Reason Policy

The 'free' world is coming for your private messages Nobody expects China or Iran to protect privacy. But as seen in the European debate over chat control, even nominally free countries are becoming intrusive when it comes to the digital world.

The EU is keen on mass surveillance of all social media and private messaging, and that’s gonna be bad for pretty much everybody. reason.com/2025/12/01/t... @reason.com

Most Americans think free speech is on the decline, survey finds "Drops in confidence across all political parties contributed to the record-levels of pessimism," writes the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Most Americans Think Free Speech Is on the Decline, Survey Finds. "Drops in confidence across all political parties contributed to the record-levels of pessimism," writes the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. reason.com/2025/11/24/m...

Federal Trade Commission fails to convince judge that Meta monopolizes social media In its zeal to punish Big Tech, the Federal Trade Commission stuck to a market definition that became more obsolete with every year.

In its zeal to punish Big Tech, the Federal Trade Commission stuck to a market definition that became more obsolete with every year. reason.org/commentary/f...

In the 2024-2025 school year, homeschooling continued to grow across the United States, increasing at an average rate of 5.4%. This is nearly three times the pre-pandemic homeschooling growth rate of around 2%. education.jhu.edu/edpolicy/pol...

Justices don't buy tariff argument Plus: Outrage at Heritage, air traffic might get throttled, and more...

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch stated that accepting the Trump administration's logic and the powers they've assumed would result in "a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people's elected representatives."

Trump: "With the 100 percent, I was able to do it instantaneously when we were threatened by the rare earths, as you know, the magnets."

China bought 22,130,000 tons of soy beans from the US last year. This year they bought zero because of the tariffs.

Adrian Moore on X: "ICE's Mass Arrests Ensnare U.S. Citizens and Show No Signs of Stopping https://t.co/VeUBkKwBqi via @reason" / X ICE's Mass Arrests Ensnare U.S. Citizens and Show No Signs of Stopping https://t.co/VeUBkKwBqi via @reason

The case of Leo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen arrested twice by immigration enforcement, demonstrates the problem with the government's current strategy on immigration enforcement. reason.com/2025/10/31/i... via @reason.com

A new look at travel data shows how work from home accounts for all of the reduction in auto travel in recent year, and transit accounts for essentially none of it. We keep subsidizing transit to fail instead of reinventing it. tbd.ctr.utexas.edu/wp-content/u...

Report ranks every state's debt, from California's $497 billion to South Dakota's $2 billion Study finds state governments have a total of $2.7 trillion in debt, with 26 states exceeding $20 billion in debt each and 10 states over $70 billion.

Study finds state governments have a total of $2.7 trillion in debt, with 26 states exceeding $20 billion in debt each and 10 states over $70 billion. reason.org/transparency... @reason.org

As Kevin correctly notes, this is a template straight from the playbook of the Caesars. It's how the republic became the principate, and how the principate later became the dominate. A military dependent on no other institution except the patronage of the emperor.

Libertarian Party: Abolish ICE and replace it with nothing. Source: https://x.com/lpnational/status/1612509004290265088?s=46

Abolish ICE and replace it with nothing.

Tip of the Iceberg: Understanding the Full Depth of Big Tech’s Contribution to US Innovation and Competitiveness While critics attack “big tech” from many angles, these five companies develop frontier technologies that require large-scale development, build infrastructure ranging from data centers to subsea cabl...

Big tech companies in the US invest more in R&D than do most nations. This has huge spillover effects on research across the board as well as innovation in all sectors of the economy. itif.org/publications...

From the Archives: How Job-Killing Technologies Liberated Women Progress is more than space adventures.

When concerned about the impact of AI on jobs, its worth remembering how technological change played a huge role in liberating women. It’s hard to know what good will come when people can do new things. open.substack.com/pub/vpostrel...

New "Fentanyl Poisonings" Act Would Target Social Media Sales, Again - Filter In late September, Representatives Adam Gray (D-CA) and Gabe Evans (R-CO) introduced the “Combatting Fentanyl Poisonings Act of 2025.” It’s ...

“'Poisoning' lets bereaved parents tell the world that their child wasn’t a drug user—they were a good person. But it belies the fact that fentanyl users not only deserve to live, they didn’t have the information they needed either."

this is an all timer of a Florida Man story

drunk Florida Man goes to the wrong house, breaks in, is immediately beaten up by an even purer Florida Man who does MMA

Restricting mobile health vans in Philadelphia will lead to more overdose deaths Philadelphia's city government can address legitimate quality-of-life concerns in Kensington without constraining lifesaving services.

Philadelphia's city government can address legitimate quality-of-life concerns like crime and homey in Kensington without constraining lifesaving services. reason.org/commentary/r... @reason.org

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

School ride-hailing services may be nudging aside traditional buses • Stateline A pathway has opened for an industry of small-car, ride-hailing and private transport services to ferry children to and from school.

Uber-like ride services focusing on taking kids to and from school are so popular in some places, they are displacing, traditional school buses. Markets for everything… stateline.org/2025/09/30/s...

Astonishing! According to @urbaninstitute, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida lead the nation is 4th grade reading test scores that compare kids of similar demographics. www.urban.org/research/pub...

California got this one right: ICE agents shouldn't be allowed to wear masks Masked agents are the unmistakable sign of a police state.

The Constitution is meant to protect ordinary people from their government rather than the other way around.

Masked agents are the unmistakable sign of a police state.

Join us to watch @reason and @NRO debate the merits of mass immigration! www.eventbrite.com/e/reason-ver...

Abolish the FCC Let the invisible hand regulate the invisible resource.

Abolish the FCC reason.com/2024/11/14/a... via @reason.com

2022 — a confession:

AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria Can AI create a life form? These “generative” genomes are a start

This is the future a rush to regulate AI will prevent. www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/17/1...

Pam Bondi is really wrong about hate speech Bondi should know that hate speech is vigorously protected by the First Amendment, and as such, cannot be policed.

The attorney general is now getting called out by fellow conservatives.

Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to -17 in our tracker, the worst of his second term www.economist.com/interactive/...

this is, I think, the future of american foreign policy

the entire weight of the country used to shut down criticism of the president or anyone he likes on a global scale

the charlie kirk crackdown applied to random social media users an ocean away

So now the MAGA logic is you can’t force a baker to make a gay wedding cake, but you can force a printer to print pro Charlie Kirk posters. Not a single principle in sight.

With his crack investigative skills I’m sure we will see a breakthrough soon….