Censorship

With two key staffing picks—Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as the new chair of that agency, and U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commissioner (and Palantir senior adviser) Jacob Helberg as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment—President-elect Donald Trump is giving some early hints as to how his second administration will try to forge a new Republican consensus on tech. The two men will be responsible, in part, for enacting a sea change from the Biden administration in how government relates to tech — and turning the diverse, heter

Donald Trump could have an easier time limiting press freedom in his second term in the White House after a campaign marked by virulent rhetoric towards journalists and calls for punishing television networks and prosecuting journalists and their sources, legal scholars and journalism advocacy groups warn.

For years, internet company executives rarely faced personal liability in Western democracies for what took place on their platforms. But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and policymakers ramp up scrutiny of online platforms and exchanges, they are increasingly considering when to hold company leaders directly responsible. That shift was punctuated by recent charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov. For now, tech executives have little to fear, with cases like Mr. Durov’s likely to be outliers, experts said.

On the surface, the apologetic letter Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent to congressional Republicans on Monday looks like a capitulation in the long-simmering political wars

The long-standing tension between censorship versus safety online is coming to a head as CEOs start

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that touched on a series of controversies, Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it was improper for the Biden administration to have pressured Facebook to censor content in 2021 related to the coronavirus pandemic, vowing that the social-media company would reject any such future efforts. Zuckerberg wrote that senior Biden administration officials, including from the White House, had “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot

A group of archivists—a coalition from government, academia and nonprofits—has begun capturing the Biden administration’s digital footprint. The monthslong undertaking is called the End of Term Archive, and it has occurred every four years since the George W. Bush administration. Archivists first amass a sprawling list of public government URLs. They then catalog all of those websites (and the websites within those websites) and a snapshot of their content. In the end, it’s as much as 300 terabytes worth of material.

The Chamber of Progress wrote to Donald trump asking him to clarify his position on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as voters and donors assess the candidates in this year’s general election. Section 230 is the legal bedrock for online speech. People deserve to know whether Trump still plans to repeal the law that’s enabled online platforms to host user posts, or whether he plans to rewrite the rules for speech online. Republicans often rail against Section 230, but it’s a key tool in enabling free expression online.

The Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General undertook this evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the Department’s information-sharing system related to foreign malign influence directed at U.S. elections, evaluate the Department’s oversight and management of its response, and identify any gaps or duplication among the Department’s efforts in this area.

A Q&A with Jenna Leventoff, a senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. What’s one underrated big idea? Section 230 [of the 1996 Communications Decency Act], which is both underrated and underappreciated. What’s a technology you think is overhyped? AI is both overhyped and a little bit under-hyped. What book most shaped your conception of the future? “To Paradise” by Hanya Yanagihara. What could government be doing regar