New Developments in the World of Section 230
Trump vs. Twitter: The Feud Over Section 230 and Online Censorship
On April 28, 2025, the US House of Representatives voted 409-2 to pass S.146, the Take it Down Act. The bill aims to stop the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) created illicit imagery and Deepfake Abuse. The bill will...more
On Thursday, April 10, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Mark Meador as a Commissioner of the FTC. Previously, it was expected that Meador’s confirmation would lead to significant changes at the FTC, as his presence on the...more
George Orwell warned us in his dark masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four how effortlessly authoritarian regimes could erase inconvenient truths by tossing records into a “memory hole”—a pneumatic chute leading directly to...more
The Federal Trade Commission recently requested public comment from users of tech platforms. In particular, the impact the platforms may have on user speech. Input is sought -by May 21- on the extent to which tech firms are...more
On February 20, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a public inquiry regarding whether any technology platforms, including social media, communications, and other internet service providers, have violated the...more
On Thursday, February 20, 2025, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson announced a Request for Information (RFI) for “public submissions from anyone who has been a victim of tech censorship (banning, demonetization, shadow banning,...more
The FTC announced the launch of a public inquiry into how technology platforms engage in censorship. In agency’s Request for Information explains that it seeks information from members of the public about how technology...more
In one of its first actions after establishing new leadership, the United States Federal Trade Commission has issued a request for public comment "to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade (such as by...more
The FTC recently requested public comment “to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade (such as by ‘demonetizing’ and ‘shadow banning’) users’ access to services based on the content of the users’ speech or...more
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” is the Administration’s first step to pursue the President’s content moderation goals for social media and broadcast...more
Summary - This order limits the federal government’s ability and the use of taxpayer resources to abridge free speech of American citizens and to take action to correct prior incidents of suppression. It also directs...more
The incoming Trump administration is expected to make several policy changes likely to impact tech transactions. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reduce regulation and cut federal bureaucracy, which he says have...more
In a rare example of bipartisan agreement, the dramatically named DEFIANCE (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits) Act unanimously passed the Senate. The bill allows victims of AI-generated deepfake...more
Are social media companies more like newspapers or phone companies? This oft-debated question in social media legal circles, while seemingly trivial on the surface, represents a momentous debate over whether—and how...more
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision may have substantial effects on social media censorship. Based on their content-moderation policies, social media platforms have taken actions to suppress certain categories of speech,...more
Social media companies have long moderated the type of content that appears on a person’s home page by, for instance, deleting explicit posts or “downgrading” posts containing misinformation. Based on the belief that these...more
Vaccine Exemption Policy Requiring Citation to Official Doctrine Violates First Amendment Madison Houghton and Nathan A. Adams IV In Does 1-11 v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. of Colorado, 100 F. 4th 1251 (10th Cir. 2024), former...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued two decisions today: Murthy v. Missouri, No. 23-411: This case involves challenges to federal government communications with social media companies related to content...more
Welcome to the fourth issue of The Academic Advisor for 2024. We begin this edition with discussion of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. On April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education released its...more
On March 20, 2024 the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a privacy-related bill, H.R. 7520 (the “Data Broker Bill).” This comes on the heels of another privacy-related bill approved by the House on March 13,...more
In its recent opinions in Linke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, the U.S. Supreme Court considered if and when public officials violate the First Amendment rights of members of the public by blocking them from the...more
On Friday, March 15, a unanimous Supreme Court decided two companion cases (Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier) that resolved a split in the Circuits concerning whether public officials can be held liable under...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has established guidelines for determining when a public official’s use of a private social media platform such as Facebook, X or Nextdoor constitutes public speech that cannot be censored. State and...more
Le 26 février 2024, le gouvernement fédéral a présenté le projet de loi C-63 (le « projet de loi »), qui édicterait la Loi sur les préjudices en ligne (la « Loi ») et établirait le premier régime fédéral visant à modérer le...more
On February 26, 2024, the federal government tabled Bill C-63 (Bill), which would enact the Online Harms Act (Act) and establish Canada’s first federal online content moderation regime....more