Our Coalition Letter to the FTC: Democracy Takes Discussion
Plus Section 230, new state legislation, and more
FTC: TechFreedom submitted a coalition letter to the FTC urging the agency to allow reply comments in its proceeding on non-compete clauses. That will be the most significant rule issued in the FTC’s 109-year history—and, for the first time since 1914, there’s a good chance there won’t be a single minority Commissioner to write a dissent. So reply comments are the only way to build a full record and at least offer some of the “open exchange of ideas” President Obama called for in rulemaking. See our press release and Twitter thread for more.
Section 230: Corbin noted four things to watch in the pending Supreme Court case Gonzalez v. Google in an article published on the Federalist Society’s website. The article was also mentioned in this week’s edition of the GWU Regulations Digest newsletter.
On the latest Tech Policy Podcast, Corbin discussed the growing criticism, on both the left and the right, of Reno v. ACLU (1997)—the seminal decision applying the First Amendment to the Internet—as well as why that decision should be upheld.
Corbin was also quoted in The Brunswick News about an article he wrote for Reason in November. He describes why Gonzalez v. Google is “really about the user-generated content and is a loser under Section 230.”
State Legislation: Montana is the latest state to consider a common carriage law for social media. On Monday, Ari submitted written testimony explaining why it won’t stand up in court.
Ari’s letter explaining why Utah can’t force social media platforms to age-verify users and require parental consent for minors (and his Twitter “conversation” with Utah Governor Spencer Cox) was mentioned in NBC News, Axios, The Salt Lake Tribune (paywall), KSL News (twice), Deseret News (twice), MediaPost, MLex (paywall) and U.S. Privacy Digest.
Some of those chairs might stay empty for a while.