Tech Policy Podcast

Host Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) deconstructs Justice Barrett’s surprisingly influential concurrence in Moody v. NetChoice. Or: Why the First Amendment protects algorithms and AI. 

Links:

Moody v. NetChoice

The Post-human First Amendment

Tech Policy Podcast 286: How Algorithms Can Fight Extremism

Tech Policy Podcast 414: Beware the Butlerian Jihad

A landmark bellwether trial in Los Angeles is testing whether Instagram and YouTube can be blamed for teen addiction and mental health problems. Clay Calvert (American Enterprise Institute) and Corbin Barthold (TechFreedom) review the many problems with letting plaintiffs’ lawyers demagogue social media platforms in front of a jury.

Links:

Social Media Addiction Lawsuits: The Deceptively Flawed Tobacco Analogy

Tech Policy Podcast 347: When Schools Scapegoat Social Media

Brent Orrell (American Enterprise Institute) discusses the future of work in a world of genius machines.

Links:

De-Skilling the Knowledge Economy 

What Anthropic’s Internal Study Suggests About the Future of Work

Did the Canaries Just Die?

AI and the Future of Work Looks Bright

Thom Lambert (Mizzou Law) discusses the Trump II administration’s new right antitrust regulators. Stay calm everyone, they just want the discretion to reward friends and punish enemies.

Links:

‘New Right’ Antitrust

New Right vs. Conservative Antitrust

The Limits of Antitrust

Scott Babwah Brennan is the director of NYU’s Center on Technology Policy. Scott and his team have just released their 2025 State Technology Policy Report—a thorough and thoughtful survey and analysis of the tech legislation coming out of statehouses across the country. Scott joins the show to discuss the report and break down how states are shaping the regulatory landscape on AI, child online safety, data privacy, and more.

Links:

The Center on Technology Policy: State Technology Policy Report 2025

Host Corbin Barthold offers some end-of-year reflections on the moral panic over kids’ use of social media and AI. Then we revisit Episode 405 (“No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been ‘Solved’,” Apr. 30, 2025), in which Prof. Eric Goldman discusses his paper “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online.”

Links:

This Country Banned Social Media for Young Teens. Here’s how They’re Defying It.

Australia’s Social Media Ban Goes Into Effect as Pretty Much Everyone Realizes It’s a Total Mess

The “Segregate-and-Suppress” Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online

Tech Policy Podcast 417: Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton Is Wreaking Havoc

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 ruling
• Maybe 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 hire
• Political opponents = terror groups?!
• Brendan Carr is a lap dog
• Jawboning rebrand: it’s “outreach”!
• Terrorizing foreign students is bad

Links:

What if the Big Law Firms Hadn’t Caved to Trump?

The Global Free Speech Recession

Tech Policy Podcast 394: Tech and Trump 2.0