Anthropic doesn't trust the Pentagon, and neither should you
My guest today is Mike Masnick, the founder and CEO of Techdirt, the excellent and long-running tech policy blog. Mike has been writing about government overreach, privacy in the digital age, and other related topics for decades now, and he’s an expert on how the internet and the surveillance state have grown in interconnected ways over the past two decades.
I wanted to have Mike on the show to discuss the messy, fast-moving situation at Anthropic, the maker of Claude that now finds itself in a very ugly legal battle with the Pentagon. Instead of covering the daily drama, I wanted to dig in specifically on Anthropic's surveillance red line, and the important history and context around digital privacy in the U.S. that shapes how we should think about this going forward.
Links:
AI bros wanted Trump — now they learn what happens when you tell him no | Techdirt
OpenAI’s ‘red lines’ are written in the NSA’s dictionary | Techdirt
Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense | The Verge
Anthropic launches new think tank amid Pentagon fight | The Verge
How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance | The Verge
Inside the backlash to the AI war machine | Platformer
The Pentagon is violating Anthropic's First Amendment rights | FIRE
Why the Pentagon wants to destroy Anthropic | Ezra Klein / NYT
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Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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ROUND TABLE - What Section 230 Actually Does
Are Facebook and Twitter protected by a shield that stops them from being responsible for any of their content? We bring on Mike Masnick from TechDirt and Shoshana Weissman from the R Street Institute to talk about what Section 230 is, what it isn’t, and whether it needs to be changed.
SHOW NOTES:
Shoshana Weissmann, Senior Manager of Digital Media and a policy Fellow at the R Street Institute.
https://senatorshoshana.medium.com/who-am-i-ff164b02707e
Mike Masnick, founder and CEO of the Copia Institute and editor of the Techdirt blog.
https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick
Our discussion isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. The goal of this discussion is to explore some of the legal issues surrounding CDA 230.
The central text of Section 230
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230
(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
There is also a section right after that on Civil Liability that offers further protections for taking certain moderation actions.
-- What is Section 230 designed to do?
-- What are some of the major misconceptions about Section 230?
-- If section 230 were repealed with no replacement, what do you think the effect would be?
-- Do you believe Congress should replace 230? If so, with what? If not, why?
Mike:
-Fix a typo
-Reverse FOSTA
-Remove intellectual exemption property
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Section 230: Everything You Need to Know -- Tweets, Free Speech, Beyond
All about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- in what Wired senior writer (and host of the Get Wired podcast) described as "one of the clearest-but-still-nuanced explainers I've heard - worth listening to".
So what does and doesn't it say? How does this law play out against broader questions and debates around platforms, content moderation, and free speech? This conversation between Mike Masnick (founder and editor in chief of Techdirt) and a16z editor in chief Sonal Chokshi was originally published on our show 16 Minutes, in the context of previous protests and presidential tweets (and an executive order then to prevent “online censorship”)-- but is exactly as relevant today... perhaps now more than ever.
https://a16z.com/2020/05/31/16mins-section-230-communications-decency-act-content-moderation-free-speech-internet-past-present-future/
image: presidential tweet activity/ Wikimedia Commons
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Amazon warehouse workers issue lawsuit, Alexis Ohanian steps down from Reddit board and a deeper debate on Section 230
Kara and Scott talk about a new lawsuit waged by Amazon warehouse workers alleging the company did not follow CDC protocol well enough to stop the spread of COVID-19. They discuss Alexis Ohanian's decision to step down from Reddit's board of the directors in order to leave space to elevate a black person to his empty seat. In Friend of Pivot we hear from Mike Masnick of tech dirt to talk about Section 230, as Trump battles with Twitter.
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Recode Decode: CDA 230
Recode's Kara Swisher convenes a panel of experts to talk about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act: cybersecurity law professor Jeff Kosseff, author of "The Twenty Six Words That Created The Internet"; lawyer Carrie Goldberg, author of "Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls"; and the CEO and founder of Techdirt, Mike Masnick.
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Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), host
Jeff Kosseff (@jkosseff), guest
Carrie Goldberg (@cagoldberglaw), guest
Mike Masnick (@mmasnick), guest
Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), executive producer
Eric Johnson (@HeyHeyESJ), producer
More to explore
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Subscribe to Recode's other podcasts: Recode Media, Pivot, and Land of the Giants
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