No Country for Young Posters: Social Media Bans Outrun the Evidence
Governments around the world are rushing to address the youth mental health crisis, with social media squarely in their sights. From Capitol Hill to Paris to Sydney, lawmakers are proposing or enacting strict age restrictions that would ban teenagers from creating social media profiles. But are these heavy-handed mandates the right approach? A recent white ... No Country for Young Posters: Social Media Bans Outrun the Evidence
The Right-Answer Machine: Who Decides What Chatbots Should Say?
The trouble with chatbots is right there in the name: They talk. When that talk contributes to harm, policymakers face a deceptively difficult question. Should they seek rules that amount to policing dangerous conduct, or deciding what the chatbot should have said instead? The question matters because chatbots have quickly become one of the most ... The Right-Answer Machine: Who Decides What Chatbots Should Say?
Google, the Unruh Act, and the Legal Risk of Knowing Your Audience
Advertising’s oldest rule is simple: Know your audience. In California, following it may get an online platform sued. Show retirement-home ads to seniors and student discounts to college students, and sensible targeting can suddenly look like unlawful discrimination. That question is now before California’s Sixth Appellate District. The dispute arises from a trial court ruling in ... Google, the Unruh Act, and the Legal Risk of Knowing Your Audience
The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
A policy statement about accuracy should, at minimum, be precise. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Proposed Policy Statement Concerning the Suppression of Accuracy in Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI Policy Statement) struggles with that assignment. The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) submitted comments in response to the FTC’s request for input, and this post ... The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
Chatrie and the Court’s Pretzel Logic: The Fourth Amendment Gets Twisted
The Supreme Court just told police they cannot turn your phone into a witness against you merely because you walked through the wrong patch of pavement. That is the good news. The less comforting news is that the Court reached that result by dragging some badly aging Fourth Amendment doctrine along for the ride. In ... Chatrie and the Court’s Pretzel Logic: The Fourth Amendment Gets Twisted
Texas Wants to Check Your App Store Papers
Smartphones are no longer just phones. For kids, they are libraries, newspapers, classrooms, cameras, maps, town squares, and, yes, bottomless distraction machines. Texas Senate Bill 2420 treats access to all of it as something that should first pass through a state-mandated checkpoint. Also known as the App Store Accountability Act, SB 2420 is currently facing ... Texas Wants to Check Your App Store Papers
Government by Raised Eyebrow: The JAWBONE Act and the Problem of Censorship by Proxy
The easiest way for the government to censor speech is not always to ban it. Sometimes, it is to find someone else with a hand on the switch. That is the problem at the center of the current debate over free speech in the digital age. For years, the public argument focused on whether private ... Government by Raised Eyebrow: The JAWBONE Act and the Problem of Censorship by Proxy
No Free Lunch at Linney’s Pizza
A pizza shop wants lower debit-card fees. Fair enough. But if it wins, the tab may not land where diners expect. It could reshape administrative law, narrow the Federal Reserve’s discretion, and make ordinary checking accounts more expensive. That is what is at stake in Linney’s Pizza, LLC v. Board of Governors of the Federal ... No Free Lunch at Linney’s Pizza
The FCC Wants Final Cut
The government does not need to burn books when it can threaten licenses. Why bother with an inquisitor’s bonfire when a regulator’s raised eyebrow can do the trick? That is the modern First Amendment problem. Censorship no longer arrives only as an outright ban. More often, it comes dressed as “oversight,” “public interest,” or “compliance”—all ... The FCC Wants Final Cut
Addicted to Vagueness: Lawmakers Can’t Regulate Social Media by Vibes
A lawsuit over infinite scroll sounds, at first blush, like a fight over product design. Make the app less sticky. Stop nudging teens to keep scrolling. Turn down the algorithmic dopamine machine. But the harder constitutional question is whether courts can do all that through broad, after-the-fact liability standards without telling platforms what the law ... Addicted to Vagueness: Lawmakers Can’t Regulate Social Media by Vibes
Decorative Safe Harbors: The Judicial Hollowing-Out of Intermediary Accountability
The U.S. Supreme Court just made it much harder to hold at least some internet intermediaries liable for what their users do. And in the process, it may have made key statutory safe harbors largely irrelevant. The Court’s unanimous reversal of the billion-dollar copyright verdict against Cox Communications has drawn predictable headlines. Some commentators cast ... Decorative Safe Harbors: The Judicial Hollowing-Out of Intermediary Accountability
Treating Speech as a Bug, Not a Feature
A pair of jury verdicts last week, along with a quiet settlement, may mark a turning point for the American internet—and not one that favors free expression. For years, digital platforms have relied on two core protections: the First Amendment and Section 230. Together, they let companies host, organize, and moderate speech without facing crushing ... Treating Speech as a Bug, Not a Feature
