Corbin Barthold

Legal Internship Opportunities Applications are now open for the Spring 2026 Intern Class, with a deadline of November 1. See below for instructions and a link to the application.EFF’s legal internships provide law students with a

Join EFF as a legal intern and fight for privacy, human rights, and freedoms! Your work can make a real difference. www.eff.org/about/oppor...

Mixed Signals from Washington Cost Lives in Ukraine Dithering, delaying, and doubting only invite Russian attacks.

NEW: "American rhetoric doesn’t just shape diplomacy; it shapes the rhythm of the war itself. Russian planners watch press briefings and tweets as intently as they monitor radar returns. They calibrate escalation to the tempo of U.S. ambiguity."
www.thebulwark.com/p/mixed-sign...

New Tech Policy Podcast!

Sri Muppidi of @theinformation.com discusses OpenAI’s effort to overhaul its corporate structure—and the resulting power struggle over the company’s future.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/421...

Will America remain a magnet for researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs?

On a new Tech Policy Podcast, Jeremy Neufeld (Institute for Progress) discusses why it should, why it might not, and how to make sure it does.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/420...

1/ The FCC has no authority to police content for bias or balance.

We—and more than seventy other organizations and scholars—warned FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

techfreedom.org/wp-content/u...

Do tech optimists have a political home?

On a new Tech Policy Podcast, @adamkovac.bsky.social, founder and CEO of @chamberofprogress.bsky.social, discusses the populist / anti-tech turn in politics, and what can be done about it.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/419...

Social media didn't kill Charlie Kirk Plus: Trump says he "may let [TikTok] die," the SoHo Forum debates paying for sex, the administration calls birth control "abortifacients," and more...

People are blaming social media for Charlie Kirk's murder. History shows us that's wrong.

Lower courts are currently considering suits challenging the President’s at-will removal of members of seven independent agencies,2 his at-will removal of members of three multimember agencies without express statutory tenure protection,3 his at-will removal of inspectors general at eight federal agencies,4 and his removal for cause of a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Pretty wild to see the Solicitor General come right out and say, YEAH, DUDE'S A MAD KING.

www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

New Tech Policy Podcast!

@aricohn.com (@thefireorg.bsky.social) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/418...

If you haven’t had time to follow the Internet crackdown and subsequent violent upheaval of govt in Nepal, here’s a recap.

In addition to being an awful story about real people’s lives, it’s also an amazing microcosm or synechdoche or something for the bigger picture.

It is incredibly simple to acknowledge that violence in any form is awful and erodes society.

Shutting down all the social media in Nepal seems to have gone really well.

Donald Trump’s antitrust enforcers continue their harassment campaign against Google There is no hard evidence of Gmail discriminating against Republican campaign emails, but that’s no matter to the FTC Chairman.

The Trump FTC has already hopped on board a right-wing outrage campaign claiming that Gmail treated political $$ messages with WinRed links as spammier than messages with links to ActBlue, with filtering consequences. But the factual claims advanced so far are flimsy, reports Jack Nicastro.

FTC Takes Action Against Operators of Pornhub and other Pornographic Sites for Deceiving Users About Efforts to Crack Down on Child Sexual Abuse Material and Nonconsensual Sexual Content The Federal Trade Commission and the state of Utah are taking action against the operators of Pornhub and other pornography-streaming sites over charges they deceived users by doing little to block

This is SO problematic:

* If imperfect content moderation is a deceptive-prong violation, then any UGC platform is a target, bc perfection is impossible.
* Big 4A govt agent problems if this means Aylo must monitor uploads.
* 18 USC 2257 is not the FTC's to enforce.

www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

I went on a rant about Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton and all the damage it's already doing.

Tune in if you're a fan of the First Amendment, excruciating legal wonkery, or both.

New Tech Policy Podcast:

Host @corbinkbarthold.bsky.social discusses the mess that is the Supreme Court’s ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, as well as the wider harm the decision is already causing.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/417...

House Republicans Want To Doxx Wikipedia Editors Over Bogus ‘Bias’ Complaints

Congress has absolutely zero constitutional authority to investigate a private website for its editorial decisions. Zero. None. This is First Amendment 101. Yet House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and…

The GOP has long complained that its spam emails get flagged or blocked because of anti-conservative cEnSoRsHiP, not because it refuses to follow Google's clear anti-spam rules. The FTC has never before policed political bias and for good reason: the First Amendment bars it from meddling in speech

More Tech Policy Than You Can Poke a Stick At Podcast episodes of note.

Don't listen to the Tech Policy Podcast? We forgive you. But it's time to tune in!

Here are ten standout episodes to get you started. AI, content moderation, encryption, age verification, cybersecurity, and more.

corbinkbarthold.substack.com/p/more-tech-...

Thanks to Colin for reposting this. I often made students read it when I was teaching writing classes.

Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wreaking havoc.

So, rather than fighting back against the Trump admin, @klobuchar.senate.gov @amyklobuchar.com is focused on giving them new internet censorship tools because some idiot made a parody video of her on TikTok.

Peter Kyle is the most polite authoritarian out there right now.

Section 230 empowers the voiceless.

Don’t miss this Tech Policy Podcast “From the Vault,” in which Billy Easley (@billyez2.bsky.social) sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan (@ashkhen.bsky.social) to discuss the value of the free and open Internet.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/fro...

Trump officials looking weird.

We are led by the best people.

The interview's gotta go where the interview's gotta go. 😂

With the moratorium off the table (for now), what’s next in the regulation of AI?

On a new Tech Policy Podcast, Matt Perault & @corbinkbarthold.bsky.social discuss AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. A crossover with the WLF-@techfreedom.org webinar series.

podcast.techfreedom.org/episodes/415...

It's true! I said this! And much more about bad age-restrictions on the general internet will force all users to show their papers.

4/ Here is our press release and the brief:

techfreedom.org/rescue-free-...

www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

In short, Free Speech Coalition has nothing to say about a social media ageverification and parental-consent mandate, such as H.B. 1126. In fact, Free Speech Coalition aligns perfectly with Brown. Only categories of historically unprotected speech—such as fraud, incitement, or (yes) obscenity—are outside the First Amendment. And “the obscenity exception does not,” Brown said, “cover whatever a legislature finds shocking, but only depictions of ‘sexual conduct.’” 564 U.S. at 793. So unlike in Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629 (1968)—a precedent, relied on heavily by Free Speech Coalition, involving material obscene to minors sold at brickand-mortar stores—California’s video-game law tried “to create a wholly new category” of unprotected speech (violent speech directed at children). 564 U.S. at 794. Allowing a legislature to do this—even for minors—would, Brown concluded, contravene “the judgment of the American people, embodied in the First Amendment, that the benefits of its restrictions on the Government outweigh the costs.” Id. at 792 (cleaned up). Creating a new category was improper in Brown, as to violence in video games, and it would be improper here, as to the content on social media. Free Speech Coalition—which dealt with a category of speech that is historically unprotected— changes nothing.

3/ NetChoice's brief leads with the value of social media for free speech. That is indeed the headline.

We add: This is a simple case. FSC v. Paxton addressed an unprotected category of speech. States may not make up new such categories. Yet that is what Miss. has tried to do.