Tech Policy Podcast

From February 16, 2021 (Episode 284): Martin Gurri (Mercatus Center) discusses his book The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium.The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New MillenniumReality Comes Knocking

From March 2, 2022 (Episode 313): Robert Atkinson (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation) discusses the leftwing push to turn broadband into a heavily regulated utility.Anticorporate Broadband Populists’ Real Agenda: Destroy the Current Private-Sector SystemFCC Revives Common Carriage for the InternetZombie FCC vs. Schoolhouse-Rock Supreme CourtA Thankfully Doomed MistakeThe Elephant in the Ethernet Port

Blake Reid (Colorado Law) and Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) join the show to discuss the constitutional and policy implications of applying common carrier rules at different layers of the “tech stack.” Should broadband providers be forced to carry content? Should social media platforms? How about both? Or neither? Maybe the former, but not the latter? How about the latter, but not the former? . . . Wait, stop. That last one is nonsense. Tune in to find out why.The Greatest Internet Law Chart EverUncommon Carriage The Conservative Bias Panic Comes for Gmail’s Spam DetectionThe Republican Project to Break Your Email AccountUS Telecom (D.C. Cir. 2017)Carlin Communications (9th Cir. 1987)

Brian Frye (Kentucky Law) joins the show to say bananas stuff about artificial intelligence, the history of authorship, the economics of copyright, why we’re all misunderstanding plagiarism, the mysteries of free will, and more.Apologia Pro Plagio SuoShould Using an AI Text Generator to Produce Academic Writing Be Plagiarism?Plagiarize This PaperHow About Using AI To Determine Whether Or Not Something Is Creative Enough To Get Copyright ProtectionAI and the Nature of Literary Creativity

Host Corbin Barthold discusses the campaign by states like Arkansas, Texas, and Utah to age-gate the Internet. As Corbin explains, these states are taking aim at a number of recent Supreme Court decisions, including Reno v. ACLU (1997), Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004), Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), and even (!?) 303 Creative v. Elenis (2023).Corbin on the importance of Reno v. ACLUPaul Matzko on the notorious “fairness doctrine”Scholarly criticism of the “scarcity rationale”Corbin on Texas’s H.B. 1181FedSoc event on age-verification lawsCandeub, Morell, and Toscano in defense of age-verification lawsMore from Candeub, Morell, and ToscanoMore from Candeub

Jeff Kosseff (Naval Academy) joins the show to discuss his new book Liar in a Crowded Theater, a defense of your First Amendment right to speak falsely (sometimes!).Liar in a Crowded Theater: Freedom of Speech in a World of MisinformationThe Twenty-Six Words That Created the InternetThe United States of Anonymous: How the First Amendment Shaped Online SpeechTech Policy Podcast #350: When the Government Yells at Social Media

Alicia Wanless (Carnegie Endowment) joins the show to discuss the links between information and technology, information competition through history, the need for a better understanding of information ecosystems, whether we’re in an information “civil war,” and much else besides.There Is No Getting Ahead of Disinformation Without Moving Past ItThe Astor Place Riot

Geoff Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics, and host Corbin Barthold, internet policy counsel at TechFreedom, discuss the FTC’s lawsuit against Amazon.FTC Chair Lina Khan’s Mission to Destroy Amazon Will Harm Millions of ConsumersFTC v Amazon: Significant Burdens to Prove Relevant Markets and Net Consumer HarmTech Policy Podcast #353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial

Crackdowns on Encrypted Messaging Don’t ‘Help the Children’The UK Online Safety Bill Must Not Violate Our Rights to Free Speech and Private CommunicationUK Government ‘Concession’ on Breaking End-to-End Encryption in the Online Safety Act (Just Passed) Turns Out Not to Be OneAround the World, Threats to LGBTQ+ Speech Deepen

The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedFaster, Please!Power and Progress Is a Wrongheaded Critique of Tech ProgressTech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies

The Fundamental Problems with Social Media Age-Verification LegislationTexas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not ExistLeak of California Gun Owners’ Private Data Far Wider than Originally ReportedRepublicans Can’t Decide If They Want Online Privacy or NotTech Policy Podcast #342: Save the Children (From State Social Media Laws)

Judge Mehta’s summary judgment orderEurope’s Antitrust Demagogues Shake Down Google

Content Moderation’s Legalism ProblemCollective Security in a Federated WorldTech Policy Podcast #345: Content Moderation Around the WorldIn Internet Speech Cases, SCOTUS Should Stick Up For Reno v. ACLU

Dissed Podcast: Lady Justice Isn’t BlindPacific Legal Foundation’s amicus brief in Loper BrightTechFreedom’s amicus brief in Loper BrightChevron Is Dead, Long Live ChevronTech Policy Podcast #311: Administrative Law, and Why You Should Care

Judge Doughty’s opinionThe Future of Online Speech Shouldn’t Belong to One Trump-Appointed Judge in LouisianaIf You Believe In Free Speech, The GOP’s “Weaponization” Subcommittee Is Not Your FriendWhy Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media?Trumpism on the Bench?The Internet Speech Case That the Supreme Court Can’t Dodge

Eric Berger’s Ars Technica profileLiftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceXJim Dunstan’s new paper on space regulationJim’s recent appearance before the House Committee on Science, Space, and TechnologyThe ending of Nebo Zovyot (“The Sky Beckons”) (1959)

Read Jim’s new paper on space regulationCatch Jim’s July 13 testimony before the House Committee on Science, Space, and TechnologyTech Policy Podcast #333: The FCC in SpaceTech Policy Podcast #306: The New Space Race

Walter Olson’s profileFollow Walter on TwitterCourts Should Reject School Districts’ Suits to Childproof the Internet

Adam Thierer profileAdam’s work:Microsoft’s New AI Regulatory Framework & the Coming Battle over Computational ControlWhat If Everything You’ve Heard about AI Policy is Wrong?Can We Predict the Jobs and Skills Needed for the AI Era?Flexible, Pro-Innovation Governance Strategies for Artificial IntelligenceU.S. Chamber AI Commission Report Offers Constructive Path ForwardThe Coming Onslaught of “Algorithmic Fairness” RegulationsCorbin’s review of Toby Ord’s book The Precipice:World to End; Experts Hardest HitAlso:An article taking aim at the “IAEA for AI” concept!

Daphne Keller profile pageAgustina Del Campo profile pageSlide deck for the Digital India Act.Daphne’s Lawfare article, “The Three-Body Problem: Platform Litigation and Absent Parties.”Daphne’s new paper, Platform Transparency and the First Amendment.Daphne’s and Corbin’s appearances at Media Law Resource Center’s Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2023 conference. (Stay tuned for video.)Go see Agustina at RightsCon 2023.