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Tech policy is at the center of the hottest debates in American law and politics. On the Tech Policy Podcast, host Corbin Barthold discusses the latest developments with some of the tech world's best journalists, lawyers, academics, and more.
432 Episodes
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Pamela Samuelson (UC Berkeley) discusses the Supreme Court oral argument in Cox v. Sony, a copyright case that could have major ramifications for the internet.Links:Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment
Corbin heads over to the Techdirt Podcast, hosted by the one and only Mike Masnick, for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of social media.
Geoff Manne (ICLE) returns! He and Corbin break down a judge’s ruling (politely) laughing the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta out of court.Topics include:The bizarro world of antitrust trash tweeting“‘Antitrust’ means what I want it to mean!”Back in reality: a straightforward rulingMaybe Zuck just . . . knows what he’s doing?Users want what they want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Does your market definition pass the laugh test?Links:Tech Policy Podcast 384: The Facebook Antitrust Case Tech Policy Podcast 393: Herbert Hovenkamp on the State of Antitrust Law
Ari Cohn (FIRE) and host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) survey the Trump administration’s many attacks on the First Amendment.Topics include:Law firms you should no longer hirePolitical opponents = terror groups?!Brendan Carr is a lap dogJawboning rebrand: it’s “outreach”!Terrorizing foreign students is badLinks:What if the Big Law Firms Hadn’t Caved to Trump?The Global Free Speech RecessionTech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0
She’s back! Former host Ash Kazaryan (Future of Free Speech) returns for a wide-ranging discussion about powerful algorithms, attacks on Section 230, and much, much more.Topics include:Ash: this is your life!In defense of tHe aLGoRitHmIn defense of Section 230Once more: Anderson v. TikTok is so badHas information gotten too cheap?Why Evangelicals should love AIWhy every platform has a metamorphosisLet’s get cancelledLinks:I Built This Algo Brick by BrickThe Bedrock PrincipleNeural VizTech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking HavocTPP From the Vault: Revising Section 230 Will Silence Marginalized VoicesTPP From the Vault: Why Section 230 Matters
Sri Muppidi (The Information) discusses OpenAI’s effort to overhaul its corporate structure—and the resulting power struggle over the company’s future.Links:OpenAI Says Its Business Will Burn $115 Billion Through 2029 OpenAI Executives Rattled by Campaigns to Derail For-Profit Restructuring OpenAI Says Nonprofit Parent Will Own Equity Stake in Company of Over $100 Billion
Jeremy Neufeld (Institute for Progress) discusses how our immigration system works, why high-skilled immigrants are so important to the tech sector, what’s wrong with the Trump administration’s H-1B reforms, why America is so complacent about competing for global talent, and more.Links: Trump’s H-1B Changes Won’t WorkTalent Recruitment Roulette: Replacing the H-1B Lottery | IFPThe Talent Scout State | IFPTech Policy Podcast 317: Making Progress
Adam Kovacevich (Chamber of Progress) discusses the populist / anti-tech turn in politics, and what can be done about it.Topics include:How did we get here?Tech optimists: There are dozens of us!Beware ThE gROupSIf there’s a crisis, maybe act like it?Duct tape and bubble gumThe great relearningWe’re so doomedWe’re so not doomedLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 403: The Constitutional CrisisTech Policy Podcast 388: The Abundance AgendaTech Policy Podcast 355: Conservative FuturismTech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment
Ari Cohn (FIRE) and Tom Kurland (Patterson Belknap) discuss the spate of product-liability lawsuits against social-media and AI companies.Topics include:A tort law primerThe ballad of Helen PalsgrafCausation, shmausationSpeech =/= productIdeas are powerful. (That’s the point!)“Addiction.” You keep using that word …♪ Junk science ♪AI, suicide, and youLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian JihadTech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social MediaTech Policy Podcast 310: Algorithmic Amplification
Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) discusses why Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is wrong, how it muddies First Amendment law, and how it is already causing wider harm.Topics include:FSC v. Paxton: a result-oriented rulingA credulous courtPoRn iS sCArYAshcroft v. ACLU is sitting right there!tEcH Is ScARyRIP First Amendment 101The porn-to-social media litigation pipeline States cite FSC v. Paxton 1,000 timesLinks:Tech Policy Podcast 373: Porn and the First Amendment
Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more.Topics include:Protect the children, they said . . .The SpongeBob videos must stopSolve problems? Or just shut people up?How dare you comply with our law!Age verification in practicePeter Kyle: polite demagogueLet’s kill KOSAUK: global speech police?“Rights”: you keep using that word . . .Links:U.K.’s Online Safety Act Censors the Internet—A Preview of U.S. ProposalsTech Policy Podcast 405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved”Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break EncryptionTech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End EncryptionTech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks)
From November 8, 2020 (Episode 279): Billy Easley sits down with former host Ashkhen Kazaryan. They remind us of the value of the free and open Internet.Links:Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized VoicesFree Speech and Tech Policy at the US Supreme Court, 2025 (AEI Event)
Matt Perault (a16z) joins Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) for a wide-ranging discussion of AI bills, AI laws, and AI vibes. Part of the WLF-TechFreedom Tech in the Courts webinar series.Topics include:Why did the AI moratorium die?Activity in the statesRegulate outcomes, not models?Next steps in Congress“Transparency”: so hot right nowThe AI panicLawsuitsLinks:Recorded Tech in the Courts Webinar—The State of AI Regulation
Our host, Corbin Barthold, heads over to So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. He talks with Nico Perrino and Ari Cohn of FIRE about the death of the AI moratorium, a bogus wrongful death lawsuit against Character AI, the FTC’s campaign of censorship against ad agencies, and the absurdities of Europe’s Digital Services Act.Links:Shownotes, courtesy of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast
Richard Morrison (Competitive Enterprise Institute) joins the show for a Big Picture Episode on how AI could affect art, culture, and politics.Topics include:Take your Zyn and LSDDon’t rock out to this AI bandWhat is AI slop? (What is art?!)Cultural elites hardest hitA brief history of tech panicsBan the prompt theory!The AI civil rights movementAI as countercultureLinks:Big Yowie, AI social media influencerAI and the End of the WorldMore Thoughts on AIRichard’s Free the Economy podcastTech Policy Podcast 366: Tech, Gender, and Freedom (2023/24 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast 327: The Collapse of Complex Societies (2022 Big Picture Episode)Tech Policy Podcast 301: The Realignment (2021 Big Picture Episode)
TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Corbin Barthold discuss the NASA administrator vacancy, the Artemis program, the NASA budget, SpaceX and Blue Origin, the moon and Mars, the FAA and NEPA, space regulatory sandboxes, and more.Links:“A Blueprint to Launch”: Regulatory Sandboxes for Outer SpaceRoadster location in spaceTech Policy Podcast 372: Spacesuits!Tech Policy Podcast 349: The State of Space ExplorationFoster The People - Lost In Space
FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and Bill Kovacic speak with hosts Bilal Sayyed and Jessica Melugin at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Summit: Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC & DOJ Interference in Media and Speech.Links:Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2SCOTUS Should Not Hand Sweeping Removal Powers to this PresidentSupreme Court order in Wilcox v. NLRBTech Policy Podcast 410: The FTC and Online Speech: What’s Next?Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC's Quixotic Social Media InquiryTech Policy Podcast 402: Can Trump Fire FTC Commissioners at Will?
Maneesha Mithal (Wilson Sonsini) discusses the FTC’s investigation of social media companies. What’s going on behind the scenes? What’s the FTC likely to do now? How can platforms prepare? How much damage to the First Amendment can the FTC inflict? We cover all this and more.Links:Tech Policy Podcast 409: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media InquiryTech Policy Podcast 406: The Take It Down Act (Is a Weapon)Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0Tech Policy Podcast 322: FTC Commissioner Noah PhillipsAppeals Court: Yeah, Of Course Ken Paxton’s Investigation Into Media Matters Was Bullshit
Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Santana Boulton (TechFreedom) discuss the FTC’s “Inquiry on Tech Censorship.”Topics include:What are we doing here?The myth surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptopDoes the FTC know how terms of service work?Does the FTC know how cartels work?Content moderation is pro-free speechJawboning on steroidsLinks:Copia Institute FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/y6r2b82f)TechFreedom FTC comments (https://tinyurl.com/mccbwa2h)Hello! You’ve Been Referred Here Because You’re Wrong About Twitter And Hunter Biden’s Laptop (https://tinyurl.com/685fjmk8)Moderating Eating Disorder Content Is Harder Than You Think (https://tinyurl.com/r37nvnjb)Why Is The Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media? (https://tinyurl.com/bdec2u9w)
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez speaks with TechFreedom President Berin Szóka at the 2025 TechFreedom / CEI Policy Forum: Constitutional Limits on FTC, FCC, and DOJ Interference in Media and Speech.Topics include:Nice broadcast license. Would be a pity if …Section 230 is good, actuallyAgency independence is good, actuallyHow do you litigate regulation-by-threat?Edge providers =/= common carriersJawboning versus jaw 👏 boning 👏Skidmore is for expertsLinks:Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 1Constitutional Limits of FTC, FCC and DOJ | Day 2
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