Speech

CNN has a rare inside look at the Supreme Court deliberations that led to the (bad!) Texas and Florida social media regulations being put on hold and sent back to the lower courts to figure out how they would affect other kinds of websites and services. It almost went the other way, until Samuel Alito went too far in his first draft and Amy Coney Barrett flipped, eventually joining the 6-3 majority opinion.

Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) updated their discussion draft that seeks to prevent debacles like that between Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI. It’s gained the support of SAG-AFTRA and the Recording Industry Association, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which counts tech companies among its donors, previously raised concerns that the draft bill was overly broad.

The vice president and likely Democratic presidential nominee applauded the Senate’s vote to pass the Kids Online Safety Act and urged full passage through Congress.

Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed the state’s own laws to protect kids online, exemplifying how states have been the first to move on this kind of legislation. Hochul said in a statement that when she signed those bills, “we were sending a message to the nation. Now, I’m excited to see the Senate take steps to help safeguard more young people nationwide.”

The bill they’re contained in passed the 60 vote threshold to close debate, but the Senate must still vote to fully pass it. Schumer indicated that could happen early next week. Should it pass, it goes to the House – but that could take a while considering members are leaving early for summer recess.

“Once the Senate clears today’s procedural vote, KOSA and COPPA will be on a glide path to final passage early next week,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said ahead of the cloture vote, which closes debate and sets up the bills for a full vote.

That bill is being used as the vehicle for KOSA and COPPA 2.0. They’re basically tucked in as an amendment to this unrelated bill that deals with duplicative reporting requirements for federal agencies.

The Tennessee Republican, another of the bill’s lead sponsors, began her remarks with what KOSA doesn’t do. It doesn’t cover nonprofits, it doesn’t include rule-making, it doesn’t include news outlets, and it doesn’t give the government new authority, she said.

“There’s no censorship in this bill. None. Zero,” the Connecticut Democrat who’s the bill’s lead sponsor said on the Senate floor. “It is about product design. Much as it would be about a car that is unsafe and is required to have seatbelts and airbags.”

The Kentucky Republican said the bill “promises to be pandora’s box of unintended consequences.” He added that “there’s enough to hate this bill from the right and left,” describing, for example, how discussion of sexuality, climate change, and abortion could cause anxiety, which the duty of care mandates platforms try to mitigate.

The board previously said the policy “disproportionately restricts free expression” because while the term is “sometimes used by extremists to praise or glorify people who have died while committing violent terrorist acts,” there are also alternate meanings.

The New York Times followed the harrowing journey of John Mark Dougan from his time as a deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Florida to his new residence in Moscow. From there, he reportedly he runs a vast network of largely AI-generated websites that spout disinformation. He’s apparently managed to build over 160 fake websites, according to The Times.

In a WhatsApp groupchat, prominent businessmen discussed how to use their “leverage” to persuade Columbia’s president to call in the NYPD.

The top two lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), proposed a new bill to sunset Section 230 protections for the tech industry. It would give Congress about 18 months to create a new framework to replace the legal liability shield for user-generated content, or lose the protection entirely.

The Free Speech Coalition, which represents the adult entertainment industry, has asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the Texas age verification law from taking effect while it appeals it to the Supreme Court.

The independent body funded by Meta recommended it change its approach to moderating the term “shaheed.” The word “is sometimes used by extremists to praise or glorify people who have died while committing violent terrorist acts,” says the board. But it says there are alternate meanings, not intended to glorify.