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Legal Foundations
In litigation over the Florida and Texas social media speech regulations (SB 7072 and HB 20, respectively), we’ve taken the lead in debunking claims that digital platforms, both big and small, are common carriers that can be compelled to host speech and speakers they find offensive or disruptive. Our litigation department is doing crucial work to defend the rule of law in cases that may not make for the biggest headlines.
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Press Release
Don’t Let Texas Break the Internet, TechFreedom Urges Supreme Court
Last week, just two days after hearing oral argument, and without issuing an opinion, the Fifth Circuit stayed a district court order blocking enforcement of HB 20, Texas’s social media speech regulation—which means the law is now in effect, during litigation over its constitutionality. This startingly radical move placed in a terrible bind the social media services whose products ...
Corbin K. Barthold
May 18, 2022
Press Release
Letting Texas’s Unconstitutional Online Speech Code Take Effect Is “Startlingly Radical”
Today, just two days after hearing oral argument, and without issuing an opinion, the Fifth Circuit stayed a district court order blocking enforcement of HB 20, Texas’s ...
Corbin K. Barthold
May 11, 2022
Tech Policy Podcast
#322: Noah Phillips
FTC Commissioner
Commissioner Noah Phillips joins the show for a wide-ranging discussion about the Federal Trade Commission. ...
June 2, 2022
Latest Articles
Press Release
Don’t Let Texas Break the Internet, TechFreedom Urges Supreme Court
Last week, just two days after hearing oral argument, and without issuing an opinion, the Fifth Circuit stayed a district court order blocking enforcement of HB 20, Texas’s social media speech regulation—which means the law is now in effect, during litigation over its constitutionality. This startingly radical move placed in a terrible bind the social media services whose products HB 20 would destroy. Accordingly, the services immediately sought emergency relief from the Supreme ...
Corbin K. Barthold
May 18, 2022
Press Release
Letting Texas’s Unconstitutional Online Speech Code Take Effect Is “Startlingly Radical”
Today, just two days after hearing oral argument, and without issuing an opinion, the Fifth Circuit stayed a district court order blocking enforcement of HB 20, Texas’s social media speech regulation. “This is a startlingly radical move,” said Corbin K. Barthold, TechFreedom Internet Policy Counsel. “Especially when considered alongside some of the judges’ comments at argument, it seems driven, at least in part, by spite toward what one of HB 20’s own supporters called the ‘West ...
Corbin K. Barthold
May 11, 2022
Letter
If Common Carriage Doesn’t Work for Broadband, Why Should It Work for Social Media?
That’s the question we asked in our letter to the House Energy & Commerce Committee after FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr testified before its Subcommittee on Communications and Technology in late March. In his testimony, Carr recommended what would amount to a new Fairness Doctrine for the Internet, involving non-discrimination requirements for social media websites. Although he doesn’t refer to this idea as common carriage, these non-discrimination mandates are a central provision ...