The alumni of this program are a who’s-who across silicon valley. Suspect there aren’t many law students following me here but if there is one in your life who is interested in tech law, they should apply.

EFF has been investigating stories from users whose abortion-related content has been taken down. What did we find? Over and over again, the policies say one thing, but the actual enforcement says another. www.eff.org/pages/our-s...

Any self-respecting journalist must tell the Pentagon to go fuck itself. (If they don't, they're not journalists - they're stenographers.)

When accounts are removed, appeals can drag on for weeks or months. But in several cases from our survey, content was restored swiftly after someone with a Meta connection stepped in. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

That last quote is from @davidgreene.bsky.social who put the point nicely here:

“We urge platforms to not voluntarily comply with these (ICE) requests before any enforcement proceeding is initiated,” EFF’s @davidgreene.bsky.social told @TheIntercept.com - without enforcement, “the platform is under no legal obligation to do anything.” theintercept.com/2025/09/18/...

FCC Chairman Carr’s successful targeting of Jimmy Kimmel is part of a longstanding pattern of jawboning. Back in February, @knightcolumbia.org submitted a statement to the House Committee on the Judiciary outlining just a few of Carr’s acts of censorship (1/):

What “mask?” You’d have to be a fool not to see that whenever MAGA touts “free speech,” they mean it only for themselves.

If you, like me, appreciate the courtlistener.com links provided in posts here (especially if you, like me, are one of the "Link to the opinion!" people), then please throw a few bucks toward Free Law Project which maintains it and RECAP and other court access tools. free.law

In this post I explain why the suspension of Kimmel’s show looks like a blatant 1A violation, as all NINE members of SCOTUS last year made clear.... but also why courts may not be able to do much about it (and yet Kimmel should still sue!) blog.dividedargument.com/p/did-brenda...

His lawsuit was never designed to win. It was always meant to be just another part of this administration’s intimidation campaign against its critics and dissenters. So this Rule 8 dismissal is the best result here and we will hopefully see more of them

Meta should allow users to share vital information about reproductive care. The company must also ensure that users are provided with clear information about how their policies are being applied and how to appeal seemingly wrongful decisions. eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Plus also don't write that "they have changed their views" -- their views have not changed. The only thing that has changed is that you are now seeing that their views were not sincerely held.

I agree w/ Ken here & with @genevievelakier.bsky.social and @evelyndouek.bsky.social elsewhere about the lack of effective remedy in jawboning cases generally. But Jimmy Kimmel will likely be OK job-wise. & a mere finding that Carr violated his 1st Amendment rights will be important for all of us.

In another world, the fact that Nexstar merging with Tegna will give Nexstar even more power to force networks to dump programming Nextstar's political buddies don't would seem like a great reason to nix the merger.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh FFS their views have not changed. (Better headline: Can you believe we fell for that shit?)

More excellent coverage of @eff.org's Stop Censoring Abortion project! www.jezebel.com/crucial-info...

Law students: Want to make a difference in digital rights? EFF’s legal internship offers the perfect platform to work on impactful legal cases. Apply today! www.eff.org/about/oppor...

Clearly whichever fundraiser who spammed me with this text message DOES NOT FOLLOW ME ON BLUESKY

As a favor to me, if you write about this Administration’s free speech positions, avoid giving them too much credit by calling the “hypocrites.” They were NEVER SINCERE about freedom of speech as a value. It was only occasionally a useful cudgel for them to preserve societal and official power.

As the hours wind down on the ten-dead-canary-day, let just say “Happy Constitution Day!”

Most major social media platforms use the US government’s designated terrorist organization list as the starting point for their anti-terrorist content community standards (which was always an awful idea for this very reason). Look for more lefty speech being flagged and negatively moderated.

Good day to toss some bucks to independent and nonprofit media if you can afford it.

"A government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf" NRA v Vullo www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

As I wrote in a bunch of briefs in Murthy v Missouri, actionable jawboning is when the intermediary is coerced by threat of official repercussions to substitute the government’s editorial choices for its own.

As a favor to me, if you write about this Administration’s free speech positions, avoid giving them too much credit by calling the “hypocrites.” They were NEVER SINCERE about freedom of speech as a value. It was only occasionally a useful cudgel for them to preserve societal and official power.

I also had some thoughts about Carr's continued use of the FCC as a partisan censorship weapon. My statement:

I often recommend Mike’s writing. But this is really great. Signed me (the free speech guy who is not a huge marketplace of ideas in practice fan)

Not giving legal advice. But that Jimmy Kimmel guy may have a pretty strong jawboning claim under NRA v Vullo …

The right has never and will never care about "free speech." They care only about obtaining and keeping power and to use that power to control the speech of parties, organizations, and people who oppose them. This has been obvious for a very long time.

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

There's not meaningful freedom of speech without institutions willing to promote and implement that freedom. On one hand, private media entities have broad editorial discretion under 1A doctrine. On the other, it's bad for *everyone's* freedom if that discretion is exercised to please the state.

JFC. We’re in a dangerous place folks.

Our second blog post in the Stop Censoring Abortion series is out! Survey results reveal troubling trends — including how lacking a personal or second-degree connection at Meta drastically reduces your chances of restoring censored content or accounts. Read more: www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

EFF compiled dozens of cases in which abortion-related information was censored from social media sites, and “we found that almost none of the reported posts actually violated any policies,” EFF’s Lisa Femia told @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social. www.jezebel.com/crucial-inf...

"At Harpers Ferry, staff flagged more than 30 signs...that highlight information potentially in violation of Trump’s policy. They include signs referring to racial discrimination and the hostility of White people to people who were formerly enslaved." www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

This silly lawsuit, Bondi's eminently wrong statement about hate speech, Blanche's wrong First amendment assertions, Higgins's letters aren't meant to be winners in court. They are meant to intimidate dissenters, chill speech and encourage capitulation. It's a classic SLAPP strategy.

This is an abuse of government authority from Rep. Clay Higgins. It's jawboning. It's a violation of the First Amendment. And Americans on the left and right *must* condemn it. The government using censorship to "protect" speech is utterly repulsive. clayhiggins.house.gov/wp-content/u...

EFF was back at the border recently, documenting surveillance along the newly initiated "National Defense Area" in the El Paso Sector, which includes most of the New Mexico border and the area southeast of El Paso. Here's what we found. 🧵 (1/9)

Hey friendly journalists reporting on the TikTok sale. This might be your very last time to explain that the US also has laws that require information services to provide the government with information about users (NSLs for example) and that it is not exceptional for China to do so.

Sale to rich lackey it is!

The unilateral sanctions imposed on the UN Special Rapporteur not only target her as an individual but also undermine crucial work in monitoring and reporting on human rights issues. EFF joined more than 50 civil society organizations in calling for the U.S. to lift the sanctions.

So proud of this work with @eff.org apnews.com/article/soci...

Yep. The reason for putting "actual" before "malice" is to distinguish it from the colloquial sense of malice. Actual malice is malice towards the truth, not the subject.

(They - and really everyone who has ever been in power - embraced speech limits before. A lot of them. It's just that they shouted, insincerely, also like everyone else in power, about a few free speech things and y'all made them out to be free speech champions [which, see above, they never were.])

You know what would be really cool to have right now? A FEDERAL ANTI-SLAPP STATUTE yes A FEDERAL ANTI-SLAPP STATUTE (and quoting Kyle's post because he kindly included a Court Listener link to the Complaint)

By my count, at least 7 universities have fired faculty or staff for social media posts about Kirk. Clemson, University of Mississippi, U of Tennessee, Newport News, Cumberland University, Middle Tennessee State, UT Knoxville Add to the thread if I've missed some

Just gonna post this every day now

Oh boy. "“We know this is a privacy compromise for adults but believe it is a worthy tradeoff.” It's a privacy compromise for both adults and minors. And it seems an ill-suited fix for addressing ChatGPT's sycophancy problem.