We’re excited to announce a new virtual series titled “Tech in the Courts,” presented collaboratively by TechFreedom and Washington Legal Foundation! This series will feature several webinars that address key topics at the nexus of technology and law. Additional dates to follow.
The webinar series starts Thursday, August 29, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. ET with a discussion titled: From Railroads to the Internet: Legal Limits on Common Carriage.
Common carriage regulation gives the government broad discretion over private businesses. Some want to apply the concept to broadband access and social media, while longstanding common carriers, e.g., railroads, face expanding duties. Our panelists will discuss common carriage, the legal limits on its application, including the First Amendment, and when common carriage really benefits the public. Those panelists include:
- Roger Nober, Director of the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University
- Blake Reid, Clinical Professor; Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic (TLPC) at the University of Colorado Law School
- Ben Sperry, Senior Scholar of Innovation Policy at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE)
- Berin Szóka, President and founder of TechFreedom
For more details and to register, visit www.techfreedom.org/techseries.
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Find the event registration on our website, and share it on Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We can be reached for comment at media@techfreedom.org. Read our related work, including:
- Our amicus brief urging an Ohio state trial court to hold that Google’s search engine is not a common carrier (Jan. 26, 2024)
- Common Carrier Rules, the Tech Stack, and You, Tech Policy Podcast #362 (Dec. 11, 2023)
- Our amicus brief urging SCOTUS to hold that Texas’s and Florida’s social media speech codes violate the First Amendment (Dec. 7, 2023)
- In Internet Speech Cases, SCOTUS Should Stick Up For Reno v. ACLU, Techdirt (Mar. 28, 2023)
- Florida and Texas’ ‘Free Speech’ Social Media Laws Would Require Sites to Host Mass Shooting Videos, Daily Beast (May 26, 2022)
- Social Media and Common Carriage: Lessons From the Litigation Over Florida’s SB 7072, WLF Legal Backgrounder (Sep. 24, 2021)
- Why Is the Republican Party Obsessed With Social Media?, Techdirt (Aug. 17, 2021)
- Can Social Media Be Regulated Like Common Carriage?, Tech Policy Podcast #295 (July 11, 2021)
- Trading Big Tech For Big Government Will Backfire For Conservatives, Daily Caller (June 2, 2021)
- Justice Thomas’s Misguided Concurrence on Platform Regulation, Lawfare (Apr. 14, 2021)
- No, Florida Can’t Regulate Online Speech, Lawfare (Mar. 12, 2021)
About TechFreedom:
TechFreedom is a nonprofit, nonpartisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.