CIDs and the First Amendment: Exploring the Limits on FTC Investigations
Plus antitrust, AI, and more…
FTC: The recording of our event is now live! Many thanks to the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy for co-hosting our deep dive on the FTC’s use of CIDs in examining platforms tied to advertiser boycotts—and the role the First Amendment plays in shaping the limits of federal investigative authority.
Online Safety: We joined several civil society partners in a statement detailing the harms of minimum-age social media access proposals; protecting youths requires evidence-based solutions that don’t push teens into less safe, less moderated environments.
Antitrust: On a new Rethinking Antitrust, Bilal sits down with economists Joseph Goodman and Evan McKay to unpack the FTC’s challenge to Meta over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. At the center of the case—and the court’s decision—is a simple question: What is the relevant market and who is in it?
First Amendment: Corbin’s fantastic new paper on why the First Amendment protects AI outputs was recommended by the Free the Economy podcast (starting at 5:04) and the Platforms & Polemics Substack. It’s now up at SSRN!
Webinars: Washington Legal Foundation’s annual report featured our “Tech in the Courts” series (pages 10 and 25). Topics covered in 2025 include AI regulation, antitrust rulings, algorithms and the AI moratorium.
Social Media: On his Substack, professor Christopher Ferguson cites our Tech Policy Podcast episode on the many problems with letting plaintiffs’ lawyers and juries do social media product design.
AI: Transformer quoted Andy’s statement on the White House’s Federal Framework for AI, highlighting the benefits, while noting the difficulty of actually getting lawmakers to write the laws.
Upcoming Appearances: Our experts are scheduled to speak at the following events this year:
Fri Apr 3: Administrative Law Review’s 2026 Annual Symposium (Washington, DC – Bilal)
Fri Apr 17: Denver Law Review Antitrust Symposium (Denver, CO – Bilal)
Wed Apr 22: Navigating the New Space Regulatory Frontier (Washington, D.C. – Jim)
