Digital Content

The Administrative Conference of the US (ACUS) has recommended federal agencies take a number of steps to address the issues of mass computer generated and falsely attributed comments. In this case, it is recommending that agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, who must give members of the public the opportunity to weigh in on proposed rules for the agency's consideration, find better ways to manage what can be a flood of comments in the digital age. Among the recommendations are calls for agencies to "welcome" the filing of mass, "identical or substantively identical" comment

Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the Don’t Push My Buttons Act (S.2335) in response to social media platforms that track personal data to polarize and provoke online users. The bill would deny legal immunity under the Communications Act of 1934 to platforms that leverage user data to promote divisive content without permission from those users. Many social media platforms collect data to identify their users’ “hot buttons”—divisive issues that create strong emotional responses or reactions.

Social media has become as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers and television networks were in prior generations. The internet is the new public square. In recent years, however, Big Tech platforms have become increasingly brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information and people on social media—banning users, deplatforming organizations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends. This flagrant attack on free speech is doing terrible damage to our country.

Three dozen states and the District of Columbia filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company operates an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store. The bipartisan antitrust suit adds to the company’s mounting legal challenges. Led by the state of Utah and filed in the U.S.

The majority of apps people use on their phones in the US come preinstalled by either Apple or Google. That’s the takeaway from a Comscore study that ranked the popularity of preinstalled iOS and Android apps, such as Apple’s Messages, alongside apps made by other developers. The first-of-its-kind report was commissioned by Facebook, one of Apple’s loudest critics. The timing, as Facebook likely intentioned, is apt: Apple and Google are increasingly under scrutiny for how they favor their own services over competitors like Spotify.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch on said the Supreme Court should revisit the breadth of the landmark First Amendment decision in New York Times v. Sullivan and explore how it applies to social media and technology companies.

US District Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida blocked a Florida law that would penalize social media companies for blocking a politician’s posts, a blow to conservatives’ efforts to respond to Facebook and other websites’ suspension of former president Donald Trump. The law was due to go into effect July 1, but in issuing a preliminary injunction, the judge suggested that the law would be found unconstitutional. “The plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim that these statutes violate the First Amendment,” Judge Hinkle wrote.

The internet's absence of central control, or even easy central monitoring created gaps of responsibility for maintaining valuable content that others rely on. Links work seamlessly until they don’t.

The House Judiciary Committee approved far-reaching legislation to curb the market dominance of tech giants, including Google and Facebook, but much of the effort faced intensive lobbying by affected firms that slowed the committee’s work and foreshadowed a pitched battle in the Senate. The centerpiece of the six-bill package, a measure to bar big tech companies from favoring their own products in a range of circumstances on their platforms, was ap

Apple would be prohibited from pre-installing its own apps on Apple devices under recently introduced antitrust reform legislation. Rep David Cicilline (D-RI), who is leading a push to pass new regulations for US technology companies, stated that a proposal prohibiting tech platforms from giving an advantage to their own products over those of competitors would mean Apple can’t ship devices with pre-installed apps on its iOS operating platform.