Be our guest!
Although it may be contentious, we will, in fact, feed you at our upcoming summit. Plus, this week we cover the recent SCOTUS vote in NetChoice v. Paxton, FTC news, and more.
When you think of controversial countries, Sweden might not come to mind. And yet, Swedish culture has come to the forefront of heated debate this week after a Reddit post made the rounds describing the apparent national custom of declining to serve food to guests. In Sweden, when children come over to a family’s home to play, many families will either ask them to go home for dinner or exclude them from sharing in the meal. Naturally, brains are exploding over this. Much of Twitter is utterly alarmed; native Swedes are coming to the rescue to defend the practice. Where do you fall?
Speaking of hospitality…
Save the date! I’m excited to share that we’re hosting a hybrid summit in Washington, D.C., focusing on multiple tech policy issues, on July 20, 2022. The event will kick off with a panel on truth, misinformation, and the role of experts in distinguishing between the two, especially in policymaking. We’ll also discuss how the Supreme Court might change basic legal doctrines governing the administrative state, including just how far lawmakers can go in delegating power to “expert” agencies and how much the courts should defer to them, especially on “major questions.” And what question could be more major these days than common carrier regulation? We'll talk about the looming fight over common carrier regulation at the FCC, the ongoing litigation over imposing such regulation on social media, and how both implicate the First Amendment. More panel details and registration instructions will follow. Please join us in person if you can!
Social Media Regulation. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to vacate the 5th Circuit's unexplained decision to allow Texas’s social media “censorship” law to go into effect pending appeal. Justice Alito, joined by Justices Gorsuch and Thomas, wrote a (rather unconvincing) dissent explaining why they would have allowed the Fifth Circuit’s decision to stand. You can read Ari and Berin’s analysis on Twitter and a mention of our amicus brief in The Verge. Be sure to check out the recording of our Twitter Spaces conversation regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling, along with the accompanying Twitter thread. Ari also made some media appearances regarding the vote on the Ryan Gorman Show (starting at 1:36) and as part of an all-star panel on Broadband Breakfast, and was quoted in Communications Daily (paywall).
FTC. On the latest Tech Policy Podcast, Corbin was honored to be joined by FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips for a wide-ranging discussion about the Federal Trade Commission. Commissioner Phillips and Corbin discussed “unfair methods of competition” rulemaking, the history of the FTC, merger guidelines, the consumer-welfare standard and free-of-charge products, administrative tribunals, the history of the Sherman Act, neo-Brandeisian antitrust in a time of inflation, and more. If you’re an FTC geek, tune in and bliss out. If you’re not an FTC geek, tune in and become one. For more, see Commissioner Phillip’s Truth on the Market blog post referenced in the discussion, as well as Corbin’s submission to the same symposium.
Section 230. Last week, Andy wrote an op-ed for the Foundation for Economic Education on the differences between Section 230 and the First Amendment. Andy explains that, although the laws overlap, Section 230 ultimately protects more online speech than the First Amendment. As lawmakers continue to debate and consider changes to Section 230, they must weigh the purported benefits of these reforms against the potential impact on Internet speech. For more on Section 230 and the First Amendment, check out Andy’s interview on The Bullpen.
Follow us on Twitter! Corbin @CorbinKBarthold; Bilal @BilalKSayyed; Andy @AndyJungTech; Santana @SantanaBoulton; Jason @JasonKuznicki; me (Rachel) @MillionthRachel; Berin @BerinSzoka; Ari @AriCohn.