Use of TikTok (and Reels and YouTube) also helped Zohran Mamdani win his election (he has 2.4 million followers on TikTok)

Use of TikTok helps a center-left party win an election--N.Y. Times-- www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/w...

Amazing round-up of arguments in the tariffs case by Harold Koh and his students published by @justsecurity.org. www.justsecurity.org/123818/scotu... I think the anti-tariffs side has the much stronger argument.

I spoke with Bloomberg on the oddity of Trump pushing tariffs on goods, while insisting on no tariffs on digital imports. "Trump Pushes for a US-Led Digital Economy That’s Free of Tariffs" -- www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NEW BLOG: CDT Intern Bhavana Bheem compares the govt’s social media monitoring policies to practices in Indonesia, Turkey, the UAE & China, showing how they can become a tool for surveillance, self-censorship, & social control — putting freedom of expression at real risk.

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

New privacy lawsuit against the Trump administration arguing that DOGE, DHS and USCIS secretly consolidating "Americans' sensitive data from multiple agencies w/o statutorily required notice to the public and Congress." Complaint here: democracyforward.org/wp-content/u...

If Pres. Trump is relying on IEEPA for the movie tariffs, he will likely find that he is blocked by the Berman Amendment.

Matt Steinberg discusses how AI wearables and toys blur the line between products and speech—raising urgent regulatory gaps in privacy and child safety. buff.ly/6Bnu0N5

Would you rather own Electronic Arts (globally) (annual revenue $7 billion) at a price of $55 billion, or TikTok U.S. (annual revenue est. at $16 billion) at a price of 80% of $14 billion (but with 50% of profits diverted to ByteDance)?

Soon to play a starring role in TikTok US.

Pointed out to the @washingtonpost that the Trump Admin's influence over who controls TikTok is highly unusual even considering the executive's role in supervising national security mitigation agreements. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Great. Excellent perspective for the company taking a “big role” in whatever it is Trump is planning to do with TikTok.

Wait! This is a big deal: Trump's EO says "the divestiture puts the operation of the algorithms and code, as well as content-moderation decisions, under the control of the new joint venture." Ellison family also in charge of TikTok's content moderation??

The TikTok deal & algorithm licensing arrangement are about to get tons of attention. But the algo is just personalized linear algebra. More crucial thing is content moderation — who's doing it, what the rules are, what enforcement looks like. AI slop & disinfo is absolutely rampant on the platform

Told Newsweek that $14 billion valuation for TikTok U.S. was a "fire sale" price (even if, by the way, ByteDance retains 50% of profit).

Shared my concern with the Washington Post that TikTok's new American owners happen to be supporters of the current administration. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Good news for China, India and Canada: "firms respond to restrictions on H-1B immigration by increasing foreign affiliate employment... particularly in China, India, and Canada. The most impacted jobs were R&D- intensive."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump signs proclamation to overhaul H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers, including new $100,000 annual fee.

Quoted in the The New York Times on the TikTok deal in a story earlier this week. I worried about a new propaganda concern--as ownership is shifting to the President's allies. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/t...

I, too, got a call, purporting to be from a big bank, asking me to verify transactions I hadn't made, on a card I hadn't opened. I caught on to the scam pretty quickly--but be careful out there! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/n...

Here is a link to the ruling www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/20...

Reminder that foreign propaganda and manipulation will continue even if all of the platforms we see are American owned...

Sources: Anthropic refused federal law enforcement requests to use its AI models for some tasks, such as the surveillance of US citizens, irking the White House (Reed Albergotti/Semafor) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Quoted by CBS News regarding Trump's unilateral deferral of enforcement of the TikTok ban law. www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-d...

Oh a forced sale to regime allies? Shocker.

What could possibly go wrong

I wonder how the Biden team that helped draft this law and defended it fervently in court is feeling right about now.

The former chief of the Israeli military said more than 1 in 10 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed or injured since the war began nearly two years ago.

South Korea denounces ‘shocking’ US treatment of detained workers www.ft.com/content/c71a...

The @anupamchander.bsky.social/Alan TikTok commentary buddy cop show is back on the road! This time in the BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

So much crazy in this. The South Korean gov't had to insist that the workers not be handcuffed as they were led to the flight--but Trump said that they could stay (presumably not handcuffed) in the U.S. to train Americans. One of 331 chose to stay. www.ft.com/content/fdbe...

Please join us tomorrow for the @oneillinstitute Colloquium. We'll explore RFK's attacks on @CDCgov & vaccines I will moderate the panel featuring leading thinkers in vaccine law and policy Wednesday, September 10, from 1:20–2:50 ET Hotung Faculty Dining Room at Georgetown Law

The U.S. has pushed South Korea to make huge investments, but successive administrations refused to create work visas that would facilitate Korean workers coming to the U.S. to set up plants like the one in Georgia. www.ft.com/content/c677...

Navy SEALs killed three guys diving for shellfish, knifed their lungs to sink their bodies, scuttled a secret mission against a country with 50 nuclear warheads, and then many of those involved got promoted www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

As China’s Belt and Road Initiative challenges U.S. influence, Congress is considering reauthorization for its International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). @afreenakhter.bsky.social outlines how the agency could “move at the speed of global competition -- without compromising safeguards.”

Here is the report showing 62.5% compliance with trusted flaggers. This is under a prior EU agreement (the Hate Speech Code of Conduct) but the legal pressure to comply would be no different. commission.europa.eu/document/dow...

US manufacturers and farmers squeezed by tariffs. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/b...

I joined this letter, along with European tech law scholars and a few American friends as well.

A federal antitrust ruling that stopped short of calling for Google's breakup heavily emphasized the role generative AI tools like ChatGPT could play in online search, Tech Policy Press editor Cristiano Lima-Strong writes:

Time to watch @davidakaye.bsky.social explain what REAL censorship is, and how and why we need to fight it, in this circus of a hearing. judiciary.house.gov/committee-ac...

We are so grateful to our past and current fellows for helping make Tech Policy Press what it is; and we are looking forward to recruiting the next cohort! Details here- if you're in the field, please share with your networks.

DOJ lawyer in case accusing Harvard of antisemitism once wrote a paper from Hitler's perspective for a class at Harvard. The assignment was to write from the perspective of a controversial figure, but his choice of Hitler so unnerved the instructor that he was asked to redo the assignment.⁠

The idea of forcing Google to sell Chrome was not reasonably linked to the search default contracts, was technically difficult because Chrome relies on security, identity verification, and other services provided by Google, and would have given our browsing data to a new company. 1/2

DC Cir reinstates FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. 2-1 decision 1/2 www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

In a landmark decision that will shape the future of the internet, a US federal judge opted against forcing Google to spin off its Chrome browser but barred it from striking exclusive agreements to promote its search engine, writes @viacristiano.bsky.social:

The remedies decision in US v. Google is out. On first read, it's a big win for Google. No divestiture, no ban on paying for placement, no ban on self-preferencing, no competitor access to ad or user data, and not even a choice screen. 1/2 ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Ahead of tomorrow's hearing on European "censorship" of Americans under the Digital Services Act, I have a new blog post explaining why that is not a thing. You can get the gist in about two minutes of skimming the bold text, or stay for the details. 1/ cyberlaw.stanford.edu/a-primer-on-...

I'm on the Broken Law podcast talking about the Trump cases against law firms, the Supreme Court lining up with Trump rather than with the law, and the future of the rule of law www.acslaw.org/podcast/epis...