Olivier Sylvain
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oliviersylvain.bsky.social
Olivier Sylvain
@oliviersylvain.bsky.social
Professor, Fordham Law School; Sr. Policy Research Fellow, Knight First Amendment Institute.
https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/reclaiming-the-internet
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1084259
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
EPIC collaborated w/ @commonsensemedia.bsky.social, Cybersecurity for Democracy (@yaeleisenstat.bsky.social @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social) & Tech Justice Law Project on a brief telling the Ninth Circuit to deny Meta Section 230 protections for its allegedly addictive design. 11 legal scholars joined!
epic.org EPIC @epic.org · Jul 2
EPIC led a coalition of legal scholars including @commonsensemedia.bsky.social, Cybersecurity for Democracy, and Tech Justice Law Project to file a Ninth Circuit amicus brief arguing against Meta’s use of Section 230 to shield itself from lawsuits. 🧵 #Meta #SocialMedia #Section230
EPIC Leads Coalition of Tech Accountability Groups, Legal Scholars in Telling Ninth Circuit to Deny Meta Section 230 Protections for Alleged Addictive Design
epic.org
July 2, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
EPIC led a coalition of legal scholars including @commonsensemedia.bsky.social, Cybersecurity for Democracy, and Tech Justice Law Project to file a Ninth Circuit amicus brief arguing against Meta’s use of Section 230 to shield itself from lawsuits. 🧵 #Meta #SocialMedia #Section230
EPIC Leads Coalition of Tech Accountability Groups, Legal Scholars in Telling Ninth Circuit to Deny Meta Section 230 Protections for Alleged Addictive Design
epic.org
July 2, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
I bring you a tiny bit of good news — courts are finally reining in Big Tech in significant ways.

We could actually be on the cusp of a totally transformed tech landscape - after 30 years of total lack of constraints.

My latest for @nytopinion.nytimes.com (gift link)
Opinion | Big Tech Is Finally Losing
www.nytimes.com
June 12, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
I'm thrilled that we're hosting such a great group of thinkers to talk about one of the defining issues of our day.
Just over one week until @fordhamlawnyc.bsky.social hosts the TALI conference! Join us for the public panel to hear @qjurecic.bsky.social moderate a discussion on Democratic Backsliding and the Role of Technology with @josephcox.bsky.social @orlylobel.bsky.social @jtlg.bsky.social & Aziz Huq.
April 23, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
US states have stepped up to regulate consumer-facing online services where the federal government has been utterly silent, writes Olivier Sylvain (@oliviersylvain.bsky.social). The laws can be lumped into three categories: content moderation, data protection, and child online safety laws.
US States in the Vanguard: Social Media Policy Today | TechPolicy.Press
The states have stepped up to regulate consumer-facing online services where the federal government has been utterly silent, writes Olivier Sylvain.
www.techpolicy.press
April 15, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
Prof. @oliviersylvain.bsky.social explains how state laws on content moderation, data protection, & child online safety have proliferated.

But while states step up to regulate social media where the federal government has been silent, big tech is not sitting idly by.
States in the Vanguard: Social Media Policy Today
The states have stepped up to regulate consumer-facing online services where the federal government has been utterly silent. But the tech companies are not sitting idly by.
www.justsecurity.org
April 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Today's post by brave Columbia public law scholars/friends shows how unhinged the admin's 3/13 Title VI demand letter is. This is how Columbia & others can/should fight back. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti.... I am proud to know these folks. Onward.
March 15, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
Some of my Columbia Law School colleagues and I offer our thoughts on legal issues with the Administration's March 13, 2025 letter to our University's president, and its threat to academic freedom. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti...
Balkinization: A Title VI Demand Letter That Itself Violates Title VI (and the Constitution)
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
March 15, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
Knight Institute Condemns Trump Administration’s Effort to “Subjugate Universities to Official Power.” knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...
March 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
Government’s wins are often invisible: Systems that avoid plane crashes; alliances that avert war; surveillance that prevent pandemics.

Government wins are often *the avoidance of loss.*

So how do we tell the story of the destruction of government? The story of future losses *not* averted?
February 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Keeping this list up to date must feel like a fulltime job.
Our Litigation Tracker is now souped up with interactive Table. ⬇️

Now tracking 23 cases and expecting more to drop soon.

Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
www.justsecurity.org/107087/track...
February 2, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
Trump is calling for ethnic cleansing—“clean out that whole thing” was his phrase!—but the NYT manages to make him sound like a humanitarian.
January 26, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Hard to hedge on this one. Best part of the segment: @steveinskeep.bsky.social googles and reads aloud the remarkable text for himself to see how far this President has actually gone.
January 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Olivier Sylvain
The FTC's Office of Technology, along with partners in the Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, have just post a couple blog posts over the past couple of days. All are fascinating and make plain the Commission is still on the beat, despite likely imminent leadership changes.
December 4, 2024 at 6:54 PM