State of the Net Live 2024: Neurotechnology and Privacy, a New Era of Internet Geopolitics, and the Legal Landscape for Online Expression [S5E1]

Tech Policy Grind

Welcome back to the “Tech Policy Grind” podcast by the Internet Law & Policy Foundry! To kick off Season Five, the Tech Policy Grind is bringing you to State of the Net 2024 Live!

On February 12, 2024 officials from the executive and legislative branches joined internet and tech advocates in Washington, D.C. to discuss topics such as child online safety, AI regulation and governance, internet access and affordability, the legal and regulatory landscape on online expression, and more.

In this episode, we put together three conversations from our live recording at the conference. Foundry alum Lama Mohammed chatted with Jameson Spivack, Senior Policy Analyst, Immersive Technologies at Future of Privacy Forum on the challenges of balancing progress and privacy when it comes to neurotechnologies. Then Senior Foundry fellows Sasa Jovanovic and Daniela Guzman Peña sat down with Colin Crowell, the Senior Advisor & Managing Director of The Blue Owl Group to discuss how internet geopolitics and diplomacy will evolve in the next era of the web. Finally, we had the chance to speak with Nicole Saad Bembridge, Counsel at NetChoice, about the legal landscape for Supreme Court cases this year, which might reframe the boundaries of online expression and platform liability. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a wide-ranging episode that showcases some of the key issues that were discussed at this agenda-setting conference.

Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for our next episode!

DISCLAIMER: Daniela, Lama, and Sasa engaged with this episode by the Internet Law & Policy Foundry voluntarily and in their personal capacity. The views and opinions expressed on this show do not reflect the organizations and institutions they are affiliated with.

Bios:

Jameson Spivack: Jameson Spivack leads the Future of Privacy Forum’s work on immersive technologies like extended reality, neurotechnologies, and virtual worlds. He works with a range of stakeholders from industry, civil society, and academia to understand the impact of emerging privacy laws on immersive technologies, and to develop best practices for organizations developing or deploying them. Previously, Jameson was an Associate with the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, where he worked on research and policy advocacy related to algorithmic technologies like face recognition in the criminal legal system.

Colin Crowell: Colin Crowell is the Managing Director of The Blue Owl Group. Colin is an international tech policy consultant and the former Vice President of Global Public Policy, Government, & Philanthropy at Twitter. During his 8+ years at Twitter, Colin built an award-winning philanthropy program and engaged with global policymakers and civil society on a range of Internet policy issues. Prior to joining Twitter, Colin worked as Senior Counselor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and previously spent more than two decades on Capitol Hill drafting telecommunications and Internet laws on the committee staff of then-U.S. Representative (now Senator) Ed Markey (D-MA). Colin was the 2020 Commencement Speaker at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas – Austin. He is a graduate of Boston College with a BA in Political Science and a minor concentration in Computer Science. After college, Colin was a Jesuit International Volunteer in Arequipa, Peru.

Nicole Saad Bembridge: As Associate Director of NetChoice’s Litigation Center, Saad Bembridge focuses on NetChoice’s litigation and amicus efforts. She specializes in reviewing federal and state legislation that affect the First Amendment, freedom of speech, Section 230 and AI.

Before joining NetChoice, Saad Bembridge worked as a legal associate at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, where she co-authored twelve appellate amicus briefs, a policy analysis on content moderation paradigms, and provided analysis on a broad range of constitutional and statutory issues of first impression. During law school, she worked at the United Nations and at Georgetown University’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy.

Saad Bembridge earned her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Technology Law and Policy Scholar. She holds B.A.s in Economics and Piano Performance from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Resources: Neurotechnology and Privacy The Neurorights Foundation Risk Framework for Body-Related Data in Immersive Technologies

A New Era of Internet Geopolitics The Blue Owl Group Center for Democracy and Technology Electronic Frontier Foundation Telecommunications Act of 1996 Digital Services Act

Legal Landscape for Online Expression

Moody v. NetChoice, LLC NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton Murthy v. Missouri National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier