Mark MacCarthy
Internet referral programs are in urgent need of reform
The US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana barred certain government agencies from working with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The injunction seems to threaten the myriad of government programs—including those in the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the St
There's no election law about social media disclosures — but there oughta be
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg broke no law when he paid campaign workers $2,500 a month to promote his candidacy from their personal social media accounts without requiring them to disclose this sponsorship. After Twitter suspended 70 of these accounts for “platform manipulation,” his campaign voluntarily asked its workers to identify themselves on their social media accounts.