Tanner Andrews 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1401) comment rss

  • On the post: Ninth Circuit Says A Horn Honk Isn’t Protected Political Expression Even When That’s The Honk’s Entire Point

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2023 @ 04:22am

    problem with selective enforcement argument

    While we all know that the officer enforced the honk statute because he disagreed with the political message, it takes more than that to show selective enforcement. You might have the cop admitting that was his motivation. That is unlikely, since he opined based on years of experience and then admitted to having no experience whatever that horns cause danger. If he is going to lie about one thing, then you should not count on him to be forthright about other things. Alternatively, you could round up the cases of enforcement, a major job, giving you ample opportunity to learn about many parts of a large state. Then you may need a statistician to determine that the law is used politically. The practical attorney can look at the law and see that is facially unconstitutional for several reasons, not least of which is the problem of giving unfettered discretion to petty officials. It wou ld be nice to see the Supremes take this one up and get it right. This seems unlikely, however, so you have a rogue court of appeals bringing dishonor upon and eroding public confidence in the justice system.

  • On the post: Lying Liar George Santos Just As Wrong About Section 230 As He Is About His Own Biography

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2023 @ 03:55am

    technology changes

    If [fairness doctrine] were still in place, partisan echo chambers like Fox News and MSNBC would not EXIST, and it’s likely that our politics would be more civil, at least to some extent.
    Not exactly. The fairness doctrine was based on the scarcity of broadcast spectrum space, and the need for a license to use the same. Services on cable would not be subject to the scarcity and resulting licensure requirements. Faux News and similar echo chambers exist on cable, at least for the most part. It follows that fairness would not apply.

  • On the post: Lying Liar George Santos Just As Wrong About Section 230 As He Is About His Own Biography

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2023 @ 03:51am

    my firstr thought also

    literally no social media platform is targeting anyone for their “social, political, or religious status.”
    I call bull shit. My counter argument: Truth Social.
    Yes, that was my first thought also. The identification of a first choice should not be read as disparaging Parler (which is otherwise eliminating itself), or Gettr, or Daily Stormer, or Infowars.

  • On the post: Israeli Phone Malware Maker QuaDream Apparently Ready To Call It Quits After Suffering A Little Negative Press

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2023 @ 03:38am

    Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle

    The malware is out there. I see little stopping a snoopy government agency from grabbing an instance of it and deploying it, tweaked to feed data to them instead of to the original bad actor. It is of course possible that the phone vendors could fix their phones to be less smart, or less susceptible to the sorts of attacks used to load the malware. Think of it as a sort of electronic arms race.

  • On the post: Parler’s New Owner Shuts Down Site: ‘No Reasonable Person Believes Twitter For Conservatives Is A Viable Business Model’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2023 @ 08:02pm

    me, too

    I’d like to think Techdirt at least knows how to handle these assholes
    So would I. And if it were not for that pesky reality where I see tons of responses to those assholes, I would probably make the leap to thinking that Techdirt knew how to handle them. Once they figure out how to flag them (and maybe fix ``flag'' and ``preview'' to work without javascript as on the old site) and not have responses, I will be pleased to say that Techdirt has figured out how to deal with those several horses patoots.

  • On the post: Texas Senate Approves Law Preventing University Instructors From Talking About Things These Senators Don’t Like

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2023 @ 02:32am

    “no foaming MAGA can define it”
    They can’t define anything.
    Not so. Ron DeSantis' attorney was able to define ``woke'' in court: “it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

  • On the post: Texas Senate Approves Law Preventing University Instructors From Talking About Things These Senators Don’t Like

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2023 @ 02:18am

    to be a little more picky

    like Florida but with more Stetsons
    Actually, Stetson (niversity) happens to be in Florida. The main campus is here in the City, and the law school is down in the St Pete area. The school was named for a well-known Philadelphia hat-maker who was generous at its founding.

  • On the post: Fox Agrees To Pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 Million Just After Jury Selection In Defamation Lawsuit

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2023 @ 02:12am

    nice advert

    In Monday's NY Times*, Fox ran a full-page color advert saying that according to Fox's polling information, Fox is ``Trusted Now. More than ever.''

    • 18-Apr-2023 pg A5.

  • On the post: Fox Agrees To Pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 Million Just After Jury Selection In Defamation Lawsuit

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2023 @ 02:01am

    actual malice

    “actual malice” standard, which says reporters can’t be held liable for reporting things they believed to be true
    Not exactly. It applies to reporters and non-reporters, so long as the subject of the discussion is a public figure. Generally, Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). malice is either knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard. Id. at 280. Standard of proof is clear and convincing. Id. at 285. The choice of the term ``malice'' is probably unfortunate in that it has led to some confusion.

  • On the post: In The Last Six Months Techdirt’s Antispam Algorithm Has Stopped Over A Million Spam Comments; Should We Lose 230 Protections For That?

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2023 @ 04:41am

    criminalize everything

    Do recall, and never stop recalling, that 1A protects any and all non-criminal speech as protected from government interference or proscription
    Right. And the work-around is to criminalize speech you do not like. The common example is anti-draft speech, Schenck v. U.S., 249 U.S. 47 (1919), but criminalization ls also used against things like sex or education. You can also criminalize opposition to war generally, Abrams v. U.S., 250 U.S. 616 (1919), or criticism of govt officials, Craig v. Hecht, 263 U.S. 255 (1923), or labor activism, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1926). You just never know what will fall in or out of official favor, but the trick is to make it criminal so that speech urging it can be suppressed.

  • On the post: In The Last Six Months Techdirt’s Antispam Algorithm Has Stopped Over A Million Spam Comments; Should We Lose 230 Protections For That?

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2023 @ 04:31am

    still a hard ``no''

    Yes or no: Do you believe the government should have the right to compel any interactive web service into hosting any third-party speech that it would otherwise refuse to host?
    I am still at a hard ``no'' on this. I am in the same place as to my living room. Come in here, start spouting the sort of stuff that we have in mind as objectionable on the web, and you are likely to be shown the door. My living room, my web site, my rules.

  • On the post: In The Last Six Months Techdirt’s Antispam Algorithm Has Stopped Over A Million Spam Comments; Should We Lose 230 Protections For That?

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2023 @ 04:23am

    preview still borken

    I suspect that it has to do with having javascript turned off. While that is generally speaking the right setting, some web sites think they are smarter than they really are. and that javascript lets them show off their cleverness. Preview does not work. Flag does not work. Marking ``insightful'' or ``funny'' does not work. They all worked on the old platform. I am guessing that the new platform was rolled out with little testing because these things really ought to have been caught.

  • On the post: Los Angeles Does Police Union’s Dirty Work For It, Sues Person Over Public Records He Legally Obtained

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2023 @ 01:15am

    some errors spotted

    The lawsuit actually requests only that the photos of the officers that were exempt from the record be returned and deleted.
    Actually, the complaint seeks ``immediate 27 return and/or destruction of all pictures on the Watch the Watchers website'' (complaint pg 8 ln 26..27). The suit fails to identify specific photos inadvertently produced and which might be subject to removal. As an added chill, the complaint also seeks ``Litigation costs and attorneys’ fees'' (pg 9 ln 3). That is a pretty big ask in light of the problem being one of the city's own making. In any event, the case would appear to fall squarely within Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524 (1989). As a matter of courtesy I could ask that you not laugh at a complaint whose title is ``Pleading Wizard''.

  • On the post: After Matt Taibbi Leaves Twitter, Elon Musk ‘Shadow Bans’ All Of Taibbi’s Tweets, Including The Twitter Files

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 11 Apr, 2023 @ 12:04am

    help from an unlikely source

    Make him define ‘woke’ in a way that doesn’t mean ‘leftwing’
    DeSantis' lawyers, asked in court to define ``woke'', were able to do so: "The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them." https://t.co/O5HGJuJIay

  • On the post: Winnie The Pooh Escapes Copyright Hell, Grabs Some Weapons, And Immediately Gets Kicked Out Of Hong Kong

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2023 @ 03:21am

    very popular

    it’s not clear how popular it is overall with the people of Florida Pretty clear, actually. He won re-election by a wide margin in 2022, and he was able to do it without my help. It is true that he is generally on shaky ground. And his atty's definition of ``woke'' seemed pretty good to let us know what he is fighting.

  • On the post: Tech Press Slowly Figuring Out That Banning TikTok Doesn’t Fix The Actual Problem

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2023 @ 06:22am

    had that happen recently

    TechDirt UI around signing-in whilst replying
    Yes, that happened to me recently as well. Not sure why it keeps forgetting that I logged in. Of course preview and flag are still broken, at least without the danger of javascript. Have they fixed any of the bugs in the new site so as to get functionality back to where it was, say, five years ago?

  • On the post: Antisemitism On Twitter Has More Than Doubled Since Elon Musk Took Over

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2023 @ 12:05am

    expensive

    [reputable platform]
    for $44B, I wouid hope that Twitter was considered reputable. Admittedly there have been some rough spots since the new owner took over.

  • On the post: Meta Following Elon Down The Road Of Making Verification An Upsell Is A Terrible Idea

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2023 @ 05:39am

    customer service

    this mostly just highlights just how terrible Meta customer support has been for years.
    You misapprehend who the customer is. The users are the product. The customers are those advertisers sending money.

  • On the post: Judge Says White House Can’t Get Out Of Lawsuit Over Pressuring Social Media To Moderate

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2023 @ 07:19am

    standard on M2D

    “my claims with no evidence are plausibly alleged”
    Actually, that is a pretty good summary of the standard in court. To survive a motion to dismiss, you offer claims which are plausibly alleged. You do not generally need to offer evidence in your complaint. Once the other side answers, denying your plausibly alleged facts, then you will need to come forward with some evidence. But that is later, and plausible allegations are sufficient to get past the motion to dismiss. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009); Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007).

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says Nope To Florida Governor’s ‘Stop Woke’ Law, Denies Request To Lift Injunction Against It

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2023 @ 11:30pm

    definition

    it would be nice for them to define it before they tried to stop it
    During the trial on his removal of the state atty from Hillsborough, DeSantis' general counsel defined it for the court: the term means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Hope that helps.

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