By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-1-21 Computer companies have fired another legal volley in their fight against state efforts to undercut their Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability for most third-party content on social media sites. The latest volley was a motion for preliminary injunction filed Sep. 30 against Texas for a new law [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 The FCC has approved a notice of inquiry into the future spectrum needs of the Internet of Things. The move was mandated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. That came in a vote in advance of the FCC's public meeting Thursday (Sept. 30), so the item was [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-30-21 As part of the “social media as piñata” Big Tech bashing this week, which included Hill hearings on online privacy and Instagram’s impact on children, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would make social media companies liable “for bodily or mental harm their products cause [...]
Participated in an amicus letter (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Supreme Court of Washington in Does 1-6 v. Seattle Police Department, et al. The case concerns six Seattle police officers who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. The Seattle Police Department opened misconduct [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in National Press Photographers Association v. McCraw, a First Amendment challenge to Texas’s drone regulations. The brief highlights the uses of drones in journalism and argues that Chapter 423 of [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Computer companies are suing Texas over a law that prevents social media censorship based on “viewpoint,” saying nothing is a clearer First Amendment violation than regulation based on viewpoint. The bill, which passed Sept. 9, “prohibits an interactive computer service from censoring a user, a user’s expression, or [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-21 Facebook took unfriendly fire from both sides of the aisle Tuesday (Sept. 21) in a Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on Big Data. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Facebook witness Steve Satterfield, VP of privacy and public policy, that the company needed to supply a witness to [...]
Participated in an amicus letter brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) in In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, a multi-district litigation consolidated in the Southern District of New York. The amicus letter relates to a second amended complaint filed by the state co-plaintiffs in Texas, et al. v. Google LLC. The second amended complaint [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-16-21 FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that the best way to fund the FCC’s Universal Service Fund advanced communications subsidies is to make Big Tech pay the freight. Citing a new study from economist Hal Singer and Ted Tatos, Carr said that the current method of assessing dwindling traditional [...]
By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-14-21 A pair of powerful senators have launched a bipartisan congressional investigation into Facebook's alleged "coverup" of the impact of its platforms on teens and children, tapping a Facebook whistleblower in that effort. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate [...]