@Princeton prof and tech + law person. Previously at the Senate, @FCC, @Stanford & CalDOJ. Views are my own. Bluesky: https://xitter.cf/t.co/4rxYaLwKeY
Princeton, NJ and Washington, DC
Joined April 2009
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Since today is the blue check apocalypse, here’s a new research paper on Twitter’s paid account “verification.” What we learned:
1) Most people don’t understand what blue checks now mean.
2) Paid accounts are disproportionately crypto bros, Elon stans, new, and conservative.
What’s more, Twitter may be violating its 2022 consent order with the FTC. Twitter “must not misrepresent…the extent to which [it] maintains and protects the…integrity of Covered Information.” Covered Information includes names, and integrity presumably includes accuracy.
There are many more insights about social media account verification and Twitter Blue in the paper, which you can read at the link below. Credit for the project goes to stellar @PrincetonCITP researchers @madxiaodisease, @m0namon, and @anunaykul.
cs.princeton.edu/~jrmayer/pa…
Twitter’s new ban on discussing competitors, announced during the World Cup final, raises serious legal questions. First, does CDA 230 protect such a transparently anticompetitive policy? The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Enigma v. Malwarebytes suggests no. help.twitter.com/en/rules-an…
That’s just the U.S. law, of course. EU competition and tech regulators will not look kindly on this policy, and they have more expansive authorities. The upcoming Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act will provide even more tools, though query if Twitter will be covered.
Jonathan Mayer retweeted
🚨🚨 JOB ALERT: @PrincetonCITP is hiring postdocs. Come work on projects with me! 🚨🚨
Both @jonathanmayer and I are looking for candidates interested, broadly speaking, in information integrity, platform accountability, and polarization.
Apply here: puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHir…
Elon Musk just created the perfect fact pattern for consumer deception law and online content moderation.
Twitter’s policy: after five strikes for Covid misinformation, we *will* permanently ban an account.
Twitter’s practice: eh, let Marjorie Taylor Greene back on anyway.
Usually consumer deception law has no role in content moderation, because platform policies are too ambiguous & discretionary. But here, Twitter is departing from a specific & mandatory policy. Whatever you think of Musk, Greene, or the policy, it’s an interesting legal quandary.
Consumer deception law created a dilemma for Twitter. It could leave its Covid misinformation policy, risking liability. Or it could change the policy, mitigating liability but risking blowback from users and advertisers. Twitter chose the latter course. cnn.com/2022/11/29/tech/twit…
This is why reusable research infrastructure, like @MozillaRally, is so important for platform accountability. Facebook won’t say where it collects personal data online. @themarkup found out with just a couple hundred lines of code. (I counted.) xitter.cf/JuliaAngwin/status/151…
Turns out Facebook was vacuuming up student data that was being entered on online financial aid applications.
The latest @themarkup investigation by @suryamattu @colinlecher, enabled by the tools developed by @MozillaRally.
If you’re interested in dark patterns, the UK Competition and Markets Authority just released a pair of reports that are must-read. The voluminous literature review is particularly valuable. (Disclosure: I offered suggestions on a draft.) xitter.cf/CMAgovUK/status/151135…
🛒 When you last shopped online, did you feel pressured to buy?
We’re continuing to challenge tactics that harm shoppers or damage their trust and confidence in online markets.
#OnlineShopping #RipOffTipOff
ALT New research on: Online Choice Architecture
Facebook: Apple’s App Tracking Transparency is so effective that it’s costing us $10 billion in annual revenue.
Google: Apple’s App Tracking Transparency is so ineffective that we aren’t implementing it on Android.
More privacy gaslighting by Google. freedom-to-tinker.com/2019/0…
If FTC wanted to put Apple under a data privacy order, this could be an easy case. FTC has previously brought deception claims for broken opt outs. Apple is already fixing the bug, but FTC needs consent orders to make fines available in future enforcement. theverge.com/2022/2/8/229242…
Spotify has a serious conflict of interest with Joe Rogan and COVID-19 misinformation. It also has awful platform policies. Here’s a comparison…
Facebook and Twitter: you can’t make false claims about treatments
Spotify: you can’t encourage drinking bleach, everything else 🤷♂️
Facebook and Twitter: you can’t make false claims about COVID-19 vaccine safety or efficacy
Spotify: you can’t claim vaccines are “designed to cause death,” everything else 🤷♂️
This is not what a good-faith response to COVID-19 misinformation looks like.
newsroom.spotify.com/2022-01…
