Age-Gating the Internet Still Won’t Work
Plus AI, copyright, antitrust, and more . . .
Privacy: In The Daily Beast, Corbin asked, “Do conservatives want to age-gate the Internet? Or do they want to protect online anonymity because they’re paranoid about digitally induced social control?” They seem to want both, but as he explains, that’s not really an option. Corbin has also written about social credit in City Journal.
Age Verification: In The Daily Beast, Ari countered a widely read op-ed by David French with some clear thinking about the First Amendment: “speech does not become any less speech merely because some people find it ‘icky’ or morally questionable,” he wrote. The piece was quoted heavily in Techdirt.
The Washington Examiner quoted Ari on rulings in Texas and Arkansas, where courts blocked laws mandating age verification: “The two decisions are a resounding victory for free speech on the internet,” he said. Ari had predicted the Texas outcome weeks earlier on his Substack.
Antitrust: Yesterday, Bilal and Andy filed an amicus brief in the FTC’s appeal of its loss of a preliminary injunction in the Microsoft/Activision merger; the brief urged the Ninth Circuit to reject the Commission’s narrow view of the proper scope of issues for consideration in a preliminary injunction hearing, and affirm the district court’s decision not to enjoin the merger.
On a new episode of the Tech Policy Podcast, Corbin and Geoff Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics, discussed the Google search antitrust trial.
FTC: At today’s FTC Open Meeting, Berin (at 3:33) urged the Commission to study how its 2019 COPPA settlement with YouTube affected content creators before it makes any major changes in how it regulates children’s advertising—echoing previous comments we filed on the subject.
Shortly after, Andy (at 12:00) called for transparency regarding the general nature and scope of the FTC’s investigation into OpenAI. He highlighted that the investigation raises First Amendment concerns around anonymous speech, and he summarized his remarks on a thread. Also see our transcript of these comments.
AI: Andy live tweeted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on artificial intelligence this week. Topics considered included whether the United States needs a standalone agency for AI regulation, as well as a proposed bipartisan framework offered by Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley.
This week we also signed onto a letter about AI and copyright, aiming to prevent the adoption of new and onerous copyright regulations in response to fears about AI.
I wonder if kids can crack this code?