Yesterday, TechFreedom filed in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request for public comment on their proposed amendments to its Trade Regulation Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses. The rule would hold AI developers responsible for providing “means and instrumentalities” with “reason to know” that services could be used in unlawful impersonations of ordinary individuals. “Holding developers of AI systems liable for the impersonations created by users of their systems is barred by Section 230 unless courts find that the developers have materially contributed to th ..read more

Yesterday, TechFreedom filed in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment related to the Commission’s role in regulating the developing in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) industry. While no one questions the FCC’s authority over spectrum licensing, it lacks a mandate to regulate general, non-communication activities in space. Previous efforts by the Commission to bootstrap a general authority over non-communications activities have failed, suggesting this one will as well. “The FCC’s regulatory powers ..read more

Today, TechFreedom filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to vacate an FCC rule that attempts, by grasping at a few hundred words buried in the thousand-page Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to impose sweeping new regulations on the Internet. “The FCC took a simple task and made it needlessly complicated,” said Corbin K. Barthold, Director of Appellate Litigation at TechFreedom. “Congress instructed the agency to adopt rules against intentional discrimination that hinders access to broadband. Instead, the FCC wants to impose liability even when a d ..read more

Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to approve a rule to reinstate net neutrality regulations and to claim broad powers over broadband Internet access service (BIAS) by re-re-re-classifying it as a Title II common carrier service. TechFreedom filed both and reply comments explaining why the courts are likely to find Title II reclassification a “major question” that must be decided by Congress—and why only legislation can resolve the net neutrality debate. “The courts won’t allow the FCC to regulate broadband services like railroads without clear authorization from Congress ..read more

Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a rule banning most employers from using non-compete agreements. Last April, TechFreedom filed three separate comments on this proceeding. The first explained that the Commission lacks the authority to issue such a rule, or indeed any substantive rules governing Unfair Methods of Competition (UMC). The second comment described the negative effects of the proposed rule on intellectual property, and the third proposed a more limited rulemaking that would be consistent with the Commission’s actual authority.  “The FTC lacks UMC rulemaking au ..read more

Today, the FCC released a draft order that would reclassify broadband Internet access service (BIAS) as a Title II common carrier service. The Commission will vote on the Order at its April 25 meeting. “After fifteen years of insisting the sky will fall without FCC rules, the Commission has produced a draft order that is longer than Crime and Punishment—and just as gloomy,” said Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom. “Yet few of the order’s 800 paragraphs are about what really matters: will the Supreme Court ultimately uphold reclassification? Two legal issues have always loomed largest. First ..read more

Yesterday, three of TechFreedom’s policy experts delivered remarks at the FTC’s March Open Commission Meeting. Their oral remarks are presented here, lightly edited for clarity. Remarks of Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom: I’m Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom.  In 1914, one lawmaker promised that the FTC Act would take “business matters out of politics.” Yet the current Chair says “all [of the Commission’s] decisions are political.”   In 1935, the Supreme Court said the Commission “must . . . act with entire impartiality.” Yet the current chair has repeatedly ignored c ..read more

Yesterday, TechFreedom filed in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which proposes, among other things, to expand the test for defining which sites and services are “directed to children” under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In making that determination, the current COPPA Rule says the FTC will consider a range of characteristics of a site or service, all of which are chosen by its operator, as indications of whether the site “targets” children. The revised rule would include, for the first time, external comparisons to ..read more

Yesterday, TechFreedom filed in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) related to the issue of whether the FCC should create a new Office of Civil Rights (OCR) as part of the Commission’s digital discrimination proceeding. “Other agencies can point to extensive statutory bases for their operations,” said James Dunstan, TechFreedom General Counsel. “Those arguing for the establishment of an OCR within the FCC wish to imbue it with broad powers over future agency activities, pointing to similar OCRs in other federal agencies. While ..read more

Today, TechFreedom filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to affirm the district court’s decision blocking enforcement of California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code. The AADC is a complicated “child protection” law that in fact operates like a zoning regulation, building code, and safety manual for the Internet. TechFreedom’s brief challenges the law’s requirement that businesses either deploy age verification (which the law misleadingly calls “age estimation”) or child-proof their websites. “By eroding online anonymity, age verification chills free speech a ..read more