SUMMARY Newly released messages show Anthony Fauci, Vivek Murthy and Rochelle Walensky privately discussing concerns and uncertainties surrounding COVID vaccination during pregnancy in January 2021. At almost the same time, senior Biden White House officials began pressuring Facebook and other technology companies to take increasingly aggressive action against COVID and vaccine-related speech. Jeff Zients, Biden’s…
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SUMMARY British campaign group 5Rights has become one of the leading organizations promoting UK-style online child-safety regulation in the United States. The organization was founded by Baroness Beeban Kidron, a Crossbench peer who helped create Britain’s Age Appropriate Design Code and has separately introduced legislation regulating age-assurance technology. 5Rights has involvement in at least 42…
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SUMMARY The Digital Age Assurance Act of 2026 (S. 5090), introduced July 22 by Sens. Andy Kim, Cynthia Lummis, Adam Schiff and John Barrasso, would move age checks from individual websites down to the operating system layer. The bill contains some data-minimization language. It bars selling age data, using it for profiling or targeted advertising,…
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In April, the FTC notched up one of the most important wins for online speech in recent years: a consent decree with three major ad agencies (Dentsu, WPP, and Publicis Groupe) requiring them to refrain from colluding to suppress ad revenue to disfavored online content. Under the agreement, the agencies agreed to stop collaborating on…
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Censorship disputes often arrive as questions of liability allocation: when material crosses a boundary it was not supposed to cross, which party in the chain of transmission pays for it. Answer “the publisher” and you get a system that polices publishers. Answer “the transit provider” and you get a system in which every platform, internet…
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SUMMARY Clean Up the Internet was founded to combat anonymous trolling, misinformation and what it called the deterioration of online discourse. The group was launched by an experienced regulatory lawyer, supported by a foundation he helped govern, and advised by figures from law, campaigning, academia and technology policy. Its political supporters repeatedly cited abuse, mockery…
Read articleSUMMARY Following the second election of Donald Trump, funding for “counter-disinformation” programs was cut at the federal level. The formerly federally-funded censorship professionals have turned to foreign governments, including the UK, to put pressure on American tech platforms. At least a dozen individuals and organizations liked to the US government through funding, affiliations, or direct…
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The ongoing attempts by UK online regulator Ofcom, using its new powers under the Online Safety Act, to enforce a fine against the American platform 4chan has taken a new turn. This week, Ofcom told the British newspaper The Independent how it plans to recover a £520,000 penalty it has levied against the American imageboard…
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SUMMARY USAID-funded media nonprofit Internews advocated using advertiser exclusion lists to redirect advertising revenue away from publishers accused of spreading “disinformation.” Internews has long faced questions over its relationship with the U.S. government. Its own president acknowledged that overseas journalism training sessions often began with discussions of whether the organisation was “really U.S. propaganda, or…
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For nearly a decade, the federal government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars supporting an ecosystem of universities, non-governmental organizations, contractors and research institutes dedicated to combating so-called “misinformation” and “disinformation.” While these programs were often presented as efforts to protect elections, public health or national security, they frequently operated by encouraging, facilitating or coordinating…
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