SCOTUS to Hear Key Free Expression Cases in February and March
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In February and March of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear several cases key to online free expression: February’s arguments will take place in NetChoice v. Moody and NetChoice v. Paxton, and March’s will take place in Murthy v. Missouri, all cases in which CDT recently filed amicus briefs.
NetChoice v. Moody and NetChoice v. Paxton are consolidated cases challenging social media laws passed in Texas and Florida. In CDT’s amicus brief in those cases, we argue that certain provisions of those laws would require platforms to change their content moderation rules, or continue to host user content that they otherwise would not, violating platforms’ First Amendment-protected right to exercise editorial discretion.
In Murthy v. Missouri, CDT joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation in arguing that, while government involvement in social media services’ content moderation processes certainly raises First Amendment concerns, a court should examine multiple factors to determine when a government communication to a social media service is either improper or unwise. In this case, we urge the Supreme Court to overturn lower courts’ ruling, which agreed with plaintiffs claiming that the White House and various executive agencies violated the First Amendment by coercing social media services into censoring protected speech. That ruling created confusion about what interactions between government and social media services are permissible, which the Supreme Court should rectify.
Together, these cases will shape the power dynamic between social media services and government officials across the U.S. in the years to come. Our briefs carve out an appropriate role for government — one that prevents coercion and censorship, and allows for transparency and healthy information-sharing.
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 | Graphic for a CDT report, entitled "An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States." Illustration depicting a woman's leg in kitten heel stomping on malicious social media posts while casting a shadow of the U.S. capital building.
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In Case You Missed It
— Yesterday, a 2022 CDT original research project, “An Unrepresentative Democracy: How Disinformation and Online Abuse Hinder Women of Color Political Candidates in the United States,” was selected by the 3rd Annual Anthem Awards as a Silver Winner in the “Human & Civil Rights — Best Use of Data” category.
— On last week’s International Privacy Day, CDT’s Eric Null called for states to enact better privacy protections in the form of data minimization laws, which ensure that companies only collect the data necessary to provide a product or service that an individual requests. Such protections charge companies that collect and exploit data with the responsibility of protecting privacy, as opposed to notice-and-consent models that overburden consumers.
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 | White text on a dark blue / green background: "Lifting up the voices of CDT's Non-Resident Fellows."
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— CDT also welcomed new leaders to our Advisory Council, including Sarabeth Berman (American Journalism Project), Nita Farahany (Duke University), Sam Gregory (WITNESS), Katie Harbath (Duco Experts), Rose Jackson (Atlantic Council), Travis Moore (TechCongress), Eddie Perez (OSET Institute), Gabe Rottman (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press), and Michael Rubin (Latham & Watkins).
— CDT announced a new 18-month research project to investigate content moderation systems in the global south, spearheaded by researcher Dr. Mona Elswah. The project builds on CDT’s prior work on non-English language content analysis, with a particular focus on how social media companies and other hosts of user-generated content (from newspaper comment sections, to dating apps and more) handle content analysis and moderation in under-resourced languages.
— CDT provided recommendations to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security on transparency and policy around federal law enforcement use of facial recognition, in response to an October 13 request by the agencies.
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 | CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens speaks during the World Economic Forum at Davos.
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CDT in the Press— CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens discussed the values AI companies embed in the systems they build in an Axios interview during the World Economic Forum at Davos: "We do need more visibility and understanding about the ways in which they're running those processes and making those decisions," she said.
— CDT’s Aliya Bhatia and Michal Luria wrote for Ms. Magazine about why well-meaning federal and state legislative proposals to protect young people online miss the mark.
— CDT’s Tim Harper talked with Foreign Policy about the role of misinformation in elections, including Taiwan’s most recent one: “We talk a lot about the ways that AI democratizes the ability to spread mis- and disinformation, but at the nation-state level, where actors are using extremely sophisticated techniques with high budgets, we’re also seeing that tools are becoming much more sophisticated at micro-targeting toward specific groups,” he said.
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 | Illustration for CDT’s 2024 Spring Fling event. Blue and rose-colored text surrounded by light pink blossoms and orange bulbs.
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CDT "in Person"— CDT is pleased to announce our second annual Spring Fling, a celebration that will take place during IAPP’s Global Privacy Summit. Join us on Tuesday, April 2, from 8–10:30 PM at Dirty Habit in Washington, D.C. — you won’t want to miss it!
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 | Graphic for "Getting to know the Center for Democracy and Technology’s AI Governance Lab" event.
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— The director of CDT’s recently launched AI Governance Lab, Miranda Bogen, and IAPP’s AI Governance Center Managing Director, Ashley Casovan, discussed the important work taking place at the Lab. You can find the recording here.
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 | CDT Policy Counsel Kristin Woelfel, smiling in a black jacket in front of a white background.
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Staff Spotlight
Kristin Woelfel, Policy Counsel, Equity in Civic Technology
How long have you been working in digital rights? I started out in the digital rights space four years ago with the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), working to combat issues like non-consensual intimate imagery and other forms of online abuse.
What is your proudest moment while here at CDT? My proudest moment here at CDT was being quoted in ABC Australia!
What is your fandom? There are so many! My brother and I inherited the Star Wars fandom because my dad is a huge fan. So much so that I used to absolutely dominate in Star Wars trivia against random people around the world on QuizUp back in the day (real ones remember).
Dogs or cats? Personally, I could never pit two queens against each other! I grew up with dogs, and for the longest time I was staunchly anti-cat, but all it takes is one good one (for me, my college roommate's rotund tuxedo cat named Gato) to open your heart to the whole species. Now, I have both a silly little cat (that has both loved and tormented me since my first year of law school) and a sweet bumbling dog who sleeps on the couch 23 hours a day, and can't imagine my life without either of them!
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