Ann Ravel, the former Democratic chair of the Federal Election Commission who controversially pushed to regulate the internet during her time leading the commission, is now suggesting a new government enforcement agency be established to help tech companies discover questionable communications frSource: Former FEC Chair Calls for Government Agency to Collect Social Media...
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary and Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company's insufficient efforts to protect users' personal data. In doing so, many of the senators betrayed a general lack of knowledge about how Facebook operates.Source: A Bunch of Senators Just Showed They Have No Idea How Facebook Works. They Want to Regulate...
Just hours before social media companies face a regulatory reckoning with Facebook’s appearance on the Hill, Twitter is taking a step to get right with Congress.Source: Twitter endorses the Honest Ads Act, a bill promoting political ad transparency...
Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, says after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's four hour-long grilling by Senate lawmakers on Tuesday, "this is really not an end but a beginning" for the social media site's work on ensuring data privacy for its millions of users.Source: Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Facebook hearing: "Not an end but a beginning"...
Five years into his jail sentence for corruption, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is down to his last appeal, now at the U.S. Supreme Court. His lawyers argue that improper jury instructions resulted in an unfair trial. They raise a vitally important First Amendment point.Source: Supreme Court can reinforce free speech with Rod Blagojevich case...
When you stretch the law to “get” a political opponent, it’s rarely possible to return the law to its original shape. Which brings us to Stormy Daniels.Source: Stormy Weather for Campaign-Finance Laws...
Bills in each house of the California legislature to ban paying circulators on any basis except hourly are both advancing. AB 1947 passed the Assembly Elections Committee on March 21. SB 1394 passed the Senate Elections Committee on April 3.Source: California Bills, Outlawing Paying Circulators Except Hourly, Advance...
On April 6, the Arizona Libertarian Party filed this reply brief in its ballot access case, Libertarian Party of Arizona v Reagan, 17-16491. The issue is the large number of signatures needed for a member of the Libertarian Party to get on the party’s primary ballot. The U.S.Source: Arizona Libertarian Party Files Final Brief in Ninth Circuit in Ballot Access...
Via the NY Times comes news that Facebook will not only support passage of the Honest Ads Act (currently pending in committee where it may stay), but will also self-regulate “issue ads.Source: (How) Will Facebook Self-Regulate “Issue Ads” Intended to Affect U.S. Elections? The Details Matter a Lot...
