Senior Fellow in Technology Policy at Cato. I tend to tweet about antitrust, data privacy, Section230, & running. All views are my own. RT/Like≠ endorsement.
Both sides of the aisle have questioned the future of
#Section230
and the debate over the future of content moderation and online speech will likely continue after today’s election. Happy to be a part of this
@LearnLiberty
video on “What is Section 230?”
Okay second half of the personal/personnel news from earlier this week:
I’m excited to announce that I am joining
@CatoInstitute
as a research fellow and continue my work on tech policy issues such as antitrust, content moderation, and privacy
Today is my last day as a Research Fellow at
@mercatus
. I am excited to announce on February 10, I will be joining
@AAF
as the Director of Technology & Innovation Policy. I am excited to continuing to work on a wide range of
#techpolicy
issues in a great new role.
3:23
Not a PR but a BQ with about a 12 min cushion
Boston lived up to its reputation as a tough course but I’m incredibly proud of this finish after having to really dig deep the last 9 miles
Beautiful morning for a run and after a few hard races earlier in 2024, I got to break the tape (literally) as first overall female at the
@MountVernon
George Washington Patriot Run 10 miler
Some *personnel news*
Today is my last as the Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at
@AAF
Next week I'll be joining the team at
@NetChoice
as policy counsel
The why behind those losses is also important. The theories put forward by the FTC under Khan have been departures from existing objective economic consumer-focused standards to ones that focus much more on competitors & are more easily politicized against disfavored industries
The FTC has lost big cases against Meta and Microsoft. But critics say Khan's aggressive approach has chilled merger and acquisition deals. And startups contend she's stifling innovation by spooking investors.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek just told media and investors during Disney's Investor day that Disney+ now has 86.8 million subscribers. The service launched November 12th 2019.
He has made this claim about social media and he was wrong then.
Now he is saying traditional publishers choosing not to publish something violates the First Amendment.
To quote The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
We often think of
#Section230
in terms of big players like Facebook and Google, but s my new piece at
@CatoInstitute
discusses, it is just as important (and maybe even more important) to small players and new entrants 1/4
Personnel news: Today is my last day at
@netchoice
. I'm extremely proud to have been a part of this excellent team and of the work I've done in my role, but I am also excited for my new adventure (more details to come soon).
🚨
#PrinciplesFirst
Announcement🚨
When it comes to principled thought leadership on the challenges & opportunities posed by innovation, tech platforms, & antitrust law,
@JRHuddles
tops the charts. We’re excited to hear her ideas at the Summit.
Join us:
Honored to be part of the panel at today’s Senate AI Insight Forum on AI, elections, and democracy
My written statement that was submitted will be available soon
#CatoTechnology
#AI
My lungs struggled at mile 6
My IT Band struggled at mile 9
But my heart refused to give up
So even if 1:34:44 is a disappointment given my training
I still
#earnthebird
at
@MesaMarathon
half
And got a picture in front of the cubs logos because somehow it felt like the vibe
The FTC antitrust case against Facebook was just dismissed
If you’re reading this on Twitter you should understand that Facebook is not monopoly in the social media market, but I’m guessing the Bad Antitrust Takes will start any minute now
This isn’t surprising but it will likely show that at the end of the day AB5 harms the drivers it was meant to help (by taking away flexible options) and the consumers who have benefited from increased options. Also this type of regulation won’t just be felt by ridesharing.
I think I managed to like everyone’s tweets but in case I missed some thank you for all the support
@bostonmarathon
is a race like no other in large part for the support
I’m glad I had my phone on do not disturb while I was running b/c the virtual support was equally overwhelming
A reminder that this was an issue about violating terms of service and needing to correct the issues. So when the issues/violations were corrected Parler is allowed to return, which is exactly what was said when it was initially banned/removed.
This is an awesome story and as Scott also notes this type of owner-operator story is threatened by proposals like CA’s AB 5 and recent Biden administration proposed rules
"Clarissa Rankin, 36, brings in $144k a year as a professional truck driver.... She owns her trucking business, JC Rankins Transport, and also makes money documenting her trucker life on social media, where was able to make an additional $36k in 2021"
Last week we heard a lot about
#antitrust
concerns both in the news. In my latest op-ed in
@reason
, I discuss how if policymakers want to use antitrust reform to benefit consumers they should be focused on
#occupationallicensing
boards not tech.
This morning I had the privilege of discussing data privacy, transparency, and AI with the House AI Task Force. A written copy of my statement can be found at this link
#ai
#dataprivacy
If Facebook shouldn't decide who gets to speak on Facebook then who should?
Facebook does not hold a monopoly on online speech, it's not a common carrier, and it's not a public forum or company town.
I remember when proposals claiming to focus on protecting privacy didn't require collecting more information (and more sensitive info than just birthdays) on young people to protect... privacy
Just one of the many problems with such a proposal
Old school populists used to think that allowing the federal government to assign your child a SSN was the Mark of the Beast, and now conservatives want the federal government to create a database with personal ID on every teenager in America. Wild.
As of today, I've officially been
@AAF
for 1 year. I can definitely say joining this team was the right decision and I'm proud of what I've accomplished in this first year and look forward to what will happen next.
Your regularly scheduled reminder that folks on both the left and the right have been critical of Section 230 typically for reasons that are incompatible with one another and typically with solutions that make things more difficult for new platforms and speech in general
The Senate just confirmed Gina Raimondo to be Secretary of Commerce 84-15. For my Section 230-curious, here's what she had to say about the law in her confirmation hearings.
Just got my 2nd dose of the vaccine a few hours before the App Store antitrust hearing. So now I won’t know if the inevitable headache is a side effect of the vaccine or another tech policy Congressional hearing...
This is shocking and honestly such a loss for the
@FTC
@CSWilsonFTC
has been a strong and principled defender for maintaining the agency's focus on the objective standards for consumer protection rather than political preferences
One good thing about
@LinkedIn
is it reminds you when your work anniversary is. Two years ago I joined the
@mercatus
and I’m just as excited to go to work each day as I was on the first day of this amazing opportunity!
Chatting to
@Anastasia_esq
about how we need to get shirts that just read "Constitution says no"
(Especially given the number of times that we see First Amendment violating tech policy proposals these days)
Today, the California Senate Appropriations Committee will consider several problematic bills that would regulate the internet. While proponents claim these bills would help keep safe online, the reality is they create a number of problems for kids, parents, & the First Amendment
Pretty sure I may have hit peak millennial-ness by writing at
@slate
about how a
@DisneyChannel
movie 20 years ago says a lot about smart home technology & whether we’ve out grown our fears of it
Spent a very hot and humid pre dawn morning running through Disney World with a couple thousand new friends and lots of fun
Finished 18th female and 2nd in my age group
Now on to the vacation part of vacation so no tech policy takes from me for a couple of days
@runDisney
Excuse the horrible selfie but
@senatorshoshana
my Section 230 hairpin arrived!!! Can’t wait to all wear them somewhere in person with you,
@jess_miers
, and the rest of the awesome ladies working on Section 230!
A reminder that the Section 230 debates and debates over content moderation & online speech will continue into the next Congress and administration even if they may look different but we still must focus on the importance of first principles in this area
H/t:
@M_feeney
&
@ENBrown
Just under two years ago, D.C. was one of the go to examples of cities getting micromobility right, now it seems primed to be an example of over-regulation and picking winners and losers 1/
Regardless of whether you're on TikTok or not (and regardless of how you feel about the app in general) you should be concerned about what the latest proposal means for Americans' free speech rights. Read more from
@PMatzko
and me in
@thedispatch
:
#Section230
has become a new thing that people are against without actually knowing what it is. When you step back and explain what the law actually does as opposed to everything it gets blamed for doing, more people understand the principles behind it and support it.
Look I don’t know what’s going on with the photo but part of the issue with many proposals to regulate away deep fakes/manipulated media out of fears of AI have the problem that they could also regulate or label common editing tools as manipulated media
A 🧵 of related work
UPDATE: Today, Middleton herself claimed responsibility for the tampering: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."
This is what is part of what is so concerning about using antitrust as a tool in the techlash. The consumer welfare standard provides an objective take . Doing away with it or overly expanding market definitions or consumer harm would impact far more than just "Big Tech"
Oh come on...
If true, this could result in taking away a feature consumers find beneficial in a market where there are easily multiple options a few clicks that consumers already use
I’ve already retweeted a few good takes on this but
The White House pressuring a social media platform to take down certain user content is incredibly problematic
Also in this situation we’re actually talking about the first amendment and not section 230
BREAKING: Ninth Circuit Rules for NetChoice & Upholds Californians’ Rights Online
SAN FRANCISCO—Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in NetChoice’s favor in our case against California’s unconstitutional, so-called “Age Appropriate Design Code,” NetChoice
.
@MarshaBlackburn
claims that President Trump has been censored 65 times. Look, first this misuses the term censor. Second, President Trump's social media reach seems to be doing just fine as he himself pointed out in the 60 minutes interview.
Just checked and there’s not an asterisk by the First Amendment that says not applicable in Florida so clearly such a proposal would be unconstitutional
Wishing a very happy birthday to
@jrhuddles
! She’s been a great friend and so glad to have her in my life. Outside of a NN rule, which should never ever get back together with tech policy people, hope you get everything you’re looking for!
I interrupt my normal tech policy tweets to share that something pretty cool happened for me at
@PortCityBrew
’s
#rivershedrun5k
yesterday. (First overall female)
Current antitrust proposals could make keeping our information safe online an impossible task for tech companies. Consumers and small businesses should not have to pay an unfair price and lose privacy protections
The latest from
@jrhuddles
in
@techdirt
:
Today, Floridians are being guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley power grab on speech, thought, and content. We the people are standing up to tech totalitarianism with the signing of Florida’s Big Tech Bill.
I don’t care what the weather is there were no other choices on what to wear while waiting on the last SCOTUS cases today
Cc:
@Anastasia_esq
are we twinning?
TODAY: We’re announcing $1.7M in new support for research on the rules, norms + governance of the
#internet
. With Knight support, 20 orgs will lead research that informs the national conversation on
#techpolicy
issues. More:
#freespeech
I'm excited to announce some (what I at least think is) good news. We're expanding the tech policy program at American Action Forum and hiring a Tech and Innovation Policy Analyst to work with me. More information and the application can be found here:
If you're in the US, you may think what happens "across the Pond" doesn't matter, but as I explain there are at least 3 reasons Americans should care about the UK's proposed Online Safety Bill
#CatoTechnology
.
@jack
correctly points out that they have not censored President Trump. None of the tweets have been taken down. I'd mention again that fact checks are different than removals and likely are better considered in the First Amendment context than
#Section230
I have spent a lot of time in my work on AI criticizing the more regulatory approach like Europe and suggesting that we focus on a light touch approach. In my latest piece I highlight 4 principles of what policymakers might consider to embrace that
My latest in
@reason
on the problems of a California-Brussels sandwich for innovation that is not a delicious avocado-chocolate treat (h/t:
@JackSolowey
) but a heavy handed approach to regulation that could squish the advantages of a light touch approach
The next time folks complain about oat milk using the term "milk" despite being from a plant, I'm gonna ask them why they don't complain about "non-dairy creamer" calling itself non-dairy while containing milk products (signed someone with a dairy allergy) cc:
@senatorshoshana
I am once again thankful for the First Amendment here in the US but we shouldn't sleep on the concerning actions like this that are coming out of Europe
"A source close to the president told AFP that Macron was not advocating a 'general blackout' but rather 'being able to temporarily suspend social media as needed.'"
At the state and federal level we've seen a lot of conversations around potential legislation to improve the safety and privacy of kids and teens online, but would these proposals actually address these concerns and improve the situation?
#CatoTechnology