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We have been a leading voice on explaining how government over-regulation of online speech threatens free expression, free association, and the open Internet. We’ve explained how increased, and more arbitrary regulation could chill free speech and increase the ability of politicians to manipulate the media, both old and new.
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Opinion Piece
California’s Social Media Bill Flies In The Face Of The First Amendment
California has officially joined the growing list of states attempting to regulate how social media companies run their platforms. The state’s proposed legislation, however, faces a major legal obstacle: the Constitution. California lawmakers are marching ahead with AB 2408, the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act. On June 28, the Judiciary Committee unanimously ...
Andy Jung
July 19, 2022
Opinion Piece
The Quest for a Better Online “Community”
Remember Justine Sacco? In December 2013, while sitting in Heathrow Airport, she tweeted: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” She had ...
Corbin K. Barthold
May 16, 2022
Opinion Piece
Musk’s Free Speech Crusade
For Elon Musk, coming up with $44 billion was the easy part. What comes next, less so. To the delight of many conservatives, Musk has purchased Twitter and announced that ...
Corbin K. Barthold
April 26, 2022
Opinion Piece
Musk Makes the Mask Slip
Though he has just offered to buy Twitter for around $40 billion, it’s far from clear that Elon Musk knows how to run a social media platform. Speaking about his bid at ...
Corbin K. Barthold
April 17, 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
Article
A Victory for Online & Political Free Speech in Dreamhost Case
WASHINGTON D.C. —Yesterday, in a major victory for online and political free speech, the Chief Judge of the D.C. Superior Court revised an earlier order governing how the Department of Justice can access user data stored by Dreamhost. Judge Morin’s new order allows the web hosting company to protect the identities of innocent political dissidents by redacting the identities of individual users of the anti-Trump website disruptJ20.org before turning over information to DOJ. Before obtaining ...
Graham Owens
October 11, 2017
Article
Judge Orders Dreamhost to Turn Over Entire Domain of Anti-Trump Website
Despite “Efforts” to Minimize Chilling Effect, DoJ’s Warrant Remains Hugely Problematic by Graham Owens If you’ve spoken out against Trump — or if you spoke out against “Emperor” Obama — would you think twice about keeping it up if you knew the White House was building an enemies’ list? Would you feel any more comfortable attending a rally, or organizing behind the scenes, if a judge allowed federal agents access to information about critics of the administration ...
Graham Owens
September 15, 2017
Article
DOJ’s Dreamhost Warrant Violates Fourth Amendment
WASHINGTON D.C. — Web hosting provider Dreamhost is challenging a search warrant obtained by the Department of Justice compelling the disclosure of all “information associated with www.disruptj20.org,” an anti-Trump website that the DOJ claims organized a riot in Washington DC on Inauguration Day. Dreamhost argues the warrant fails the Fourth Amendment’s requirement to “particularly describe the person or place to be searched or seized” because ...
August 17, 2017
Article
Weakening Section 230 Won’t Prevent Sex Trafficking
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, TechFreedom and the R Street institute led a diverse coalition of public interest groups in expressing concerns over the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017. If enacted, the bill would expand criminal liability for websites regarding illegal sex trafficking on their sites, and amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 to allow state prosecutors and civil plaintiffs to take action against website operators. As the coalition ...
August 3, 2017
Article
Congress Must Protect Online Speech from Frivolous Lawsuits
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, TechFreedom and a coalition of free-market groups urged Congress to protect Americans against malicious or frivolous litigation that threatens to stifle free speech and undermine the digital economy. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the coalition called for passage of H.R. 2304, the SPEAK FREE Act, which would give defendants across the nation access to a special motion to dismiss SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation). The bill would ...
February 2, 2016
Article
State Lawmakers Again Trying to Justify Video Game Censorship: Berin Szoka in HuffPo
Still smarting from their blow-out loss at the Supreme Court two years ago, state legislators are laying the groundwork for a new push to censor video games. In the Huffington Post, TF President Berin Szoka shows how censorship efforts in Massachusetts (and in Congress) are doomed to fail: This week, TechFreedom joined the National Coalition Against Censorship and four other groups to file comments expressing concerns about legislation proposed in Massachusetts. The bill, ...
November 19, 2013
Article
TechFreedom Condemns AG Proposal to Amend Section 230 Immunity
Today, TechFreedom joined the Center for Democracy and Technology and a bipartisan coalition of advocacy organizations, trade associations, investors, and legal scholars in condemning a recent proposal by 47 state attorneys general to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. As explained in our recent TechBriefing, current law protects online intermediaries from most liability for user-generated content — meaning sites like Facebook or YouTube ...