When people first hear about "jawboning" -- meaning government pressure to suppress speech through threats and other extra-legal measures, like what the FCC is doing now -- they always want to talk about "coercion" by the govt. I've always thought this is a red herring. Current events show why. 1/
I can't believe the U.S. Congress is flying Nigel Farage over to tell them about freedom of expression in a hearing this week. [judiciary.house.gov/committee-ac...](
House Judiciary Committee Republicans
Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation
 ) Hey people in the UK, are there any particularly choice tidbits you'd like to share about this guy?? [Europe’s Threat to American Sp...](
House Judiciary Committee Republicans
Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation
 )
WOW. Bluesky blocks Mississippi. RE:
Bluesky Social
Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social)
Bluesky is now blocking access to people in Mississippi due to the state's problematic age verification law. Thread (and attached blog post) have m...
 View quoted note →
OK, I read the UK ruling about Wikipedia and the Online Safety Act, and... I definitely don't recommend it. Unless you enjoy the elevation of process over substance, in which case go for it. [www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...](đź“„.pdf ) [judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl...](đź“„.pdf )
I filed a comment in this Council of Europe consultation. It's in my best European regulator-ese, which is to say the writing is not punchy. But it gets into a bunch of topics I've been thinking about. 1/ [papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....](
Comment to Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on the Draft Recommendation on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users by Daphne Keller :: SSRN
This comment addresses <br><br> - The critical distinction between “systemic duties and responsibilities” or regulation of platforms’ “des...
 ) RE:
Bluesky Social
Daphne Keller (@daphnek.bsky.social)
For those interested in distributed content moderation, there is a super interesting Council of Europe consultation on recommendations for state-ma...
 [Comment to Council of Europe C...](
Comment to Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on the&nbsp;Draft Recommendation on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users by Daphne Keller :: SSRN
This comment addresses <br><br> - The critical distinction between “systemic duties and responsibilities” or regulation of platforms’ “des...
 ) View quoted note →
THIS. “The key isn’t begging for better billionaires or smarter regulations—it’s recognizing that decentralization isn’t a technical preference, it’s a democratic necessity.” RE:
Bluesky Social
Mike Masnick (@mmasnick.bsky.social)
Tried to pull together a bunch of threads of things I've been talking/thinking about lately, about how decentralized tech & democracy go hand in ha...
 View quoted note →
This is such a great topic. Lots of speech is also *illegal or legal* depending on the speaker's intention, not just her words. Lawmakers and platforms turn a blind eye to this in pretending that platforms are reasonable enforcers of speech laws. [misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/the-...](
Misinformation Review
The unappreciated role of intent in algorithmic moderation of abusive content on social media | HKS Misinformation Review
A significant body of research is dedicated to developing language models that can detect various types of online abuse, for example, hate speech, ...
 ) [The unappreciated role of inte...](
Misinformation Review
The unappreciated role of intent in algorithmic moderation of abusive content on social media | HKS Misinformation Review
A significant body of research is dedicated to developing language models that can detect various types of online abuse, for example, hate speech, ...
 )
You GUYS @Mike Masnick said this about my “compliancization” article!! [www.techdirt.com/2025/07/31/e...](
Techdirt
Everyone Hates Trust &#038; Safety. Everyone Needs Trust &#038; Safety. This Is A Problem.
Here&#8217;s the contradiction at the heart of the internet: everyone complains about content moderation, but no one wants to use an unmoderated pl...
 ) https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:7zwztfs4yywggefayx7oid35&cid=bafkreiaxmgqbkkv4y5xwnnq476bsxj236yjx5jk46u5dsdqsenjuwelsve
TIL that Tom Lehrer dedicated all his songs to the public domain as vehemently as he possibly could. What a phenomenal, amazing mensch that guy was. [tomlehrersongs.com](
Tom Lehrer Songs
Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer
Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer DISCLAIMER STATEMENTI, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the
 ) [Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer](
Tom Lehrer Songs
Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer
Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer DISCLAIMER STATEMENTI, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the
 )
For those interested in distributed content moderation, there is a super interesting Council of Europe consultation on recommendations for state-mandated user empowerment tools. Deadline to file is Aug 8, but "filing" can mean sending a short email.  1/ [www.coe.int/en/web/freed...](https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/-/public-consultation-on-the-draft-committee-of-ministers-recommendation-on-online-safety-and-empowerment-of-content-creators-and-users ) [Public consultation on the dra...](https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/-/public-consultation-on-the-draft-committee-of-ministers-recommendation-on-online-safety-and-empowerment-of-content-creators-and-users )