Few small things in life are as viscerally hilarious as watching a burly gym bro chug a frappuccino (with whipped cream on top, of course) at Starbucks. As incongruous as that image may seem, I can’t blame those guys. Hand it to the coffee chain for giving us all an excuse to drink a milkshake at 9am! If you order a chocolate malt at a diner first thing in the morning, the waiter might look at you funny. But if you stop at Starbs for a “blended beverage?” You’re clearly just getting your daily caffeine fix.
The possibilities to inhale sugar for breakfast are truly endless. According to the brand itself, their cafés offer over 36,000 possible frappuccino combinations. If you drank one every single day, you’d never run out of new options for 98 years! In the mood for an extra burst of energy? You can order yours “affogato-style,” with a hot shot of espresso poured on top. And if you find yourself in Japan, do yourself a favor and experiment with their creamy corn, white chocolate-grape, and butterfly pea tea syrup flavors.
Net Neutrality. President Biden's new executive order "on Promoting Competition in the American Economy" has created a stir, with its sweeping calls on the FCC and the FTC to take on Big Tech and further the administration’s regulatory agenda. Jim was quoted in a Mashable article about what the EO could mean for the FCC: a return to Title II regulation. If the White House gets its way, a return to net neutrality will come with full-blown rate regulation. Jim was also quoted in another article, opining that the EO would not have been issued unless the White House was very close to announcing the third Democrat FCC Commissioner.
Trump’s Lawsuits. Donald Trump’s lawsuits against three major social media platforms continued to make headlines, and Ari’s thoughts on the ill-fated litigation were featured in the Washington Examiner, Daily Beast, Raw Story, and American Genius.
Section 230. When Facebook began testing new warnings about extremist content recently, Section 230 Truthers responded predictably by claiming that Facebook is acting more like a “publisher” than a “platform” and should therefore lose protection under Section 230. Over at TechDirt, Ari explained why that argument makes even less sense than it normally does, and what it says about the true goals of the people making it.
Content Moderation Laws. Apparently undeterred by the drubbing that Florida’s social media law got in court, multiple states have announced that they also wish to be on the losing end of a lawsuit. HotAir quoted Ari’s thoughts on one of the, count ‘em, three social media bills introduced in the Texas legislature’s special session. The Salt Lake Tribune also quoted Ari on why a Utah legislator’s plan to introduce legislation will fare no better than the bill that Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed in the last session.
Antitrust. On the latest Tech Policy Podcast, Corbin spoke with Elizabeth Nolan Brown about her cover story, “The Bipartisan Antitrust Crusade Against Big Tech,” for this month’s edition of Reason magazine. Both the Democrats and the Republicans, Elizabeth explained, are trying to misuse antitrust for political ends. The left wants to use it to promote corporate socialism, while the right wants to use it to provide online speech welfare for MAGA conservatives. Each side’s goals have nothing to do with the welfare of the consumer.