Jawboning
Gary Waters

Blog

Jawboning

The First Amendment imposes stringent constraints on the government’s power to regulate speech, but the question of when the First Amendment prohibits jawboning—informal government efforts to persuade, cajole, or strong-arm private platforms to change their content-moderation practices—warrants more attention than it’s received thus far. Some forms of jawboning are probably best understood as a legitimate aspect of governance. Others are probably best understood as illegitimate, and possibly unconstitutional, efforts to manipulate or censor public discourse. 

This blog channel highlights the Institute’s ongoing research and education efforts related to jawboning.

Research

Institute Update

Call for Participation: Federal Funding and the First Amendment

    

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Research

Essays and Scholarship

Protecting Immigrant Activists From U.S. Government Retaliation: Lessons From First Amendment Litigation

Immigrant activists in the U.S. face legal and structural barriers when fighting First Amendment retaliation. 

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Litigation

Lawsuit

Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York v. USDA

A case challenging USDA’s purge of climate-related webpages.

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Research

Essays and Scholarship

Into the Driver’s Seat With Social Media Content Feeds

Using vehicles as an analogy, a proposed classification framework for algorithmic feeds

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