This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact Luke Wachob at [email protected].  

Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Cyberstalking Conviction for E-Mails to Nebraska Legislature Candidate Reversed

.....From U.S. v. Sryniawski, decided yesterday by the Eighth Circuit (Judge Steven Colloton, joined by Judge Bobby Shepherd and Chief Judge Lavenski Smith):

Christian Post: Louisville can’t force Christian photographer to shoot same-sex weddings, federal court rules

By Michael Gryboski

.....U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton of the Western District of Kentucky ruled Tuesday that Louisville could not enforce its LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance against photographer Chelsey Nelson, who is "motivated by her faith to celebrate marriage as the union of only opposite-sex couples." 

Wall Street Journal: All About Nikki Haley’s Donors

.....The Supreme Court last year blocked the California Attorney General from requiring charities to disclose their donors, and now New York AG Letitia James is providing a reminder of why AGs can’t be trusted to guard this confidential information.

Wall Street Journal: IRS Says It Exposed Some Confidential Taxpayer Data on Website

.....The Internal Revenue Service inadvertently posted what is normally confidential information involving about 120,000 individuals before discovering the error and removing the data from its website, officials said Friday.

Washington Post: Jan. 6 committee withdraws subpoena against RNC and Salesforce

By Jacqueline Alemany and Josh Dawsey 

.....The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is dropping its subpoena against the Republican National Committee and Salesforce, a software vendor, according to people familiar with the development.

New York Times: How a Record Cash Haul Vanished for Senate Republicans

By Shane Goldmacher

.....One fund-raising scheme used by the Senate committee, which has not previously been disclosed, involved sending an estimated millions of text messages that asked provocative questions — “Should Biden resign?” — followed by a request for cash: “Reply YES to donate.” Those who replied “YES” had their donation processed immediately, though the text did not reveal in advance where the money was going.

The Nation: Now Is the Time for Democrats to Ban Dark Money From Primaries

By Robert L. Borosage

.....In this election season alone, the Wesleyan Media Project reports, nearly 60 percent of the ads aired in Democratic House primaries were purchased by groups that offered only partial disclosure of their donors—or none at all. Progressive challengers in contested primaries were often the leading targets of these dark money groups.

Washington Post: Washington state judge rules Facebook violated campaign finance rules

By Naomi Nix

.....A Washington state judge ruled Friday that Facebook repeatedly violated campaign finance rules requiring platforms to release information about political advertisers on their sites.

The court said that Facebook, which last year renamed itself Meta, repeatedly broke the state’s law requiring technology platforms make information about political ads available for public inspection in a “timely manner,” according to a statement from the Washington state attorney general’s office.

Washington Post: Twitter can’t afford to be one of the world’s most influential websites

By Elizabeth Dwoskin, Joseph Menn and Cat Zakrzewski

.....While Zatko’s allegations of Twitter’s security failures, first reported last month by The Post and CNN, have received widespread attention, the audit on misinformation has gone largely unreported. Yet it underscores a fundamental conundrum for the 16-year-old social media service: despite its role hosting the opinions of some the world’s most important political leaders, business executives and journalists, Twitter has been unable to build safeguards commensurate with the platform’s outsize societal influence. It has never generated the level of profit needed to do so, and its leadership never demonstrated the will.

The Verge: Twitter Had a New Plan to Fight Extremism — Then Elon Arrived

By Zoe Schiffer and Casey Newton

.....By late 2021, Twitter’s health researchers had spent years playing whack-a-mole with bad actors on the platform and decided to deploy a more sophisticated approach to dealing with harmful content. Externally, the company was regularly criticized for allowing dangerous groups to run amok. But internally, it sometimes felt like certain groups, like conspiracy theorists, were kicked off the platform too soon — before researchers could study their dynamics.

New York Post: Instagram took down Fauci parody account after pressure from Biden administration: lawsuit

By Ariel Zilber

.....Instagram immediately complied with a Biden White House request to remove a fake account that parodied Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to emails obtained by Republican-run states that have sued the federal government for allegedly colluding with top social media sites.

Florida Politics: After UN rips Florida anti-riot law, Marco Rubio questions taxpayer funding

By A.G. Gancarski

.....The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concerns in a report against 2021’s House Bill 1, described by Gov. Ron DeSantis as the “strongest anti-riot/pro-law enforcement legislation in the country.”

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