological innovation to benefit all Americans, including the vibrant community here in Nashville, the heart of our nation’s music industry.
Feb 26 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Okay now that I've had some time to process, here is where I'm at after today's oral arguments...
I can see this being a 9-0 decision to affirm the preliminary injunctions. The line of questions and discussions from the Court were strikingly similar to Taamneh / Gonzalez.
While the Justices wrestled with some of the particulars of the Texas and Florida laws as they apply to the different types of services offered by the major platforms, one theme emerged throughout:
Feb 26 • 60 tweets • 8 min read
We are now at the NetChoice v. Paxton oral arguments. I am starting a new thread for live tweeting here.
NetChoice is up first arguing that Texas cannot just convert social media companies into common carriers just because they so.
Feb 14 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
Yesterday, the District Court of Ohio granted @NetChoice's request for a preliminary injunction, enjoining Ohio's parental consent law.
This is the 4th order in the NetChoice cases declaring social media parental consent laws likely unconstitutional. 🧵netchoice.org/wp-content/upl…
Recall: NetChoice won a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the state last month due to the act's looming effective date. You can read my discussion of the TRO below.
AG Bonta is currently appealing a challenge against the Age Appropriate Design Code after the District Court enjoined it, holding that @NetChoice is more than likely to show it's unconstitutional.
Now California is poised to do it all over again, all at our expense.
Worse, it appears in this new effort, the same folks behind the AADC are planning to launch a Utah-styled approach to regulating teen access to information.
Recall that the Utah laws, which are arguably even more obviously unconstitutional, are also facing legal challenges.
Jan 16 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Interesting (& potentially problematic) development in Walters v. OpenAI. Court denies OpenAI's motion to dismiss:
Recall this is the pending defamation case against OpenAI. H/T @VolokhSpeechmedialaw.org/wp-content/upl…
I unpacked the litigation leading up to this point in my recent paper on intermediary liability for providers of Generative AI technologies here.
The premise is weak -- how do you think websites attract those billions of users in the first place? Do you really think it's an unfiltered stream of consciousness that makes them successful?
Jan 9 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Just in: the TRO order in NetChoice v. Yost (the Ohio Parental Notification lawsuit).
This order should serve as another massive warning to policymakers aiming to enact similar legislation this year. We have standing and we will show up every time. drive.google.com/file/d/1vMcQdQ…
BTW NetChoice had to get a TRO before the preliminary injunction hearing because the Ohio law is set to go into effect next week.
@NetChoice I love y'all's explanation here in particular:
Jan 5 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: @NetChoice just filed suit in Ohio challenging the "Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act."
drive.google.com/file/d/15DHiQe…
Like many of the other mandatory age verification laws we've seen proposed throughout the U.S. last year, Ohio's would require websites to secure verifiable parental consent before allowing anyone under 16 to create accounts / access services.
Jan 4 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Cal Superior Court just rejected #Section230 in Neville v. Snap Inc., a lawsuit involving users who overdosed on drugs allegedly purchased via Snap.
The Court attributed Snap's role in the deaths to chat app's design permitting ephemeral communications. nbcnews.com/tech/social-me…
I will share the opinion once I have it.
Keep in mind that this is a state court holding, similar to the order we saw in the California social media addiction lawsuits, so it has limited reach (for now).
Dec 14, 2023 • 36 tweets • 12 min read
California just filed their opening brief in NetChoice v. Bonta in the Ninth Circuit, appealing the preliminary injunction enjoining the California Age Appropriate Design Code. 🧵
acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc…
We at @ProgressChamber along w/@ipjustice and @LGBTTech previously filed an amicus brief at the District Court highlighting the speech chilling aspects of the AADC.
Yesterday, @ProgressChamber and 11 organizations filed an amicus brief in support of @NetChoice and @ccianet urging SCOTUS to overturn the anti-moderation laws in Texas and Florida.
Special thanks to my incredible colleagues and the fabulous @HoganLovells team for the assist!🧵
Before I get into the details, some additional thank you's are in order:
S/O @MWBrennanDC @JRyanThomp and their superstar team for all the work that went into polishing and filing the brief!
S/O @KirstenDSouza for convening this amazing turnout of groups!
Dec 6, 2023 • 27 tweets • 6 min read
🚨 It's rumored that Sen. Hawley will soon attempt to hotline his bill adding an exception to #Section230 for "Generative Artificial Intelligence."
Putting aside how you may feel about Gen AI, this bill reaches far beyond it. 🧵 hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/…
The bill adds a carve out to Section 230's statutory exceptions for any civil suit or criminal prosecution where the underlying claim has to do with Generative AI.
Dec 5, 2023 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
I'm at UCLA today for the California Senate Judiciary information hearing on "The Importance Journalism in the Digital Age" (i.e. the notorious CJPA). I'll be live tweeting from @ProgressChamber starting around 1pm PT.
Expect the snark(ier) commentary @ my personal account. 😌
Follow along here:
Last year, multiple school districts and private plaintiffs across the nation filed complaints against social media services: Google, Meta, Snap, and TikTok.
This order addresses the first wave of complaints from the school districts and individuals.
