Age verification is perhaps the hottest battleground for online speech, and the Supreme Court just settled a pivotal question: does using it to gate adult content violate the First Amendment in the US? For roughly the past 20 years the answer has been “yes” – now, as of Friday, it’s an unambiguous “no.” Justice Clarence […]
The Supreme Court has upheld a Texas law requiring age verification to access adult websites, saying despite First Amendment claims, the law “only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults.” The ruling, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, opens the door to age-gating in states nationwide. The court ruled in Texas’ favor by a margin […]
For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Trump will sign an executive order this week extending the deadline another 90 days, landing the new […]
The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, installing another nominee by President Donald Trump and ending the brief lack of quorum at the agency. The vote was 53-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote in her favor. Trusty will join Republican […]
Every morning, Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez says she checks her email “to see if I’m going into work.” At a time when the federal workforce has been slashed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Gomez’s job appears to be one of the most precarious in the US government. She’s the last remaining […]
On Monday after a weekend of demonstrations, hundreds of people flocked to Downtown Los Angeles for another round – to support loved ones who’ve been detained during recent immigration protests or ICE raids, and to face off with National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump. Helicopters circled over an event led by unions to […]
Angelenos are demanding the release of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), planning to gather in downtown Los Angeles for another day of protests following immigration raids throughout the region – but this time, against the backdrop of a federal National Guard deployment. Immigrant rights groups and unions plan to gather for one […]
YouTube has relaxed its moderation policies and is now instructing reviewers not to remove content that might violate its rules if they’re in the “public interest,” according to a report from The New York Times. The platform reportedly adjusted its policies internally in December, offering examples that included medical misinformation and hate speech. In training […]
For years, protecting kids online has been touted as one of the only issues Republicans and Democrats could agree on. Last year, nearly the entire Senate voted to pass a substantive kids online safety bill in an exceedingly rare show of bipartisanship. Right before the vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), then-Majority […]
In New York court on May 20th, lawyers for nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety argued that Meta, Amazon, Discord, Snap, 4chan, and other social media companies all bear responsibility for radicalizing a mass shooter. The companies defended themselves against claims that their respective design features – including recommendation algorithms – promoted racist content to a […]