Speech
Supreme Court Refusal in Vermont v. Meta Strengthens Addiction Suits Threatening Online Anonymity
The justices let an addiction case proceed and buried inside it is the end of logging on as a stranger.
California’s New Age-Verification Bill Frees Linux But Expands Age Tracking to the Open Web
California fixed the most obvious problem with its age-tracking law but replaced it with a version that follows you across the entire internet.
Texas Sues Discord, Seeks Mandatory Age Verification
Texas is using a child safety lawsuit to try to end anonymous access to Discord entirely.
Germany Considers Law to Force Social Media Algorithm Boost for State-Approved News
The regulators who would decide what counts as “reliable” news are appointed through a chain that starts with the same politicians whose coverage they’d be curating.
Westminster Recycles Tobacco-Style Panic Campaign For Internet Crackdown
Somewhere in Westminster a whiteboard has “free speech = tobacco” written on it with three exclamation marks.
US Court Summons Pro-Censorship Brazil Judge Moraes in Rumble Lawsuit
A Brazilian judge who ordered an American platform shut down for refusing to censor his own critics now has 21 days to explain himself to a Florida court.
5 Tech Giants Let UK Speech Regulator Preview New Features
Five tech giants just agreed to show a government regulator their homework before turning it in, even though the law never said they had to.
Texas Woman Arrested for Facebook Post About Town Water Quality
A Texas town used a bomb-threat law to jail a mom who posted about brown water the city later admitted was undrinkable.
Hawaii To Pay Up After Trying to Criminalize Political Memes
Hawaii’s taxpayers now owe six figures because their state tried to make certain memes illegal.
Florida Pays $485K to Biologist Fired Over Charlie Kirk Post
A shorebird biologist’s firing over a private Instagram post turned into one of the sharpest federal tests of government employee speech rights in years.
South Carolina’s New Social Media Law Puts Every User Under Age Surveillance
A bill sold as child protection builds the legal framework for surveilling every user in the state.
Incoming Chief of UK Speech Regulator Takes Aim at VPNs
The incoming Ofcom chair’s to-do list includes treating VPNs as obstacles, demanding new powers over YouTube, and asking the Treasury for a bigger budget.