Tech Policy Podcast

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies.Topics include:A tort law primerThe ballad of Helen PalsgrafCausation, shmausationSpeech =/= productIdeas are powerful. (That’s the point!)“Addiction.” You keep using that word …♪ Junk science ♪AI, suicide, and youLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian JihadTech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social MediaTech Policy Podcast 310: Algorithmic Amplification

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses why Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wrong, how it muddies First Amendment law, and how it is already causing wider harm.Topics include:FSC v. Paxton: a result-oriented rulingA credulous courtPoRn iS sCArYAshcroft v. ACLU is sitting right there!tEcH Is ScARyRIP First Amendment 101The porn-to-social media litigation pipeline States cite FSC v. Paxton 1,000 timesLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First Amendment

Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more.Topics include:Protect the children, they said . . .The SpongeBob videos must stopSolve problems? Or just shut people up?How dare you comply with our law!Age verification in practicePeter Kyle: polite demagogueLet’s kill KOSAUK: global speech police?“Rights”: you keep using that word . . .Links:U.K.’s Online Safety Act Censors the Internet—A Preview of U.S. ProposalsTech Policy Podcast 405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved”Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break EncryptionTech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End EncryptionTech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks)

From November 8, 2020 (Episode 279): Billy Easley sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan. They remind us of the value of the free and open Internet.Links:Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized VoicesFree Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme Court, 2025 (AEI Event)

Matt Perault (a16z) joins Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) for a wide-ranging discussion of AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. Part of the WLF-TechFreedom Tech in the Courts webinar series.Topics include:Why did the AI moratorium die?Activity in the statesRegulate outcomes, not models?Next steps in Congress“Transparency”: so hot right nowThe AI panicLawsuitsLinks:Recorded Tech in the Courts Webinar—The State of AI Regulation

Our host, Corbin Barthold, heads over to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. He talks with Nico Perrino and Ari Cohn of FIRE about the death of the AI moratorium, a bogus wrongful death lawsuit against Complexity AI, the FTC’s campaign of censorship against ad agencies, and the absurdities of Europe’s Digital Services Act.Links:Shownotes, courtesy of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show for a Big Picture Episode on how AI could affect art, culture, and politics.Topics include:Take your Zyn and LSDDon’t rock out to this AI bandWhat is AI slop? (What is art?!)Cultural elites hardest hitA brief history of tech panicsBan the prompt theory!The AI civil rights movementAI as countercultureLinks:Big Yowie, AI social media influencerAI and the End of the WorldMore Thoughts on AIRichard’s Free the Economy podcastTech Policy Podcast 366: Tech, Gender, and Freedom (2023/24 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode)

TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Corbin Barthold discuss the NASA administrator vacancy, the  Artemis program, the NASA budget, SpaceX and Blue Origin, the moon and Mars, the FAA and NEPA, space regulatory sandboxes, and more.Links:“A Blueprint to Launch”: Regulatory Sandboxes for Outer SpaceRoadster location in spaceTech Policy Podcast 372: Spacesuits!Tech Policy Podcast 349: The State of Space ExplorationFoster The People - Lost In Space

FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and Bill Kovacic speak with hosts Bilal Sayyed and Jessica Melugin at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Summit: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC & DOJ Interference in Media and Speech.Links:Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2SCOTUS Should Not Hand Sweeping Removal Powers to this PresidentSupreme Court order in Wilcox v. NLRBTech Policy Podcast 410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next?Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC's Quixotic Social Media InquiryTech Policy Podcast 402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will?

Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC’s investigation of social media companies. What’s going on behind the scenes? What’s the FTC likely to do now? How can platforms prepare? How much damage to the First Amendment can the FTC inflict? We cover all this and more.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media InquiryTech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon)Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah PhillipsAppeals Court: Yeah, Of Course Ken Paxton’s Investigation Into Media Matters Was Bullshit

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC’s “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.”Topics include:What are we doing here?The myth surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptopDoes the FTC know how terms of service work?Does the FTC know how cartels work?Content moderation is pro-free speechJawboning on steroidsLinks:Copia Institute FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/y6r2b82f)TechFreedom FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/mccbwa2h)Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden’s Laptop (https://tinyurl.com/685fjmk8)Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think (https://tinyurl.com/r37nvnjb)Why Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media? (https://tinyurl.com/bdec2u9w)

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, FCC, and DOJ Interference in Media and Speech.Topics include:Nice broadcast license. Would be a pity if …Section 230 is good, actuallyAgency independence is good, actuallyHow do you litigate regulation-by-threat?Edge providers =/= common carriersJawboning versus  jaw

Vidushi Dyall (Chamber of Progress) discusses the remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial. Will Judge Mehta order Google to sell Chrome? To license its search data? To stop paying Apple for default status? And: With AI advancing rapidly, why are we talking about any of this?Sorry about Corbin’s sound quality! He’ll be back in front of a proper microphone next episode.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust TrialTech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law 

Jess Miers (Akron Law) discusses the problems with the Take It Down Act—the federal bill that (ostensibly) targets non-consensual intimate imagery.Topics include:What does Take It Down (claim) to do?FFS, enforce the laws you have!“Sexually explicit content” (in a normal world)Brendan Carr is a preview of things to comeAmy Klobuchar is asleepIs the “it” in Take It Down “all adult content”?The censorship administrationLinks:Jess’s Bluesky thread on Take It DownThe Take It Down Act Isn’t a law, It’s a WeaponTech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional CrisisTech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption

Eric Goldman (Santa Clara Law) discusses his new paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.”Topics include:The many kinds of online age-verification lawAge verification as an information problemFancy tech as deus ex machinaData collection today; state surveillance tomorrowWhat about devices and app stores?The internet and Maslow’s hierarchy of needsChild safety: it takes a villageThe parental consent nightmareLinks:The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety OnlineAge-Verification Laws Are a Verified MistakeTech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks)

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses the recent spate of attacks on end-to-end encryption—and free speech more broadly—in the United Kingdom and United States.Links:U.K. Orders Apple to Let It Spy on Users’ Encrypted AccountsTech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End EncryptionThe UK’s state-funded anti-encryption propagandaThe UK Has A Voyeuristic New Propaganda Campaign Against Encryption

Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez (Law & Chaos) discuss the Trump administration’s renditions to El Salvador, its purges of Justice Department lawyers, and other heinous things you should worry about.Links:Law & ChaosTrump v. J.G.G. (SCOTUS)Noem v. Abrego Garcia (4th Cir.)Trump docket w/ CourtListener linksThe Constitutional Crisis Is Here

In a crossover episode with the Rethinking Antitrust podcast, Bilal Sayyed (TechFreedom) questions our host, Corbin Barthold, about the presidential removal power, Humphrey’s Executor, the FTC, the Trump administration, and the Roberts Court.Note: This episode was recorded just before the D.C. Circuit issued an interlocutory order addressing the president’s removal power as to the NLRB and the MSPB. That order is in the links.Links:Rethinking AntitrustThe Executive Power of RemovalWill the Supreme Court Face Down Trump or Flinch?The D.C. Circuit’s post-recording order

Chris Marchese, NetChoice’s director of litigation, discusses the many, many lawsuits NetChoice has brought to defend free speech on the Internet.Topics include:Texas’s HB 20: time to create a 100,000 page recordNetChoice speaks for you!California’s building code for the Internet“Addictive”: you keep using that word . . .Targeting social media = targeting the little guyAge-gating the Web: bad idea then; bad idea nowLinks:Second preliminary-injunction order in NetChoice v. Bonta (N.D. Cal.)Tech Policy Podcast 383: SCOTUS Internet Non-Law

Anupam Chander (Georgetown Law) discusses the many bad precedents—legal, geopolitical, and otherwise—that we’ll be living with in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the TikTok ban.Links:TikTok v. Garland Opens the Door to Global CensorshipHarvard Law School Rappaport Forum: TikTok and Free SpeechThe National Security InternetTech Policy Podcast 399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said