Last week, Twitter added a fact-check message to President Trump's tweets about voter fraud and vote by mail, and a notice that one of his tweets about recent protests violated Twitter’s policy against glorifying violence. In response to the fact-check, the president signed an executive order aimed at limiting the legal protections given to online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This episode explores Section 230—what does it say and how has it influenced speech online?—and the potential consequences of the executive order. It also takes a broader look at content regulation on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms, and how that squares with First Amendment values. Host Jeffrey Rosen was joined by digital speech experts professor Kate Klonick and David French.
FULL PODCAST
PARTICIPANTS
Kate Klonick is Assistant Professor of Law at St. John’s University School of Law and an affiliated fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project and at New America. Her teaching and writing focuses on law and technology, private internet platforms, and how they govern online speech. Dr. Klonick is also and the author of the Harvard Law Review article The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech.
David French is a senior editor at The Dispatch and a columnist for TIME. A constitutional lawyer, David most recently worked as a senior writer for National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and was previously president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). His next book, Divided We Fall, will be released in 2020.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
This episode was engineered by Greg Scheckler, David Stotz, and Kevin Kilbourne and produced by Jackie McDermott. Research was provided by Maggie Gillespie and Lana Ulrich.
Stay Connected and Learn More
Questions or comments about the show? Email us at [email protected].
