The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has just released my new white paper, “The Perils of Classifying Social Media Platforms as Public Utilities.” [PDF] I first presented a draft of this paper last November at a Michigan State University conference on “The Governance of Social Media.” [Video of my panel here.] In this paper, [...]
Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) have released a discussion draft of their forthcoming “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011.” I’ve only had a chance to give it a quick read, but the bill, which is intended to help safeguard kids’ privacy online, has two major regulatory provisions of interest: (1) New [...]
As part of what Politico’s Tony Romm calls this week’s “all-out online privacy blitzkrieg,” Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) announced he would be proposing legislation aimed at better protecting kids from the supposed evils of online “tracking” and marketing. Apparently, Rep. Markey’s effort will build on the “Do Not Track” proposal that is garnering so much [...]
Joe Tighe, an IT Infrastructure Consultant, has an interesting essay up over at Circle ID. He takes a hard look at Rep. Ed Markey’s proposed “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009″ and makes an argument that many of us here have made ad nauseum — regulation involves trade-offs and unintended consequences: One of the main [...]
Well, I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record on this point, but it never ceases to amaze me how some policymakers get away with speaking so poorly of parents during policy debates about media content. First, you will recall that, in late April, the Federal Communications Commission released a report calling for [...]