News & Opinion

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Biden administration could continue to ask social media companies to remove posts that promoted falsehoods. In a surprise move, the court rejected the First Amendment claim that administration forced the companies to remove or moderate content. (The Washington Post, June 26, 2024, by Ann E. Marimow and Cat Zakzewski) The administration had asked platforms to take down posts on such topics as the coronavirus and election fraud.

A.W. Ohlheiserin in Vox, June 21, 2024, says online falsehoods still proliferate from the dangers of sunscreen to bogus cancer cures. He says it is tough to test the validity of his assessment since the platforms make it difficult for researchers to examine the record. Ohlheiseerin says it’s hard to see what platforms are doing to stop the falsehoods, “While these companies assess how much they care about moderating and addressing their platform’s capacity to

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange will not serve prison time in the U.S. if a federal judge approves a deal allowing him to plead guilty to espionage for publishing secret military records in 2010 and 2011. He will be given a 62-month sentence equal to time already served in London and allowed to proceed to Australia, his home country, if he so chooses. (CNN, June 2, 2024, by Evan Perez and Devan Cole) Seth Stern in the

TikTok claims in briefs filed in federal court that the US government did not thoroughly consider options proposed by the platform to deal with national security concerns. TikTok argued that the courts must apply “strict scrutiny” in such free speech cases. TikTok said that Congress failed to provide findings to back its conclusions that TikTok should be shut down. (The Verge, June 20, 2024, by Lauren Feiner) For related FAC coverage, click here, here and