Does a cat stand on two legs or four?
The answer to that question may tell you all you need to know about the government involving itself in social media content moderation.
On today’s show, we cover the latest tech policy developments involving the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, AI regulation, and more.
Guests:
- Ari Cohn, FIRE’s lead counsel, tech policy.
- Adam Thierer, a resident technology and innovation senior fellow at the R Street Institute
- Jennifer Huddleston, a technology policy senior fellow at the CATO Institute
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:30 Section 230
06:55 FCC and Section 230
14:32 Brendan Carr and “faith-based programming”
28:24 Media companies’ settlements with the Trump
30:24 Brendan Carr at Semafor event
38:37 FTC and social media companies
48:09 AI regulations
01:03:43 Outro
Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more. If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack’s paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.
Show notes:
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“Seeing reports that the FCC plans to take a vague and ineffective step on Section 230 to try to control speech online…” FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez via X (2025)
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“Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr taking first steps in eroding key legal protection enjoyed by Big Tech” New York Post (2025)
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“Federal Communications Commission” Brendan Carr via Project 2025 (2022)
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“Bless Ron Wyden and his steady defense of Section 230. He is absolutely right: 230 is a pro-competition law.” Adam Kovacevich via X (2025)
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“If Google is looking to block faith-based programming on YouTube, they are doing a really really bad job at it…” Adam Thierer via X (2025)
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