Can the European Union Order Twitter to Silence President Trump?
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Today’s episode opens with a truly disturbing bit of neocolonial judicial lawmaking from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The CJEU ruled that an Austrian court can order Facebook to take down statements about an Austrian politician. Called an “oaf” and a “fascist,” the politician more or less proved the truth of the accusations by suing to keep that and similar statements off Facebook worldwide. Trying to find allies for my proposal to adopt blocking legislation to protect the First Amendment from foreign government interference, I argue that President Trump should support such a law. After all, if he were ever to insult a European politician on Twitter, this ruling could lead to litigation that takes his Twitter account offline. True, he could criticize the judges responsible for the judgment as “French” or “German” without upsetting CNN, but that would be cold comfort. At last, a legislative and international agenda for the Age of Trump! Nick Weaver returns to give the FDA a better report card than I expected on its approach to cybersecurity. But we agree that the state of medical device and implant security remains parlous. I try my hand at explaining the D.C. Circuit’s Net Neutrality ruling in Mozilla v. FCC. There are still some rounds to be played, but Net Neutrality, if not dead, may at least be pining for the fjords. Introducing a new feature: This Week in Elizabeth Warren. She has a plan to revive the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Nick likes the idea. I’m less enthusiastic, perhaps because I actually did some work for OTA before it disappeared. Nick also helps unpack the flap over Google’s proposal to do DNS-over-HTTPS, and why ISPs aren’t happy about it. Bottom line: If you haven’t been paying much attention to the issue, you’ve made the right choice. Just think of how much time you saved by listening to the podcast! Nick explains how Uzbekistan managed to give cyberattacks an aura, not of menace or invincibility, but of clownish incompetence. David Kris explains the objections from privacy advocates and NGOs to the French government’s use of nationwide facial recognition for its ID program. I suggest that this may be the dumbest face recognition privacy “scandal” in history. The cops shut down a Dark Web data center operating from… a NATO bunker? Nick reveals that the main reason to operate from a NATO bunker is, well, marketing. Apparently channeling Stewart Baker, Attorney General Bill Barr is all-in on discouraging mass-market warrant-proof encryption. Nick thinks he’s picked the wrong fight. And maybe Nick’s right, since the civil-liberties shine on Apple is looking a little scuffed these days. David tells us that NSA has launched a new defense directorate with Anne Neuberger at its helm. I promise to have her on the podcast early next year. David talks about the California man charged with delivering classified information to China’s Ministry of State Security. A Yahoo engineer pleads guilty to hacking emails for pornographic images. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen every month. And in a sign that Congress can reach bipartisan agreement on bills that do more or less nothing, both the House and the Senate have adopted bills authorizing (but not funding) DHS “cyber hunt” teams to help local governments suffering from cyber ransom and other attacks. Bringing back an old favorite, I cover the hacking of an electronic billboard to play porn.   Download the 281st Episode (mp3). You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed!  As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to [email protected]. Remember: If
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