Speech

Here’s Nilay, writing about the FCC going after Kimmel: “All that talk about the media being the enemy of the people is turning into concrete legal action against publishers, broadcasters, and platforms that don’t do what the Trump White House wants.”

They’ve sent a letter asking for any communications the FCC had with ABC and other parties involved with Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, and asked Carr to detail exactly how he defines the “public interest” that broadcasters must adhere to. “Under your leadership, the FCC appears to be discarding Congress’s clear directive in the Communications Act to ensure broadcasters act in the “public interest” — and is instead requiring them to act in ‘Trump’s interest,’” they write.

With Jimmy Kimmel off the air for now, several party leaders issued a statement over the FCC Chairman’s actions, but what will they do about it?

After Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called out Roblox for allegedly hosting a game referencing Kirk’s slaying, CEO David Baszucki said its policies “prohibit content and behavior that re-enacts specific real world violent or sensitive events.” Several lawmakers have pressured platforms to remove posts making light of Kirk’s death.

A teen died by suicide after being convinced to send explicit messages to someone he met on Roblox, who turned out to likely be an adult, The New York Times reports. Now, his mom is suing the platform for allegedly failing to provide adequate guardrails, hoping to overcome Section 230.

Another 200 or more were injured during demonstrations, The New York Times reports based on local news accounts. Police used rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse protesters who occupied a security building, witnesses told The Times. Nepal blocked 26 social media platforms that did not register with the government.

Nazis’ presence on Substack has only grown. “Sending out Nazi push alerts may not have been the company’s goal,” write Marisa Kabas and Jonathan Katz, the latter of whom sounded the initial alarm in November 2023. “But it is more of a feature than a bug.”

It’s a relatively narrow legal defeat, though. The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court ruled that X — Twitter, at the time of the lawsuit — isn’t protected by Section 230 for failing to report known child sexual abuse material to authorities, nor for designing a bad system to let users flag it. (It hasn’t been held liable for either; that will be argued later.) But the court found Section 230 blocked claims that it “amplified” CSAM by failing to scrub offending hashtags, and it said the controversial FOSTA exception didn’t come into play.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly ignored the bipartisan law banning TikTok from operating in the US unless it’s separated from Chinese parent company ByteDance. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling for a new way to avoid a ban without breaking the law. In a draft bill, Markey proposes letting TikTok operate in the US as long as it provides transparency into its content moderation and keeps US user data out of countries like China.

As first reported by Status, the Freedom of the Press foundation filed a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel at the DC Court of Appeals, arguing his “politicized and unlawful abuse” of his FCC chair position violates the Rules of Professional Conduct he’s bound by as an attorney. His role in the “unconstitutional shakedown” of Paramount was the final straw.

The controversy over Itch.io’s NSFW game delisting isn’t cooling down, but the platform has tried to address some of the most common questions in a new FAQ, including its next steps:

New York Times reporter Ben Mullin has the scoop on a memo from the Jeff Bezos-owned paper’s new opinion editor, including an instruction that it’s “important we communicate with optimism about this country in particular and the future in general.” This follows a previous directive to avoid denigrating “free speech and free markets” and news that the Post will let people submit op-eds composed with help from AI.

Last month, the FTC opened an investigation into the nonprofit watchdog group to determine whether it worked with advertisers to carry out a boycott of X. The Elon Musk-owned platform sued Media Matters for defamation after the organization found neo-Nazi content next to ads on the platform in 2023.

The bill is headed to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk and follows a similar bill passed in the Minnesota legislature. If signed, the bill would require “addictive social media platforms” to display about warnings about the potential mental health harms of using of their products. It’s a concept endorsed by former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and many state attorneys general, but has been critiqued by industry stakeholders as a violation of First Amendment rights.

The Elon Musk-run platform alleges the Stop Hiding Hate Act “impermissibly interferes with the First Amendment-protected editorial judgments” of companies like X to decide how to moderate content. Platforms could face fines unless they disclose what X calls “highly sensitive and controversial speech,” which it says the state may not like. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals already blocked parts of a similar California law on First Amendment grounds, following a separate X challenge.

Platforms could soon have to display tobacco-like warning labels, and include links to mental health resources. It’s a concept former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pushed for on the federal level and that many states backed. It heads to Gov. Tim Walz (D), but VP of litigation Kathleen Farley at tech industry group Chamber of Progress warns signing it would enact “a clear First Amendment violation, and Minnesota would waste millions defending it in court.”