Tech Policy Podcast

Ever since his (putative) deal to buy Twitter was announced, Elon Musk has hijacked the debates around content moderation, the design of social media, and online speech. His comments on these subjects are a mish-mash of (sometimes contradictory) slogans. Jillian York, director for international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Berin Szóka, founder and president of T...

Evolving technology—not to mention evolving norms in Silicon Valley—has sparked fierce debate about online speech. Are social media platforms too powerful? Do their content moderation policies strike a good balance between free speech and healthy conversation? Should the government get involved in policing disinformation? In this episode, we home in on how the American Right views these issues. Na...

In 2017 or so, people started to assert that the FAANG companies—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google—were unstoppable juggernauts. Lately that claim has taken some hard hits, as Facebook (now Meta) and Netflix, facing stiff competition, have seen their stock prices tumble. Adam Thierer, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, joins the show to discuss how the Schumpeterian “gale of...

Though its goal—to help bridge the digital divide—is laudible, the Universal Service Fund is a badly structured, badly run, wasteful, much abused, unsustainable program. Jim Dunstan, general counsel at TechFreedom, joins the show to discuss the many problems with the USF, and some of the proposals to fix it. For more, see Jim’s piece for the Regulatory Transparency Project, “ The Arrival of the Fe...

Are we doomed to collapse, like Ancient Rome? Or will we continue to make scientific discoveries, build technological innovations, and increase our wealth and well-being indefinitely? Alec Stapp is the co-founder of a new think tank, The Institute for Progress. He joins the show to discuss what drives progress, what political and cultural forces obstruct it, and how he hopes to accelerate it throu...

In response to Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has lobbied the international community to impair Russia’s Internet infrastructure. The Russian state itself, meanwhile, has restricted its own citizens’ access to social media and other websites. Shane Tews, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss how the Internet works, whether the West can—or should—restrict the I...

Can the government require social media services to disclose data, or provide notifications, related to their content moderation practices? Many politicians seem to think so: they’re enacting such “transparency” rules as a second-best way to try to control how websites moderate content. In a forthcoming law review article, “ The Constitutionality of Mandating Editorial Transparency ,” Eric Goldman...

The Internet can be a powerful tool for decentralization and resistance. Lately, however, authorities from across the political spectrum have been trying to use it to enforce conformity and exert control. Ari Cohn, TechFreedom’s Free Speech Counsel, and Rachel Altman, its Director of Digital Media, join the show to discuss government efforts to stamp out the Canadian trucker protest, to limit end-...

Activists like to shower the American broadband industry with criticism. In a new paper, Anticorporate Broadband Populists’ Real Agenda: Destroy the Current Private-Sector System , Robert Atkinson, founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, highlights the activists’ ultimate goal: to turn broadband into a government-run utility. Rob joins TechFreedom’s Corbin Ba...

Web3 could lead to greater decentralization, authentication, and immutability on the Internet. But what does that mean? It’s about much more than just crypto and NFTs. Joining the show to break things down are Hillary Brill, a senior fellow at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy, and Gabrielle Hibbert, co-founder of Bloom, a Web3 development education program for women and gen...

Administrative law—including key administrative law principles, such as the “major questions” and “nondelegation” doctrines—deserves far greater public attention. You’ll find out why on this episode, in which host Corbin Barthold is joined by Andrew Grossman, a partner at BakerHostetler and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Andrew is counsel for a party in West Virginia v. EPA , an importa...

Algorithmic amplification is the latest hot topic in the (seemingly endless) debate over social media content moderation. Legislators are introducing bills that would regulate when and how social media websites may “amplify” content by placing it near the top of people’s newsfeeds. But are these bills constitutional? Do they even address the problems the legislators claim to care about? Daphne Kel...

Is social media accelerating the spread of conspiracy theories? It sure feels like it: look at anti-vaxxers, claims about election fraud, and QAnon. Professor Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, argues that this widespread hunch is not supported by the evidence. He and host Corbin Barthold examine that view, with a focus on what polling data says about the prevalence...

The Federal Trade Commission is making headlines lately, as its new chair, Lina Khan, seeks to impose a “neo-Brandeisian” antitrust agenda. Adam Cella, an attorney advisor to FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson, joins the show to discuss what’s happening at the agency. For more, see Commissioner Wilson’s speech, The Neo-Brandeisian Revolution: Unforced Errors and the Diminution of the FTC , given la...

Neil Chilson has written a great new book: Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World . He and host Corbin Barthold discuss the book, complexity, emergent phenomena, effective leadership in a fast-changing world, and the need for epistemic humility in policymaking (and elsewhere). Also covered: fractals, free will, and the risks of taking advice from hermits in caves. Neil is a...

Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and even William Shatner have just been to space. Elon Musk is building rockets, launching satellites, and dreaming of going to Mars. The reaction on Twitter has been . . . snark!? TechFreedom’s own James Dunstan (a bona fide space lawyer) and Corbin Barthold (who’s been on Disneyland’s Space Mountain ride) discuss the new space entrepreneurs, the regulatory hurdles th...

On November 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in FBI v. Fazaga , an important case on the meaning and scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The system of domestic foreign-intelligence spying created by FISA has been plagued with abuse and controversy. Could the Court use Fazaga to address some of the system’s shortcomings? Elizabeth (Liza) Goitein, co-director of the Brenn...

Generation Z are the first true digital natives—people who cannot remember a time before the internet. This gives Gen Z a unique perspective, but it is also driving concerns (mainly among older generations) about the potential drawbacks of growing up in a digital age. Kir Nuthi, public affairs manager for NetChoice, and Rachel Altman, director of digital media at TechFreedom, join the show to disc...

The lively debate over the future of antitrust law continues. The Neo-Brandeisians want an aggressive, “big is bad” approach. The Chicago School defends the current system and its consumer-welfare standard. Which side has the better of the argument? Could it be that neither does? Aurelien Portuese, Director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy, joins the show to discuss the problems...

Last year, Epic Games made a splash with its lawsuit / ad campaign challenging the rules and commission structure of the Apple app store. Last week, a judge ruled in favor of Apple — but only just, and not in full. Geoff Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics, joins the show to discuss the decision, what it means for Apple, and how it could shape the future of...

American politics, media, and culture are realigning in ways that are, as of yet, hard to identify and define. Marshall Kosloff, co-host of The Realignment podcast, joins the show for a wide-ranging discussion about what these shifts are, what they mean for the country, and how institutions like Big Tech and the Republican Party are adapting (or failing to adapt) to them. For more, check out The R...

Because most attacks on social-media websites’ free-speech rights are dismissed under Section 230 (which is good!), there are comparatively few cases fleshing out those websites’ right to editorial control under the First Amendment. So although it’s clear that that right to editorial control is strong, its exact contours remain imperfectly defined. Mailyn Fidler, a fellow at the University of Nebr...

Apple recently announced that its next operating system will include new features to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about how these new features could be abused by governments, hijacked by bad actors, or expanded by Apple or others. Apple’s Chief Privacy Officer, Jane Horvath, joins the show to discuss the new features, to explain how they...

In 2015, Elizabeth Holmes and her firm, Theranos, seemed poised to revolutionize blood testing. Everything began to unravel in October of that year, however, when the Wall Street Journal published an investigative report questioning the accuracy of Theranos’s “Edison” blood-testing machine. Holmes was indicted in 2018. Her trial begins later this month. Sara Randazzo, a reporter with the Wall Stre...

Section 230 is as important — and as widely misunderstood — as ever. TechFreedom’s Free Speech Counsel, Ari Cohn, joins the show to discuss the latest lawsuits, legal theories, and legislative bills swirling around the great charter of free speech on the Internet. Update: Ari and Corbin fret, on the show, about the Second Circuit’s grant of rehearing in Domen v. Vimeo — a case in which the panel s...