She’s back! Former host Ash Kazaryan (Future of Free Speech) returns for a wide-ranging discussion about powerful algorithms, attacks on Section 230, and much, much more. Topics include: - Ash: this is your life! - In defense of tHe aLGoRitHm - In defense of Section 230 - Once more: Anderson v. TikTok is so bad - Has information gotten too cheap? - Why Evangelicals should love AI - Why every platform has a metamorphosis - Let’s get cancelled Links: I Built This Algo Brick by Brick (https://tinyurl.com/mr454njj) The Bedrock Principle (https://tinyurl.com/mk8dssnp) Neural Viz (https://tinyurl.com/2rkx22dt) Tech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc (https://tinyurl.com/3e5yypzp) TPP From the Vault: Revising Section 230 Will Silence Marginalized Voices (https://tinyurl.com/ytc76ccw) TPP From the Vault: Why Section 230 Matters (https://tinyurl.com/2wuzhe7y)

Sri Muppidi (The Information) discusses OpenAI’s effort to overhaul its corporate structure—and the resulting power struggle over the company’s future. Links: OpenAI Says Its Business Will Burn $115 Billion Through 2029 (https://tinyurl.com/4bh3pxnm) OpenAI Executives Rattled by Campaigns to Derail For-Profit Restructuring (https://tinyurl.com/y2z6fx6d) OpenAI Says Nonprofit Parent Will Own Equity Stake in Company of Over $100 Billion (https://tinyurl.com/4hhft5tx)

Jeremy Neufeld (Institute for Progress) discusses how our immigration system works, why high-skilled immigrants are so important to the tech sector, what’s wrong with the Trump administration’s H-1B reforms, why America is so complacent about competing for global talent, and more. Links: Trump’s H-1B Changes Won’t Work (https://tinyurl.com/mpccn29y) Talent Recruitment Roulette: Replacing the H-1B Lottery | IFP (https://tinyurl.com/t5yxcxsz) The Talent Scout State | IFP (https://tinyurl.com/2ftcdfnu) Tech Policy Podcast 317: Making Progress (https://tinyurl.com/nrm3vs7j)

Adam Kovacevich (Chamber of Progress) discusses the populist / anti-tech turn in politics, and what can be done about it. Topics include: - How did we get here? - Tech optimists: There are dozens of us! - Beware ThE gROupS - If there’s a crisis, maybe act like it? - Duct tape and bubble gum - The great relearning - We’re so doomed - We’re so not doomed Links: Tech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional Crisis (https://tinyurl.com/jxm6sene) Tech Policy Podcast 388: The Abundance Agenda (https://tinyurl.com/6cmmaz2k) Tech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative Futurism (https://tinyurl.com/mspwp85t) Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (https://tinyurl.com/3ry5m57u)

Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies. Topics include: - A tort law primer - The ballad of Helen Palsgraf - Causation, shmausation - Speech =/= product - Ideas are powerful. (That’s the point!) - “Addiction.” You keep using that word … - ♪ Junk science ♪ - AI, suicide, and you Links: Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad (https://tinyurl.com/38h8ymsm) Tech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social Media (https://tinyurl.com/2d4h54w7) Tech Policy Podcast 310: Algorithmic Amplification (https://tinyurl.com/44srprp6)

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses why Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wrong, how it muddies First Amendment law, and how it is already causing wider harm. Topics include: - FSC v. Paxton: a result-oriented ruling - A credulous court - PoRn iS sCArY - Ashcroft v. ACLU is sitting right there! - tEcH Is ScARy - RIP First Amendment 101 - The porn-to-social media litigation pipeline - States cite FSC v. Paxton 1,000 times Links: Tech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First Amendment (https://tinyurl.com/3yepfzdh)

Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more. Topics include: - Protect the children, they said . . . - The SpongeBob videos must stop - Solve problems? Or just shut people up? - How dare you comply with our law! - Age verification in practice - Peter Kyle: polite demagogue - Let’s kill KOSA - UK: global speech police? - “Rights”: you keep using that word . . . Links: U.K.’s Online Safety Act Censors the Internet—A Preview of U.S. Proposals (https://tinyurl.com/hbeeyr7k) Tech Policy Podcast 405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved” (https://tinyurl.com/bdfd7vrb) Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4evtwv8z) Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4x6nbvss) Tech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks) (https://tinyurl.com/275z8bsh)

From November 8, 2020 (Episode 279): Billy Easley sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan. They remind us of the value of the free and open Internet. Links: Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized Voices (https://tinyurl.com/f555unze) Free Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme Court, 2025 (AEI Event) (https://tinyurl.com/scer4rh8)

Matt Perault (a16z) joins Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) for a wide-ranging discussion of AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. Part of the WLF-TechFreedom Tech in the Courts webinar series. Topics include: - Why did the AI moratorium die? - Activity in the states - Regulate outcomes, not models? - Next steps in Congress - “Transparency”: so hot right now - The AI panic - Lawsuits Links: Recorded Tech in the Courts Webinar—The State of AI Regulation (https://tinyurl.com/mwk83rp7)

Our host, Corbin Barthold, heads over to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. He talks with Nico Perrino and Ari Cohn of FIRE about the death of the AI moratorium, a bogus wrongful death lawsuit against Complexity AI, the FTC’s campaign of censorship against ad agencies, and the absurdities of Europe’s Digital Services Act. Links: Shownotes, courtesy of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast (https://tinyurl.com/6zwcbzjb)

Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show for a Big Picture Episode on how AI could affect art, culture, and politics. Topics include: - Take your Zyn and LSD - Don’t rock out to this AI band - What is AI slop? (What is art?!) - Cultural elites hardest hit - A brief history of tech panics - Ban the prompt theory! - The AI civil rights movement - AI as counterculture Links: Big Yowie, AI social media influencer (https://tinyurl.com/mbndnr7t) AI and the End of the World (https://tinyurl.com/4her9h6z) More Thoughts on AI (https://tinyurl.com/mtyy95sd) Richard’s Free the Economy podcast (https://tinyurl.com/3fknft56) Tech Policy Podcast 366: Tech, Gender, and Freedom (2023/24 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/33hfj45r) Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/4n2kenur) Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode) (https://tinyurl.com/3ry5m57u)

TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Corbin Barthold discuss the NASA administrator vacancy, the Artemis program, the NASA budget, SpaceX and Blue Origin, the moon and Mars, the FAA and NEPA, space regulatory sandboxes, and more. Links: “A Blueprint to Launch”: Regulatory Sandboxes for Outer Space (https://tinyurl.com/3fvca2e7) Roadster location in space (https://tinyurl.com/ybrhx4uy) Tech Policy Podcast 372: Spacesuits! (https://tinyurl.com/25hs5bfz) Tech Policy Podcast 349: The State of Space Exploration (https://tinyurl.com/vu89pyez) Foster The People - Lost In Space (https://tinyurl.com/mwpsv4ry)

FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and Bill Kovacic speak with hosts Bilal Sayyed and Jessica Melugin at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Summit: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC & DOJ Interference in Media and Speech. Links: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1 (https://tinyurl.com/3v4d7txu) Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2 (https://tinyurl.com/ycxdzdme) SCOTUS Should Not Hand Sweeping Removal Powers to this President (https://tinyurl.com/34wcpyrt) Supreme Court order in Wilcox v. NLRB (https://tinyurl.com/mth9mytj) Tech Policy Podcast 410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next? (https://tinyurl.com/y4kczekr) Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC's Quixotic Social Media Inquiry (https://tinyurl.com/3wcxj53e) Tech Policy Podcast 402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will? (https://tinyurl.com/jr3t44t6)

Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC’s investigation of social media companies. What’s going on behind the scenes? What’s the FTC likely to do now? How can platforms prepare? How much damage to the First Amendment can the FTC inflict? We cover all this and more. Links: Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry (https://tinyurl.com/5n97sh7d) Tech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon) (https://tinyurl.com/45h26nu9) Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0 (https://tinyurl.com/28tu6bnb) Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips (https://tinyurl.com/392p2fw5) Appeals Court: Yeah, Of Course Ken Paxton’s Investigation Into Media Matters Was Bullshit (https://tinyurl.com/59aznm55)

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC’s “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.” Topics include: - What are we doing here? - The myth surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop - Does the FTC know how terms of service work? - Does the FTC know how cartels work? - Content moderation is pro-free speech - Jawboning on steroids Links: Copia Institute FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/y6r2b82f) TechFreedom FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/mccbwa2h) Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden’s Laptop (https://tinyurl.com/685fjmk8) Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think (https://tinyurl.com/r37nvnjb) Why Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media? (https://tinyurl.com/bdec2u9w)

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, FCC, and DOJ Interference in Media and Speech. Topics include: - Nice broadcast license. Would be a pity if … - Section 230 is good, actually - Agency independence is good, actually - How do you litigate regulation-by-threat? - Edge providers =/= common carriers - Jawboning versus jaw 👏 boning 👏 - Skidmore is for experts Links: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1 (https://tinyurl.com/bp6fuudc) Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2 (https://tinyurl.com/2f8k558k)

Vidushi Dyall (Chamber of Progress) discusses the remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial. Will Judge Mehta order Google to sell Chrome? To license its search data? To stop paying Apple for default status? And: With AI advancing rapidly, why are we talking about any of this? Sorry about Corbin’s sound quality! He’ll be back in front of a proper microphone next episode. Links: Tech Policy Podcast 353: The Google Search Antitrust Trial (https://tinyurl.com/mryvmrce) Tech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law (https://tinyurl.com/3nzh2e8d)

Jess Miers (Akron Law) discusses the problems with the Take It Down Act—the federal bill that (ostensibly) targets non-consensual intimate imagery. Topics include: - What does Take It Down (claim) to do? - FFS, enforce the laws you have! - “Sexually explicit content” (in a normal world) - Brendan Carr is a preview of things to come - Amy Klobuchar is asleep - Is the “it” in Take It Down “all adult content”? - The censorship administration Links: Jess’s Bluesky thread on Take It Down (https://tinyurl.com/33ud5xsa) The Take It Down Act Isn’t a law, It’s a Weapon (https://tinyurl.com/yc32xnac) Tech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional Crisis (https://tinyurl.com/yujf2p9e) Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/bdz48xs7)

Eric Goldman (Santa Clara Law) discusses his new paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.” Topics include: - The many kinds of online age-verification law - Age verification as an information problem - Fancy tech as deus ex machina - Data collection today; state surveillance tomorrow - What about devices and app stores? - The internet and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - Child safety: it takes a village - The parental consent nightmare Links: The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online (https://tinyurl.com/3dex3c3z) Age-Verification Laws Are a Verified Mistake (https://tinyurl.com/3j4b2kbn) Tech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks) (https://tinyurl.com/3kaemmw7)

Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses the recent spate of attacks on end-to-end encryption—and free speech more broadly—in the United Kingdom and United States. Links: U.K. Orders Apple to Let It Spy on Users’ Encrypted Accounts (https://tinyurl.com/mr3rkckd) Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/26waj4bn) The UK’s state-funded anti-encryption propaganda (https://tinyurl.com/29f3xynf) The UK Has A Voyeuristic New Propaganda Campaign Against Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/2xfcpw8k)