The Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty is rightly concerned - banning children is the easy way out but the repercussion may be detrimental for kids safety and their rights. www.techdirt.com/2025/12/17/w...

if any of the 2028 democratic hopefuls want a chance to be the nominee, they should skip the self-aggrandizing book tours/interviews & focus on the only thing that matters right now: electing a democratic congress in november. be *that* hero.

MAGA's war on European civil society is escalating. Visa bans for NGO leaders and former EU officials, plus congressional demands for documents - it's all about undermining the Digital Services Act to protect Big Tech. If Europe doesn't push back hard, "the law is dead." www.ftm.eu/articles/tru...

durov's "uneasy relationship with the Kremlin has broken down" are any of his relationships with governments easy?

m. gessen writing on the fourth anniversary of russia's aggression against ukraine & during its ongoing criminal assault. gift link --> www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...

we are learning none of the lessons of how social media developed without human rights assessment. history repeats itself, and as this essay emphasizes, if AI promises some kind of 'brilliant future' -- "for women and girls, that promise is a lie".

great piece by @marietjeschaake.bsky.social with this pointed conclusion

Four years on from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, ARTICLE 19 stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We must protect free expression and access to reliable information – a lifeline for so many. The crimes committed must not be forgotten. www.article19.org/resources/uk...

Senate Dem's tariffs refund bill seems like a terrible idea to me. It is unfair, and will turn an excellent opportunity for political leverage into a political debacle, where Dems will be accused of taking the side of big business. DO NOT refund businesses. Send checks to each household.

increasingly europeans and others around the world will see trump's censorship for what it is

This is false. Trump's DHS has confirmed that 99.98% of the 50M reg'd voters they checked had already documented citizenship (and many of the .02% others were also citizens). States - red and blue - confirm voter fraud is exceedingly rare - maybe a few dozen cases in any major election.

i cannot recommend strongly enough this excellent & alarming @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social post describing how hegseth & trump are destroying "the rule-of-law culture that the department has fostered since Vietnam". read it all.

"Banning children’s access to social media...shifts the responsibility for safety from the platforms that create the environment to the children who navigate it." - Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty

In an interview with N1 TV, ARTICLE 19’s @diazjogeix.bsky.social says Serbia is in the ‘Champions League’ of media freedom violations in Europe. Attacks on journalists are not isolated, but part of ongoing political pressure and attempts to weaken independent media. x.com/n1srbija/sta...

no doubt wasserman & infrastructure are major problems for the LA games. both are surmountable (esp if cw leaves). angelenos know how to do this. but unmentioned --> trump, whose repression & bullying casts a very dark cloud over america's hosting of these games.

⚠️ Periodista, si vas a cubrir o estás en la cobertura de los bloqueos carreteros y otros hechos violentos registrados el día de hoy, sigue estas recomendaciones de seguridad. Si eres víctima de una agresión, comunícate con nosotros a través de nuestras redes sociales.

In 2011 I wrote a piece on why bombing Iran was a bad idea. I called it a dangerous and unpredictable option that should be avoided. It's 15 years later and it's still a bad idea for nearly all the same reasons.

every time one of these oligarchic tech charlatans open his mouth with stupid stuff, just remember they are in league with the white house to avoid and crush any sort of regulation. they want a free pass without constraint or transparency.

Just published this Q&A with @mikeschmitt.bsky.social & @rgoodlaw.bsky.social Bottom line: -US strikes on #Iran would be flatly illegal -would trigger armed conflict between the US and Iran -other countries (like the UK) are obligated not to assist www.justsecurity.org/132180/us-ir...

fed judge: "The overarching issue is whether the federal government may deploy anonymous agents to seize persons on American streets and highways for civil violations, without warrants, without identification, and without any process before or after. The Constitution does not permit that."

This isn't what SCOTUS *said* (they said nothing) BUT the Court's "passivity"-deciding not to decide or say anything - helps the executive branch aggressively characterize & implement the Court's orders. My draft paper "Passive Vices" goes into this (Law Review editors- it's looking for a home!)

maybe the media won’t clarify this, but basically trump is admitting by this that there’s no genuine purpose to tariffs other than the ego-massage and feeling of power/dominance it gives him. very obviously nothing to do with any notion of the public interest.

this is a mess caused by trump, not by the court decision. and politically, it could/should be an albatross around trump/GOP as/if they try to fight remedies for americans they've harmed through this clear abuse of power.

Don't believe Trump's hype that other statutes give him sweeping tariff-imposing authority at his whim.. As @LawofRuby.bsky.social noted, this CJ Roberts shows those other statutes don't have the same unilateral power. buff.ly/Fix4Eys

this is a surprisingly bad take from a journalist whose work i respect

this is the opening scene in the biopic brett deserves

so do i

BREAKING: The US Supreme Court just ruled Trump’s tariffs are illegal. So why is the EU Parliament about to vote on the Turnberry deal that endorses them? Europe is preparing to legitimise what America’s own courts have struck down. cnn.it/4bZtaLo

needless to say, but still: one opinion that gets IEEPA right does not mean this court will get anything else right. the same trends of consolidating presidential power* and demolishing voting rights and undermining accountability (and so much more) remain. * when republican

Best & arguably most imp't part of decision so far: 6 justices reject govt/dissent argument that MQD doesn't apply to emergency or foreign affairs laws. Huge chunks of Trump policy have been done using statutory "emergency" delegations. Pace Gorsuch, majority suggests all may be read w/same eye.

nice razzing of the dissent as trump-parrots

striking down tariffs is a huge slapdown of a central plank of trump's agenda. no other way to spin it.

launching illegal wars, setting up concentration camps, enriching himself/family/tech oligarchs, leading a white nationalist mvmt, destroying alliances, waging a battle against free expression and higher ed. we all fall into our silos but the enormity of what’s happening is just off the scale.

we are talking about 'trump launching an attack,' which is accurate & insane, but the world will still see it, if it happens, as an *american* attack. our system lets it happen. we bear responsibility.

we are talking about 'trump launching an attack,' which is accurate & insane, but the world will still see it, if it happens, as an *american* attack. our system lets it happen. we bear responsibility.

ICC Judge & target of US sanctions Nicholas Guillou calls on EU to put forward legislation to bar companies from implementing US sanctions on EU soil & send "a very strong political message... rejecting these attacks on the rule of law and justice." www.lemonde.fr/en/internati... #ICC

It is shocking how close Trump has taken us to the brink of war with Iran without any significant debate. Diplomacy in Geneva could provide an offramp to delay a confrontation. But the odds favor continued confrontation, not a breakthrough.

most democracies have vibrant, government-supported public broadcasters. america, with a consolidating oligarchic media ecosystem, is not among them.

More reckless abuse of mercenary spyware, in this case, Predator spyware in Angola. Great work by @donncha.is & colleagues @amnesty.org cpj.org/2026/02/i-li...

““These are coercive measures designed to attack our ability to do our jobs objectively and independently,” she said. “We want people to appreciate how wrong this.” Sanctions on ICC judges - just wrong. www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb...

Super important thread.

all the communities that bought into digital surveillance tools for law enforcement should reconsider their wisdom and end those programs

critical 🧵 on rubio’s speech at MSC

Rubio's #Munich speech was met with a 'sigh of relief' in Europe: grateful for reassurance of partnership. THIS IS BAFFLING when you examine the white Christian nationalist undertones of his speech See here for the full speech: www.state.gov/releases/202...

marco rubio can say what he wants, but his credibility is close to nil when the admin has a national security strategy explicitly aligning with ‘patriotic’ far right parties. interference is is not friendship.

Aleksei Navalny was most likely poisoned by a toxin found in a South American frog, five European countries said Saturday, making the most concrete Western accusation yet that Russia’s leading opposition figure was murdered by his government in a prison two years ago. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/w...

www.amazon.com/Privacy-Powe... My and @abenewman.bsky.social Of Privacy and Power is on Kindle for cheap right now. It's an academic rather than a popular/trade book, but if you ever wanted to know all about EU-US fights over privacy and surveillance, that's what you'll get from it!

the idea that ‘working politicians’ shouldn’t try to change pubic opinion is perhaps the most purely ridiculous things i’ve heard a pundit say in a very long time (ie since yesterday)

🚨 President Trump’s Claim of an “Irrefutable” Argument Supporting His Right to Unilaterally Impose Voter ID and Election Rules May Be Based on Insane Claim that Marriott Hotel Manager Found Secret Text in the Shadows of a Microfilm Copy of the U.S. Constitution electionlawblog.org?p=154326

a tracker of lawlessness