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Old 17-12-21, 07:25 AM   #1
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Default Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - December 18th, ’21

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December 18th, 2021




The Security Flaw that’s Freaked Out the Internet
Frank Bajak

Security pros say it’s one of the worst computer vulnerabilities they’ve ever seen. Firms including Microsoft say state-backed Chinese and Iranian hackers and rogue cryptocurrency miners have already seized on it.

The Department of Homeland Security has sounded a dire alarm, ordering federal agencies to urgently find and patch bug instances because it’s so easily exploitable — and telling those with public-facing networks to put up firewalls if they can’t be sure. A small piece of code, the affected software often undocumented.

Lodged in an extensively used utility called Log4j, the flaw lets internet-based attackers easily seize control of everything from industrial control systems to web servers and consumer electronics. Simply identifying which systems use the utility is a challenge; it is often hidden under layers of other software.

The top U.S. cybersecurity defense official, Jen Easterly, deemed the flaw “one of the most serious I’ve seen in my entire career, if not the most serious” in a call Monday with state and local officials and partners in the private sector. Publicly disclosed last Thursday, it’s catnip for cybercriminals and digital spies because it allows easy, password-free entry.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which Easterly runs, stood up a resource page Tuesday to deal with the flaw it says is present in hundreds of millions of devices. Other heavily computerized countries were taking it just as seriously, with Germany activating its national IT crisis center.

A wide swath of critical industries, including electric power, water, food and beverage, manufacturing and transportation, were exposed, said Dragos, a top cybersecurity firm. “I think we won’t see a single major software vendor in the world -- at least on the industrial side -- not have a problem with this,” said Sergio Caltagirone, the company’s vice president of threat intelligence.

Eric Goldstein, who heads CISA’s cybersecurity division, said no federal agencies were known to have been compromised. But these are early days.

“What we have here is a extremely widespread, easy to exploit and potentially highly damaging vulnerability that certainly could be utilized by adversaries to cause real harm,” he said.

A SMALL PIECE OF CODE, A WORLD OF TROUBLE

The affected software, written in the Java programming language, logs user activity. Developed and maintained by a handful of volunteers under the auspices of the open-source Apache Software Foundation, it is highly popular with commercial software developers. It runs across many platforms — Windows, Linux, Apple’s macOS — powering everything from web cams to car navigation systems and medical devices, according to the security firm Bitdefender.

Goldstein told reporters in a Tuesday evening call that CISA would be updating an inventory of patched software as fixes become available. “We expect remediation will take some time,” he said.

Apache Software Foundation said the Chinese tech giant Alibaba notified it of the flaw on Nov. 24. It took two weeks to develop and release a fix.

Beyond patching, computer security pros have an even more daunting challenge: trying to detect whether the vulnerability was exploited — whether a network or device was hacked. That will mean weeks of active monitoring. A frantic weekend of trying to identify — and slam shut — open doors before hackers exploited them now shifts to a marathon.

LULL BEFORE THE STORM

“A lot of people are already pretty stressed out and pretty tired from working through the weekend — when we are really going to be dealing with this for the foreseeable future, pretty well into 2022,” said Joe Slowik, threat intelligence lead at the network security firm Gigamon.

The cybersecurity firm Check Point said Tuesday it detected more than half a million attempts by known malicious actors to identify the flaw on corporate networks across the globe. It said the flaw was exploited to install cryptocurrency mining malware — which uses computing cycles to mine digital money surreptitiously — in five countries.

As yet, no successful ransomware infections leveraging the flaw have been detected, though Microsoft said in a blog post that criminals who break into networks and sell access to ransomware gangs had been detected exploiting the vulnerability in both Windows and Linux systems. It said criminals were also rapidly incorporating the vulnerability into botnets that corral multiple zombie computers for larcenous ends.

“I think what’s going to happen is it’s going to take two weeks before the effect of this is seen because hackers got into organizations and will be figuring out what to do to next.” John Graham-Cumming, chief technical officer of Cloudflare, whose online infrastructure protects websites from online threats.

Senior researcher Sean Gallagher of the cybersecurity firm Sophos said we’re in the lull before the storm.

“We expect adversaries are likely grabbing as much access to whatever they can get right now with the view to monetize and/or capitalize on it later on.” That would include extracting usernames and passwords.

State-backed Chinese and Iranian state hackers were already leveraging the vulnerability for espionage, said Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm Mandiant. Microsoft said North Korean and Turkish state-backed hackers were, too. John Hultquist, a top Mandiant analyst wouldn’t name targets but said the Iranian actors are “particularly aggressive” and had taken part in ransomware attacks against Israel primarily for disruptive ends.

Microsoft said the same Chinese cyberspy group that exploited a flaw in its on-premises Exchange Server software in early 2021 were using Log4j to “extend their typical targeting.”

SOFTWARE: INSECURE BY DESIGN?

The Log4j episode exposes a poorly addressed issue in software design, experts say. Too many programs used in critical functions have not been developed with enough thought to security.

Open-source developers like the volunteers responsible for Log4j should not be blamed so much as an entire industry of programmers who often blindly include snippets of such code without doing due diligence, said Slowik of Gigamon.

Popular and custom-made applications often lack a “Software Bill of Materials” that lets users know what’s under the hood — a crucial need at times like this.

“This is becoming obviously more and more of a problem as software vendors overall are utilizing openly available software,” said Caltagirone of Dragos.

In industrial systems particularly, he added, formerly analog systems in everything from water utilities to food production have in the past few decades been upgraded digitally for automated and remote management. “And one of the ways they did that, obviously, was through software and through the use of programs which utilized Log4j,” Caltagirone said.
https://apnews.com/article/technolog...0acce331b2db64





Why there’s Confusion Over Sharing your Music

Do you ever stumble over the task of sharing your music? Well you are not alone…
Bobby Owsinski

When it comes to sharing your music, there’s often a dilemma about exactly what to send – file or stream? Obviously consumers want streams as do many music professionals, but there are also exceptions as well. When it comes to collaboration, mix or master checking, promotion, and radio, to name a few, then files are often preferred. But there’s always the question of “What should I send?” and that’s what a new study commissioned by sharing platform Byta attempted to find out with its “State Of Music Sharing” whitepaper.

The document was authored by Barcelona-based freelance writer and editor Shawn Reynaldo, who is also responsible for First Floor, a newsletter devoted to electronic music. The project was developed in partnership with researcher Dr. John Sullivan(Ph.D. Music Technology, McGill University, Canada), and it revealed some interesting results, such as:

• Loyalty to a single file-sharing platform is impossible, particularly when most users are both sending and receiving files on a regular basis. User behavior is highly personalized and context driven. In the absence of standard practices, users are piecing together workflows that fit their specific preferences, using a combination of platforms with the exact functionalities they need.
• Flexibility is important, but functionality is an even bigger priority. Faced with a complex and ever-changing file-sharing landscape, simplicity is what users crave most.
• Users want what they want. When it comes to file sharing, the most logical course of action would be to make as many formats available as possible for recipients.
• In the streaming vs. downloads debate, there is no correct answer. Although preferences may be shifting, entrenched camps specifically need either streams or downloads.
• Paid file-sharing services shouldn’t be seen as a niche corner of the market.
• Security and metadata rank high on the list of user priorities. Frustrations regarding metadata tend to rile up more emotional responses than nearly every other issue.

The bottom line is that there’s no one service, format or situation that is normal or preferred, so this survey just confirms the confusion. It’s well written though, and an easy read so well-worth checking out if you’re the least bit affected by this question. You can download the whitepaper here.
https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2021...our-music.html





The Copyright Industry Wants Everything Filtered as it is Uploaded; Here’s Why that Will be a Disaster
Glyn Moody

The history of copyright can be seen as one of increasing control by companies over what ordinary people can do with material created by others. For the online world, the endgame is where copyright holders get to check and approve every single file that is uploaded, with the power to block anything they regard as infringing. That digital dystopia moved much closer two years ago, with the passage of the EU Copyright Directive. At the heart of the Directive lies precisely these kind of upload filters – even though the legislation’s supporters insisted that they would not be needed. When the law was safely passed – despite voting issues – only then did they admit that upload filters would indeed be required.

The parts of the EU Copyright Directive dealing with upload filters are so badly crafted that most of the EU’s Member States are struggling to implement them in their national laws in any coherent way. This means the full impact of the legislation’s upload filters won’t be known for some time.

Until then, we can look at the real-life effects of a similar approach, as used by YouTube. Content ID is a digital fingerprinting system developed by Google at great cost – around $100 million by 2018 – which is designed to spot and block allegedly infringing material on YouTube. Content ID’s flaws are well known, particularly in terms of overblocking perfectly legal uploads. This is the fundamental problem with all upload filters: there is no way that an automated, algorithmic system can encompass the complexities of global copyright laws, which even trained lawyers struggle with. The problem of overblocking is widely known on an anecdotal basis, but we have not had reliable data about the scale of the problem. That has finally changed with the release of YouTube’s first Copyright Transparency Report. The Kluwer Copyright Blog has a good analysis and summary of the report by Paul Keller, Director of Policy at openfuture.eu:

The overall take-away is that automated content removal is a big numbers game. In total YouTube processed 729.3 million copyright actions in the first half of 2021 of which the vast majority (99%) were processed via Content ID (as opposed to other tools, such as Copyright Match Tool and the Webform). And while YouTube claims that ContentID is much more accurate and less prone to abuse than its other systems ContentID has still received 3.7 million disputes from uploaders claiming that the actions (these can be blocks/removals but also demonetisation actions) taken against them are unjustified. 60% of these disputes have ultimately been decided in favour of the uploaders, which means that in the first half of 2021 Content ID has generated at least a 2.2 million unjustified copyright actions against its users on behalf of rightholders. In other words, over-enforcement (both unjustified blocking and unjustified demonetisation) is a very real issue that affects the rights of a substantial number of uploaders on a regular basis.

As Keller rightly notes in his post, the real number of unjustified copyright actions is likely to be larger than 2.2 million. When blocked by the Content ID system, many people will just give up, rather than instituting a formal dispute of the block. Unlike copyright companies’ well-paid lawyers, ordinary people do not have the time, money or expertise to engage in this kind of legal battle.

The figure for YouTube overblocking is bad enough. The situation once the EU Copyright Directive’s upload filters come into operation across the continent will be far worse, for a number of reasons that were widely explored by experts before the law was passed, but almost completely ignored by the EU politicians. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of the imminent upload filters is that they must apply to every kind of copyright material. YouTube only deals with music and video, and even then has enough problems with overblocking, as the new report indicates. The upload filters required by the new EU law will apply to text, images, photos, maps, music scores, ballet scores, software and 3D models amongst other things. There are currently no systems comparable to Content ID for these domains, nor are there likely to be for a long time, if ever, given the huge cost involved in developing them.

Despite this glaring omission, EU Member States are required to bring in new copyright laws, which will inevitably come with upload filter rules. This seems like a huge disaster waiting to happen – all thanks to the selfish desire of copyright companies to control down to the last byte what ordinary people do online.
https://walledculture.org/the-copyri...be-a-disaster/





AAPA Announces 2021 Anti-Piracy Awards
Colin Mann

The Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) has announced the 2021 awards given to an individual or team from the public sector for a successful initiative which supports the fight against audiovisual piracy.

The winner of the 2021 award is the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) – European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, and more specifically the Enforcement and SME Service team, led by Blanca Arteche, for its campaign and efforts supporting the reinstating of IP Crime in the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT).

The Observatory team at the EUIPO embarked on an awareness-raising programme to win support and join efforts with the European Commission (DG HOME) and Member States (MSs) to have IP crime re-instated in EMPACT following its omission from the 2018-2021 cycle. The AAPA award for 2021 is given specifically to the Enforcement and SME Service team who also supported the awareness work undertaken by a coalition of private sector stakeholders. Had the campaign been unsuccessful IP crime would have remained in the law enforcement wilderness until 2025 at least.

“The challenge faced by the Observatory team from the EUIPO should not be understated,” asserted Sheila Cassells, Executive Vice President of AAPA. “Initially only a few MSs were willing to contemplate re-instating IP crime. The private sector coalition, of which AAPA was part, benefitted greatly from the advice and insight offered by Blanca and her team, reinforcing the value of the network which the Observatory represents. After the various stages were completed in May 2021 MSs agreed the priorities with IP Crime being included as a segment in the Fraud, Financial and Economic Crimes priority. This is a very successful outcome as it means there is money and other resources to take on operations, provide training, etc. to tackle audiovisual piracy – and countries recognise the importance of doing so. AAPA looks forward to supporting MSs and Europol in the implementation of the Operational Action Plans.”

AAPA also presented special recognition awards to Primo Dirigente Marcello La Bella and Sostituto Commissario della Polizia di Stato Davide Salvatore Centonze, Compartimento della Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni per la Sicilia Orientale for their work on Operation Black Out. Supported by Primo Dirigente Gabrielli Ivano and Ispettore Vito Cuscianna from the Servizio Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni the operation led to the closure of a major IPTV network responsible for around 80 per cent of illegal IPTV supply in Italy. Operation Black Out was carried out by 200 specialists in 11 regions following an investigation into sellers on Telegram and other social networks. The network is believed to have generated around €15 million in revenue every month.

“We are delighted to recognise the commitment and success of the Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni in blocking access to such a major illegal IPTV network,” declared Mark Mulready, Co-President of AAPA and Vice President Cyber Services at Irdeto. “The number of specialists and regions involved demonstrates the organisational and technical complexities involved in fighting such illicit activities which are increasingly accessible through social media networks. Activities such as Operation Black Out sends a clear message that piracy will not be tolerated.”
https://advanced-television.com/2021...piracy-awards/





Problems with Large File Sharing from China

When you run an international business, the speed and efficiency of information sharing is a critical component within that organisation. Sharing information and even large files between many countries is not a problem, but one country that does sometimes present challenges is China. Sending large files from China can be tricky for a number of reasons.

Slow Data Rates Make Transfers Painful

Remember those days when you “dialled up” the Internet and it would take hours to download a single song, or days to download a movie? Sometimes transferring large packets of data from China even in the Internet age can feel just like that. Senders and receivers are constantly frustrated by slow data rates — they’ve been seen as low as 2.9 mbps in the last decade — sometimes created by lack of fast Internet infrastructure in China itself, but more commonly slowed down by various security measures connected to the so-called Great Firewall of China, which is known as “Operation Golden Shield” within China.

During times of political sensitivity, your contacts in China should be able to confirm that Internet speeds and access becomes even more limited, with bandwidths slowed in order to control the flow of information in and out of the country. On top of that, heavy restrictions on sharing files to overseas IP addresses makes things even slower and harder.

Restricted Access to Possible Solutions

If you’re an Australian company dealing with the US, South Korea or EU countries, then you can find common solutions that work across the board, which you subsequently come to rely on. Things like Dropbox, for instance, as well as Google cloud services and Microsoft OneDrive, are all very useful free and easy solutions to these kinds of file sharing issues. The problem in China? None of these services are allowed!

Google was blocked in China starting in 2010, though the company maintains a limited presence there to provide certain permitted services like a Chinese version of Google Maps. Dropbox was banned from 2010 to 2014 before briefly reappearing and then disappearing again from June 2014 to the present day. The same story is true for many common sites, apps and services that companies in Australia and many other countries just take for granted.

The result is a limited pool of solutions. Baidu Wangpan has been held up by China as a viable alternative, but the main snag is that it’s all in Chinese. What’s more, it’s still subject to the same questions of security and restriction as you’d expect, and some companies are not comfortable with using Chinese software on their computers in Australia, even if they get around the language barrier.

China Digital Dilemma

It’s easy to see the dilemma that companies are facing. China is now the major economic and business player in Asia, and indeed in the whole world. Dealing with China is essential for the development strategies of many companies. They therefore have to find workable solutions. It’s easy to dismiss these “silly” restrictions as foolish and just want to forget the whole thing, but that’s not an option for many enterprises who have already invested money, time, energy and personnel in the China market.

The solutions aren’t easy, but they do exist. The main challenge is finding a reliable, stable platform that is unlikely to become another victim of Golden Shield, or is unable to be targeted by that system. Keeping people on one platform for a long time is the best solution as it means less need for training up personnel to use a whole other platform if and when it gets “harmonized” by the Great Firewall.
https://signalscv.com/2021/11/proble...ng-from-china/





Comcast will Keep Data Caps Out of the Northeast in 2022
Jeff Baumgartner

Comcast confirmed that it won't activate data caps and usage-based broadband policies in its Northeast division in 2022, effectively extending an earlier delay to keep the policy out of the region through the end of 2021. There's still no telling whether Comcast will revisit the plan for 2023 and beyond.

"We don't have plans to implement our data usage plan in our Northeast markets in 2022 at this time," a Comcast official told Light Reading.

The statement follows an assertion from Massachusetts Rep. Andy X. Vargas (D-Haverhill) that he had received word that Comcast had abandoned its plan to reintroduce its data policy in the region.

"The latest we have is that they have no intention of reintroducing the data caps at all, which is a huge win," Vargas told WHAV, a Haverhill-based station.

Vargas also trumpeted on Twitter than he is "[t]hrilled about this outcome," and that Comcast "now has no plans to reintroduce" the policy.

Thrilled about this outcome– data caps were set to be reintroduced in 2022, but Comcast now has no plans to reintroduce them. Thanks to all who wrote and advocated with us! Ensuring fair competition and consumer choice is next. #datacaps #digitalequityhttps://t.co/NgklQX9Z0J
— Andy X. Vargas (@RepAndyVargas) December 15, 2021

Word of Comcast's latest decision follows one made in February 2021 to delay the implementation of data usage and capping policies in its Northeast division until 2022.

Comcast had activated usage-based policies in its Northeast division (which includes parts of 13 states and Washington, D.C., and areas where the cable op competes with the cap-free Verizon Fios service) in early 2021. But Comcast put the policy back on ice there after catching heat from lawmakers about introducing the policy during a pandemic that had forced people to work and school from home and vastly increase their broadband data consumption.

Comcast's data usage policies are still active in its Central and West divisions. Comcast restored and updated its data usage policies in July 2020, raising the monthly limit to 1.2 terabytes – 200 gigabytes more than the 1TB limit that was in place prior to the original COVID-19 outbreak.

Under the current plan, residential broadband customers who exceed 1.2TB of data per month are charged $10 for each additional bucket of 50GB, up to a maximum of $100 per month (Comcast's maximum data overage charge prior to the pandemic was $200). Comcast also sells a standalone unlimited data option that costs an additional $30 per month.

Charter Communications is prohibited from implementing data caps until May 18, 2023, per a condition of its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.
https://www.lightreading.com/cable-t.../d/d-id/774117





Vermont Broadband Group to Have 2k Miles of Fiber for 2022
Wilson Ring

A group working to expand broadband internet services across rural Vermont says there will be at least 2,000 miles (over 3,200 kilometers) of fiber optic cable ready for installation during the 2022 construction season.

Christine Hallquist, executive director the Vermont Community Broadband Board, announced Monday that three groups were working together to provide 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of cable.

NEK Broadband, the state’s largest communication union district, has arranged to buy another 1,000 miles of cable, she said. Vermont communications union districts are organizations of two or more towns that join together as a municipal entity to build communication infrastructure.

The need to improve broadband internet services was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, when people across Vermont and the country were forced to work or get schooling from home using inadequate internet connections. The push to expand broadband internet services across Vermont and the country has been given a big boost by federal COVID-19 relief funding.

“I’ve been working on this for two decades,” said Hallquist, a former electric utility executive and 2018 gubernatorial candidate. “It’s the first time we’ve seen light at the end of the tunnel.”

Hallquist estimates Vermont needs a little over 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) of fiber to connect everyone in the state, at a total cost of about $510 million. There is currently about $250 million in federal money available. She hopes they’ll be able to bring the cost down to where the existing funds will be able to complete the project.

Officials say demand for fiber optic cable across the country has resulted in long wait times for delivery, in some instances as long as 52 weeks.

Six of Vermont’s nine communications districts will receive enough fiber to complete current construction plans for 2022 and in some cases the supply may hold until the 2023 construction season.

The nearly $7 million combined purchase would not have been possible without the support of funding partners Vermont State Employees Credit Union and the Vermont Community Foundation.

The Vermont Community Broadband Board was created by the Vermont Legislature earlier this year to accelerate the development and implementation of universal community broadband solutions.

The board has issued $21 million in preconstruction grants. Early next year, it will issue up to $116 million in construction grants to communications union districts and other eligible providers to expand broadband access.

Official state estimates say there are about 62,000 Vermonters who don’t have internet that meets minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps, but Hallquist said she estimates the number is closer to 100,000.

She hopes that in 2022 about 20,000 of those homes across Vermont can be hooked up.

Homes that will be connected under the new program must get 100 Mbps up and down, Hallquist said.
https://apnews.com/article/technolog...6e4b6fcedc15d1





Movie Theaters are Breaking Records Thanks to Spider-Man, Even as Omicron Spreads

Is it too early to call it a victory?
Catie Keck

Spider-Man: No Way Home eclipsed previous box office records on its first night at some of the biggest theater chains in the nation. That’s big news for theaters whose continued existence seemed under threat at the start of the pandemic, and it suggests moviegoers’ interest hasn’t yet changed dramatically in response to the latest COVID variant.

AMC announced Friday that roughly 1.1 million moviegoers attended the opening night of Spider-Man: No Way Home, making it the highest-grossing opening night for a December title in AMC’s history. Cinemark called the film’s debut its “best opening night of all time.” And Regal said the film became its second-highest Thursday box office title in its history and shattered records for IMAX, 4DX, ScreenX, and RPX formats.

“The anticipation for Spider-Man: No Way Home has completely exceeded our expectations,” Mooky Greidinger, CEO of Regal parent Cineworld, said in a statement. “We are just as excited as our moviegoers to see our favorite webslinger back on the big screen at Regal and we would like to thank our friends at Sony for delivering another amazing tentpole.”

Justin McDaniel, Cinemark SVP of global content, said that the number of moviegoers who flocked to the premiere “underscores the irreplaceable value of the in-theatre experience, which we are thrilled to continue to offer in collaboration with our studio partners.”

While the film is expected to perform well heading into the weekend, it’s unclear what effect the omicron variant will have on Spider-Man’s performance going forward. Much is still unknown about the variant, such as whether omicron causes more severe illness or death than the original virus and the Delta variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, breakthrough cases in those who are vaccinated are expected to happen, the agency said, examples of which we’ve already seen reported.

Also unclear is how theaters plan to navigate the omicron variant’s spread. None of the major US distributors returned The Verge’s requests for comment on Thursday about moviegoer safety protocols and whether exhibition delays and closures could be imminent.

Given the unknowns, it’s a bit early for theaters to be taking another pandemic victory lap — shattered records or otherwise.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/17/...regal-cinemark





Victory! Federal Court Blocks Texas’ Unconstitutional Social Media Law
Mukund Rathi

On December 1, hours before Texas’ social media law, HB 20, was slated to go into effect, a federal court in Texas blocked it for violating the First Amendment. Like a similar law in Florida, which was blocked and is now pending before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas law will go to the Fifth Circuit. These laws are retaliatory, obviously unconstitutional, and EFF will continue advocating that courts stop them.

In October, EFF filed an amicus brief against HB 20 in Netchoice v. Paxton, a challenge to the law brought by two associations of tech companies. HB 20 prohibits large social media platforms from removing or moderating content based on the viewpoint of the user. We argued, and the federal court agreed, that the government cannot regulate the editorial decisions made by online platforms about what content they host. As the judge wrote, platforms’ right under the First Amendment to moderate content “has repeatedly been recognized by courts.” Social media platforms are not “common carriers” that transmit speech without curation.

Moreover, Texas explicitly passed HB 20 to stop social media companies’ purported discrimination against conservative users. The court explained that this “announced purpose of balancing the discussion” is precisely the kind of government manipulation of public discourse that the First Amendment forbids. As EFF’s brief explained, the government can’t retaliate against disfavored speakers and promote favored ones. Moreover, HB 20 would destroy or prevent the emergence of even large conservative platforms, as they would have to accept user speech from across the political spectrum.

HB 20 also imposed transparency requirements and user complaint procedures on large platforms. While these kinds of government mandates might be appropriate when carefully crafted—and separated from editorial restrictions or government retaliation—they are not here. The court noted that companies like YouTube and Facebook remove millions of pieces of user content a month. It further noted Facebook’s declaration in the case that it would be “impossible” to establish a system by December 1 compliant with the bill’s requirements for that many removals. Platforms would simply stop removing content to avoid violating HB 20 - an impermissible chill of First Amendment rights.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/1...cial-media-law

















Until next week,

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