Tech Policy Podcast

Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC's investigation of social media companies. What's going on behind the scenes? What's the FTC likely to do now? How can platforms prepare? How much damage to the First Amendment can the FTC inflict? We cover all this and more.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC's Quixotic Social Media InquiryTech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon)Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah PhillipsAppeals Court: Yeah, Of Course Ken Paxton's Investigation Into Media Matters Was Bullshit

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC's “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.”Topics include:What are we doing here?The myth surrounding Hunter Biden's laptopDoes the FTC know how terms of service work?Does the FTC know how cartels work?Content moderation is pro-free speechJawboning on steroidsLinks:Copia Institute FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/y6r2b82f)TechFreedom FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/mccbwa2h)Hello! You've Been Referred Here Because You're Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden's Laptop (https://tinyurl.com/685fjmk8)Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think (https://tinyurl.com/r37nvnjb)Why Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media? (https://tinyurl.com/bdec2u9w)

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, FCC, and DOJ Interference in Media and Speech.Topics include:Nice broadcast license. Would be a pity if …Section 230 is good, actuallyAgency independence is good, actuallyHow do you litigate regulation-by-threat?Edge providers =/= common carriersJawboning versus  jaw

Vidushi Dyall (Chamber of Progress) discusses the remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial. Will Judge Mehta order Google to sell Chrome? To license its search data? To stop paying Apple for default status? And: With AI advancing rapidly, why are we talking about any of this?Sorry about Corbin's sound quality! He'll be back in front of a proper microphone next episode.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust TrialTech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law 

Jess Miers (Akron Law) discusses the problems with the Take It Down Act—the federal bill that (ostensibly) targets non-consensual intimate imagery.Topics include:What does Take It Down (claim) to do?FFS, enforce the laws you have!“Sexually explicit content” (in a normal world)Brendan Carr is a preview of things to comeAmy Klobuchar is asleepIs the “it” in Take It Down “all adult content”?The censorship administrationLinks:Jess's Bluesky thread on Take It DownThe Take It Down Act Isn't a law, It's a WeaponTech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional CrisisTech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption

Eric Goldman (Santa Clara Law) discusses his new paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress' Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.”Topics include:The many kinds of online age-verification lawAge verification as an information problemFancy tech as deus ex machinaData collection today; state surveillance tomorrowWhat about devices and app stores?The internet and Maslow's hierarchy of needsChild safety: it takes a villageThe parental consent nightmareLinks:The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety OnlineAge-Verification Laws Are a Verified MistakeTech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks)

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses the recent spate of attacks on end-to-end encryption—and free speech more broadly—in the United Kingdom and United States.Links:U.K. Orders Apple to Let It Spy on Users' Encrypted AccountsTech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End EncryptionThe UK's state-funded anti-encryption propagandaThe UK Has A Voyeuristic New Propaganda Campaign Against Encryption

Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez (Law & Chaos) discuss the Trump administration's renditions to El Salvador, its purges of Justice Department lawyers, and other heinous things you should worry about.Links:Law & ChaosTrump v. J.G.G. (SCOTUS)Noem v. Abrego Garcia (4th Cir.)Trump docket w/ CourtListener linksThe Constitutional Crisis Is Here

In a crossover episode with the Rethinking Antitrust podcast, Bilal Sayyed (TechFreedom) questions our host, Corbin Barthold, about the presidential removal power, Humphrey's Executor, the FTC, the Trump administration, and the Roberts Court.Note: This episode was recorded just before the D.C. Circuit issued an interlocutory order addressing the president's removal power as to the NLRB and the MSPB. That order is in the links.Links:Rethinking AntitrustThe Executive Power of RemovalWill the Supreme Court Face Down Trump or Flinch?The D.C. Circuit's post-recording order

Chris Marchese, NetChoice's director of litigation, discusses the many, many lawsuits NetChoice has brought to defend free speech on the Internet.Topics include:Texas's HB 20: time to create a 100,000 page recordNetChoice speaks for you!California's building code for the Internet“Addictive”: you keep using that word . . .Targeting social media = targeting the little guyAge-gating the Web: bad idea then; bad idea nowLinks:Second preliminary-injunction order in NetChoice v. Bonta (N.D. Cal.)Tech Policy Podcast 383: SCOTUS Internet Non-Law

Anupam Chander (Georgetown Law) discusses the many bad precedents—legal, geopolitical, and otherwise—that we'll be living with in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the TikTok ban.Links:TikTok v. Garland Opens the Door to Global CensorshipHarvard Law School Rappaport Forum: TikTok and Free SpeechThe National Security InternetTech Policy Podcast 399: What the TikTok Ruling Should Have Said

Jeffrey Fisher (Stanford Law) argued the TikTok case before the Supreme Court, on behalf of a group of U.S. TikTok users. He and host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the SCOTUS TikTok ruling that should have been.Links:U.S. TikTok Petitioners' Opening Supreme Court BriefTech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0Tech Policy Podcast 371: So You Want to Ban TikTokTech Policy Podcast 344: TikTok and the First Amendment

TechFreedom's Corbin Barthold, Andy Jung, and Santana Boulton continue their discussion of the many, many things going on in AI innovation, competition, and regulation. Topics include:The Lina Khan AI crackdown (that we averted)What's next for the FTC and AI?(More) AI culture war600 state AI bills (might be 600 too many)Blackpilled about EuropeMicromanaged deregulation (is not a thing)Will the EU become unaligned?Links:Don't California My Texas: Stargate EditionThe European Commission's (Anti)Competitiveness CompassHow Liberal Democracy Might Lose the 21st CenturyTech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0

TechFreedom's Corbin Barthold, Andy Jung, and Santana Boulton take you on a tour of the many, many things going on in AI innovation, competition, and regulation. Topics include:First signs of AI escape velocity?Automated luxury libertarianismThe Trumpian vibe shiftAI culture warThe AI $$$$ bonfireThe one-week DeepSeek freakoutIs regulation futile?Links:Tyler Cowen on OpenAI's Deep ResearchDwarkesh Patel on fully automated firmsTrump Signs AI and Tech Executive OrdersSome Simple Lessons From China's Big AI BreakthroughTech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending

Maggie Miller (Politico) discusses the Chinese Communist Party's sweeping cyberwar on the United States.Topics include:What is Salt Typhoon?The CCP is on the phoneHoliday break > national securityVolt Typhoon (it gets worse!)Is the Trump team taking this seriously?Save CISA!The CCP ♥️ the Thucydides TrapLinks:We Need to Talk About Salt TyphoonHow Chinese Hackers Graduated From Clumsy Corporate Thieves to Military Weapons

Orin Kerr (Stanford Law) discusses his new book “The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World.”Topics include:The un-original Fourth AmendmentShould crooks just not carry smartphones?Do originalists cheat on the 4A?SCOTUS 4A rulings as equilibrium adjustmentContent vs. metadataThe mosaic theory (is unworkable)Applying the 4A to tomorrow's tech todayLinks:The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online WorldTech Policy Podcast 368: How the Government Gets Your DataTech Policy Podcast 339: Will Tech Swallow the Fourth Amendment?Tech Policy Podcast 294: Border Searches of Digital Devices

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) preview the biggest tech policy issues of the Trump II administration.Topics include:TikTok ban: still unconstitutionalTrump's bonkers TikTok briefWas it worth it, Brendan Carr?Obsolete rules for obsolete TV networksCarr & Sec. 230: not how any of this worksAndrew Ferguson plays MAGA Mad LibsFerg & antitrust: not how any of this worksKOSA rises from the cryptLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 344: TikTok and the First AmendmentTech Policy Podcast 371: So You Want to Ban TikTokChristopher Terry's Carr/Fox FOIA requestThe Incoming FCC Chair Is Threatening to Censor Views He Doesn't LikeAndrew Ferguson's FTC enforcement prioritiesThe Trump II FCC and FTC Will Use Any Stick to Beat a Dog

From October 31, 2022 (Episode 331): Emma Llansó discusses the history and importance of Section 230.Links:The Third Circuit's Section 230 Decision In Anderson v. TikTok Is Pure PoppycockFive Decisions Illustrate How Section 230 Is Fading Fast

Herbert Hovenkamp (Penn Law and Wharton) shares his thoughts on the progressive antitrust movement, the government's antitrust campaign against Big Tech, the 2023 Merger Guidelines, the famous tech antitrust cases of the past, and more.Links:Charting Antitrust's FutureAntitrust Policy After BidenStructural Antitrust Relief Against Digital PlatformsBreaking Up Google Would Be a Big MistakeWhat Big Tech Antitrust Gets Wrong

Jonathan Adler (Case Western Law) and Ari Cohn (FIRE) discuss the FDA's war on vaping and the Supreme Court case FDA v. Wages and White Lion Investments.Topics include:The (comparative) health case for vapingYet another moral panicKids take risks!The bungling FDAA disappointing oral argumentFine points of administrative lawWill the Trump admin switch course?Links:En Banc Fifth Circuit Rejects FDA's Vaping Regulation "Surprise Switcheroo"Baptists, Bootleggers & Electronic CigarettesUneducating Americans on VapingThe Food & Drug Administration Has a Vaping ProblemMore Evidence that Bans on Flavored Vaping Products May Increase Teen SmokingSpeech Regulation and Tobacco Harm Reduction

Samantha Lai (Carnegie Endowment) discusses the state of federated social media (Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, etc.).Topics include:A map of the fediverseWhat makes Bluesky new?Tools for tiny moderatorsTurning the dial of centralization“Community” or “echo chamber”?Will one platform “win” the fediverse?The beauty of exitThe beauty of the unknownLinks:Online Safety and the “Great Decentralization” – The Perils and Promises of Federated Social MediaSome (Slightly Biased) Thoughts on the State of Decentralized Social MediaDot Social with Mike McCueTech Policy Podcast 358: Information Animals Fighting Information WarsTech Policy Podcast 352: Yoel Roth on the Future of Content Moderation

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Apple.Topics include:The DoJ's case: five weird tricks Apple: closed from the startLet's talk about green bubbles …Refusal to deal or exclusionary conduct?A well-defined product market (for once)Triple-bank-shot antitrust liability (eww)DoJ-designed smartphones: what could go wrong!Links:Lina Khan's Norm-Busting LegacyTech Policy Podcast 384: The Facebook Antitrust CaseTech Policy Podcast 357: The Amazon Antitrust CaseTech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust TrialTech Policy Podcast 302: Epic v. Apple

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) have a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of the EU's Digital Services Act on content moderation, the costs and benefits of platform transparency, the pervasiveness of complexity, the work of James C. Scott, Germans' abiding thirst for data, the Burmese heroin trade, and more. For more, see Daphne's recent article in Lawfare, “The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform.”Topics include:Big Tech and the DSADaphne the investigative reporterA court case for every comment removalThe EU: bean counter of human dignityJames C. Scott appreciation dayWhat does the DSA mean for the fediverse?Capitalism as a force for quantificationDaphne's metaphysicsLinks:The Rise of the Compliant Speech PlatformThe Humpty Dance

Marshall Kosloff (The Realignment) discusses the abundance agenda—what it is, what it could achieve, how it applies in various policy areas, how to build a political coalition around it, how to implement it, and more.Topics include:Abundance of what?Energy policy: wtf is going onFixing defense procurementFixing state capacityBuilding an abundance coalitionCulture war forever?Abundance after the 2024 electionLinks:The RealignmentArsenal of DemocracyThe Harris Broadband Rollout Has Been a FiascoThe White House Bet Big on Intel. Will It Backfire?(Still) Against DegrowthTech Policy Podcast 381: American Techno-Industrial Leadership — With Noah Smith

From April 12, 2022 (Episode 317): Alec Stapp discusses the work, goals, and philosophy of his innovative new think tank, Institute for Progress.Topics include:Metascience: the key field you've never heard ofTech industry

Paul Grewal (Coinbase) takes us on a deep dive into all aspects of crypto regulation, litigation, and legislation. A crossover episode with the Washington Legal Foundation / TechFreedom Tech in the Courts series.Topics include:The elevator pitch for cryptoSecurities law: it's not the New Deal anymoreThe inconsistent SECSEC v. Coinbase / Coinbase v. SECOperation Choke Point 2.0The need for crypto legislationCentral bank digital currencies (are dumb)Satoshi Nakamoto: a $68 billion mysteryLinks:Keep Crypto FreeCoinbase's Petition for Rulemaking to the SECOperation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, and Crypto Is in Its CrosshairsTech Policy Podcast 312: Web3

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) provides a guided tour of the Supreme Court's major questions doctrine.Topics include:Major questions: an introductionNo one knows what it means, but it's provocativeIs major questions new?Stories we tell about CongressWelcome to the kludgeocracyPolitics vs. expertiseThe Supreme Court cannot save usLinks:West Virginia v. EPA: Sound and Fury, Signifying What?Tech Policy Podcast 311: Administrative Law, and Why You Should Care

Sayash Kapoor (Princeton) discusses the incoherence of precise p(doom) predictions and the pervasiveness of AI “snake oil.” Check out his and Arvind Narayanan's new book, AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference.Topics include:What's a prediction, really?p(doom): your guess is as good as anyone'sFreakishly chaotic creatures (us, that is)AI can't predict the impact of AIGaming AI with invisible inkLife is luck—let's act like itSuperintelligence (us, that is)The bitter lessonAI danger: sweat the small stuffLinks:AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the DifferenceAI Existential Risk Probabilities Are Too Unreliable to Inform Policy AI Snake Oil (Substack)

Geoff Manne (International Center for Law & Economics) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the many, many flaws in the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Meta (Facebook). A crossover episode with the Washington Legal Foundation / TechFreedom Tech in the Courts series.Topics include:- The ontology of Facebook- Social networking: it's not 2008 anymore- The FTC's made-up market- The WhatsApp Catch-22- Has Facebook been enshittified?- Product design by government: bad idea!- Growing startups: hard, actuallyLinks:The Feds Unfriend Facebook: Why the FTC's Meta Antitrust Case Should FailTech Policy Podcast 357: The Amazon Antitrust CaseTech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust TrialTech Policy Podcast 302: Epic v. Apple

TechFreedom's Corbin Barthold, Ari Cohn, and Santana Boulton partake in a summer doldrums bitchfest about recent and upcoming Supreme Court internet speech cases. Topics include:SCOTUS ducks in Moody v. NetChoiceHey, let's *not* reward bad-faith legislatingJustice Kagan: progressive traitor (and we love it)Justice Alito is madWhat's next for online speech?SCOTUS ducks in Murthy v. MissouriJudge Terry Doughty: incompetent boobThe censorship industrial complex that wasn'tSCOTUS takes up Free Speech Coalition v. PaxtonTexas tries to age-gate XXXIs porn getting more extreme?The seven dirty wordsLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 350: When the Government Yells at Social MediaTech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First AmendmentProject 2025 Co-Author Caught Admitting Secret Conservative Plan to Ban Porn

Is AI a miracle? A threat? Will it free us? Enslave us? Both? Neither? What's the future of AI and governance? AI and art? AI and elections? AI and social media? AI and the economy? AI and the world?Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast: AI and Everything. On this special episode, we present highlights from more than a year of conversations with leading experts on the state of the AI revolution.Featuring Adam Thierer, Samuel Hammond, Liza Lin, Arnold Kling, Brian Frye, Joseph Tainter, James Pethokoukis, Robert Atkinson, Alice Marwick, and Ari Cohn.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex SocietiesTech Policy Podcast 337: China and Domestic SurveillanceTech Policy Podcast 346: Who's Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?Tech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative FuturismTech Policy Podcast 361: AI, Art, Copyright, and the Life of BrianTech Policy Podcast 363: AI and ElectionsTech Policy Podcast 369: AI and State CapacityTech Policy Podcast 375: Tech Facts and FallaciesTech Policy Podcast 377: AI and Wicked Problems

Noah Smith (Noahpinion Substack) discusses techno-industrial competition with China and Russia.Topics include:American industry: we're #2 :( Allies: no longer a luxuryNEPA sucksA brief lesson about nickelThe death of state capacity: greatly exaggerated?Will information destroy liberalism?Clowns to the left, clowns to the rightHey, let's *not* be divided and poorLinks:Noahpinion (Substack)People are realizing that the Arsenal of Democracy is goneHappy fun Cold War 2 updateThree holes in the U.S.' economic strategy against ChinaHow liberal democracy might lose the 21st centuryLiberalism is losing the information war

Brandon Kirk Williams (Lawrence Livermore) discusses quantum computing—the science behind it, its potential applications, the geopolitics surrounding it, and more.Links:The U.S. Must Win the Quantum Computing Race. History Shows How to Do ItThe U.S. Needs a Strategy for the Second Quantum Revolution

Alice Marwick (UNC-Chapel Hill) discusses her new paper, “Child Online Safety Legislation: A Primer.”If you're wondering, the article Corbin quotes at the top of the show is Zephyr Teachout, Ending Big Tech's Child Exploitation (Compact Magazine).Topics include:Moral panic in the technical senseThe Kids Online Safety Act: not about kids, not about safetyOnce more, with feeling: correlation is not causation“Harmful content”: no one knows what it means, but it's provocativeCare about kids? Center them, not technologyLinks:Child Online Safety Legislation: A PrimerTech Policy Podcast #342: Save the Children (From State Social Media Laws)

Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) and James Dunstan (TechFreedom) discuss the FCC's recent orders on Title II common-carrier regulation and digital discrimination.Topics include:A hundred years of telecom law in four minutesThe craziest story in the history of federal regulationFCC: Huzzah for crappy Internet (like in Europe)!SCOTUS: Congress must tackle major questions!Disparate treatment vs. disparate impactThe FCC crams an elephant in a mouseholeLinks:Zombie FCC vs. Schoolhouse-Rock Supreme CourtFCC Revives Common Carriage for the InternetTechFreedom's brief in the digital discrimination litigationTechFreedom's comments in the FCC's Title II proceedingNet Neutrality Legislation: A Framework for Consensus

Arnold Kling discusses his recent article in Reason magazine, “Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work.”Topics include:Why central planning is impossibleThe importance of pricesWhat is AI good for?Will AI know us better than we know ourselves?What markets will AI disrupt?Social media and tribal gang-sign flashingThe myopia of the revanchist rightLinks:Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning WorkDavid Brin's Transparent Society RevisitedMir McLuhanismThe Revanchist RightTech Policy Podcast 368: How the Government Gets Your Data

Renée DiResta (Stanford Internet Observatory) discusses her new book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality.Topics include:Social media influencers: the new media eliteHow do ideas take root?Influencers as exploiters of asymmetriesBullshit: an investigationCould platforms have stopped Stop the Steal?Fixing the expert classChomsky's Manufacturing ConsentThe future of social mediaLinks:Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into RealityInfluencers, Bullshitters, and How We Lost a Shared RealityRenée DiResta at Politics and Prose (DC), June 13Renée DiResta at the Commonwealth Club (SF), June 17The New Media Goliaths (Noema)Agents of Influence newsletterTech Policy Podcast 293: The Supply of Renée DiResta Should Be Infinite

From January 10, 2022 (Episode 309): Joseph Uscinski (University of Miami) argues that the internet is not increasing the prevalence of conspiracy theories.Links:Don't Blame Social Media for Conspiracy Theories—They Would Still Flourish Without It

Robert Atkinson is president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. He joins the show to discuss his new book, Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths About Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today's Innovation Economy, co-authored with David Moschella.Topics include:Tech panic: speeding-uppers vs. slowing-downersTech and privacy: try living in an analogue village!The wicked problem of content moderationIs tech progress bad for the middle class?Is tech driving market concentration?“Industrial planning”: dirty words?Links:Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today's Innovation Economy

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show, in a crossover episode with the Free the Economy podcast.Topics include:The history of podcastsThe rise of micro media (find a thousand true fans!)Performative tech doomerismThe idleness of romanticizing the pastThe quest for online communityConservatives in the TechniumLinks:Free the EconomyWhy Conservatism FailedThe Quest for a Better Online “Community”

It's the episode you've been waiting for: TechFreedom's Corbin Barthold and Ari Cohn talk about pornography and free expression.Topics include:The Founding Fathers: epic porn fiends (j/k)Obscenity law, a brief historyDo conservatives still want to ban James Joyce?“I know it when I see it”—Worst. Legal standard. Ever.Is there a moral case against porn? (Spoiler alert: No)The Fifth Circuit botches internet speech lawLinks:Tech Policy Podcast #360: Red States vs. Every SCOTUS Internet PrecedentA Reagan Judge, The First Amendment, And The Eternal War Against PornographyTexas Legislature Convinced First Amendment Simply Does Not ExistIs Porn Harmful? The Evidence, the Myths and the Unknowns

Ryan Scirocco is the spacesuit business development lead at Collins Aerospace. Collins, an RTX business, is, along with its partners ILC Dover and Oceaneering, developing a new generation of spacesuits for NASA. Ryan discusses everything that goes into keeping people alive in a freezing zero-gravity vacuum far outside the biosphere.Topics include:A spacesuit is a mini-spaceshipSpace: it wants to kill youSpacesuit historyWhat's new? No more mirrors!Testing spacesuits on the vomit cometThe ISS, the Moon, and beyondLinks:Collins Aerospace Completes Key Spacesuit Testing MilestoneSpace SymposiumTech Policy Podcast #349: The State of Space Exploration

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses, in exquisite detail, the First Amendment problems with H.R. 7521, the House bill to ban TikTok.Topics include:Your First Amendment right to read crazy shitTikTok ban bros: throwing spaghetti at the wallForeign broadcast-ownership rules: so passé“iT'S nOT sPEech, It'S CoNDuCt”H.R. 7521: Least. Tailored. Law. Ever.Banning media: it's what the other guys doMcCarthyism: so hot right nowLinks:A Breakdown of the Bizarre Factions Fighting Over the TikTok Ban BillTech Policy Podcast #344: TikTok and the First AmendmentTech Policy Podcast #368: How the Government Gets Your DataTech Policy Podcast #289: The History, Use, and Abuse of the Fairness DoctrineThe only thing Congress can agree on is to ban TikTok!?

Daphne Keller (Stanford Cyber Policy Center) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discuss the Supreme Court oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri (government jawboning of social media platforms) and the NetChoice cases (state content moderation laws).Links:Six Things About JawboningThe Lies the 5th Circuit Told You About the Government ‘Pressuring Social Media to Censor'Tech Policy Podcast #350: When the Government Yells at Social MediaFAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 1FAQs About the NetChoice Cases at the Supreme Court, Part 2The Long Reach of Taamneh: Carriage and Removal Requirements for Internet PlatformsGod Help Us, but Brett Kavanaugh Could Save the First Amendment‘Orwellian' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means

Samuel Hammand (Foundation for American Innovation) discusses his essays on “AI and Leviathan.” Can government institutions cope with the coming technological disruption of AI?Topics include:- AI's trajectory- New Deal agencies in an AI world- Public Choice Theory vs. the AI juggernaut- Uber and micro-regime changes- Government as a network of smart contracts- Techno-totalitarianism vs. techno-feudalism- AI Renaissance city states?- Collapse as a feature, not a bug- A techno-optimist's revealed preferencesLinks:AI and Leviathan: Part IAI and Leviathan: Part IIAI and Leviathan: Part IIIWhere is This All Heading?AI: Dumb human to Einstein in a heartbeatTech Policy Podcast #337: China and Domestic SurveillanceTech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies

Byron Tau (NOTUS) discusses his new book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State.Topics include:Some history: four generations of data brokersThe continuing evolution of data collection and technological surveillanceThe great danger: data fusion / comprehensive data profilesWhy won't Congress regulate government data use?National security vs. privacyShould we fear a social credit system?Links:Means of ControlNOTUSX: @ByronTauTech Policy Podcast #337: China and Domestic Surveillance

Brandon Gorrell (Pirate Wires) joins the show to discuss The White Pill, his optimistic (and mind-blowing) newsletter covering “the frontiers of tech, science, space, and more.”Topics include: Combatting the overwhelming negativity on social media. Lasers are amazing.Why space exploration?Did the Big Bang really happen?The Pirate Wires brand — beautiful vibe!Breaking the New York Times / NPR decel monoculture.Advances in IVF.Links:The White Pill

It's a big picture episode! One day (soon?), technology will enable convenient, low-cost gender transition. What does that say about human “nature”? What are the implications for society? What are (some) people getting so upset about? Jason Kuznicki (TechFreedom) joins the show to discuss.Gender as Essence and as Economic ChoiceCosmos + Taxis issue on gender (including articles by Nathan P. Goodman and by Akiva Malamet and Mikayla Novak)Pacification (Jason's Substack)Tech Policy Podcast #327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast #301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode)

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Leigh Beadon (Techdirt) join the show to discuss their new report on the Internet's (beneficial!) effect on art, entertainment, and culture.The Sky Is Rising: 2024 EditionRather than Destroying Culture, the Internet Has Saved the Content IndustriesFilterworld Is a Confused Critique of Algorithms

Liza Goitein (Brennan Center) joins the show to discuss the FISA Section 702 surveillance program. Why is it so contentious? Why is it such a hot topic now? Why and how should it be changed? And what does the Fourth Amendment have to say about it? Liza explains!Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): A Resource PageHow Congress Learned to Live with Warrantless Surveillance (for Now)Tech Policy Podcast #339: Will Tech Swallow the Fourth Amendment?

TechFreedom's Ari Cohn and Corbin Barthold discuss whether AI is going to spark an “infocalypse,” bring about the “collapse of reality,” and destroy our elections. Is AI about to “flood” our “screens” with “misinformation” that's “dangerous to democracy”? Notwithstanding these quotes from recent press stories, the answer is probably no.Ari's Senate testimonyWhat the Doomsayers Get Wrong About DeepfakesScott Brennen + Matt Perault paperTech Policy Podcast #358: Information Animals Fighting Information WarsTech Policy Podcast #359: Your Right to Lie — With Jeff Kosseff