The Search to Find a Legal Remedy for Regulating Censorship on Social Media
Kristen Cuetos The rise of Big Tech has led to concern over social media companies’ power in regulating user content. Social media users are claiming, more frequently now than ever, that their posts, ideas, and views are being censored by social media platforms. Contrarily, other users are arguing that platforms aren’t doing enough to moderate and curb harmful or offensive speech online. Many have filed lawsuits against social media companies for infringing on users’ First Amendment freedom of speech. These lawsuits fail because of the legal barriers that protect social media companies from such liability. As a result, controversy has...
Can the U.S. Government Sanction TikTok Like It Is Iran’s Nuclear Program?
Joe Swain This Essay addresses the legality of the Trump administration’s TikTok app store ban. The ban restricted individual or corporate transactions with TikTok in the United States, effectively banning its continued use in the country by restricting its access to revenue. This Essay analyzes the application of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to the Trump administration’s actions and explores the resulting case which was decided by the D.C. Circuit. Although the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the IEEPA is restricted from applying to the Chinese platform, it incorrectly interpreted the meaning...
A Constitutional Right to Deceive?: The First Amendment Implications of Regulating Pay per Click
Peter T. Tschanz Despite Paid Placement’s utility from a marketing perspective, the practice has been sharply criticized. Some authors argue that a search engine’s failure to clearly segregate Sponsored Results leads many users to believe they are delivered based on relevancy alone. These authors argue that this misconception can only be corrected by incorporating uniform regulations for presenting Sponsored Results. Although these regulations are well-intentioned, requiring a normative framework for arranging Sponsored Results may come at a price. The right to freedom of speech necessarily includes the right not to speak. Imposing a regulatory framework for presenting Sponsored Results would...
An Analysis of the Video Game Regulation Harmonization Effort in the European Union and Its Trans-Atlantic Chilling Effect on Constitutionally Protected Expression
Kyle Robertson Video games have become a prominent pastime for both children and adults in the United States (U.S.) and across the European Union (EU). Today, individuals are spending more time and money on electronic entertainment than ever before. In addition to similar video game consumption habits, violent, pre-meditated murders by video game players have stunned both the United States and Germany. As a result, legislators in both countries have taken action in attempts to restrict minors’ access to violent video games. The results have widely differed between the two countries, with the United States electing to treat video games...