Notices by Cathy Gellis (cathygellis@mastodon.cloud)

Yesterday there was an important decision against Musk/DOGE/others re: the unlawful shutting down of USAID. I went to OCR the decision so I could write about it and my software did not like the word "Elon." It couldn't believe it was a real word! It called it a "suspect word" (I'll say...) and made suggestions for what word it thought it should be instead.

My favorite? "ELF."

Anyway, here's my new Techdirt post about this decision letting the case go forward.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/14/musk-and-doge-and-others-take-another-loss-as-the-wheels-of-justice-slowly-grind-forward/

Democrats are currently doing a good thing, resisting Vought. But earlier today they did a stupid thing - tried to censor the Internet - and recent days before this were not so hot either.

So I wrote about it:

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/05/democrats-should-be-stopping-a-lawless-president-not-helping-censor-the-internet-honestly-wtf-are-they-thinking/

Yesterday I wrote how Musk and DOGE were engaged in a cyberattack on America's computer systems.

Today I point out that it appears they're violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and, guess what? REGULAR PEOPLE CAN (probably) SUE HIM (+ his henchmen) PERSONALLY.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/04/when-its-not-just-a-coup-but-a-cfaa-violation-too/

I wrote more than outraged social media posts this weekend. Here's a post that just went up at Techdirt:

"Musk’s Takeover Of The Government’s Computer Systems Needs To Be Understood As A Cyberattack, Or Worse"

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/musks-takeover-of-the-governments-computer-systems-needs-to-be-understood-as-a-cyberattack-or-worse/

I'm still talking about the TikTok ban and how unconstitutional it was. One way it is unconstitutional: it's jawboning.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/21/the-tiktok-ban-was-jawboning-and-yet-another-example-illustrating-why-jawboning-is-bad-and-unconstitutional/

This morning I wrote about why the TikTok ban is unconstitutional jawboning. Now I've written about why Google, Apple, and others affected by it have no choice but to fight it themselves, Executive Order be damned.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/21/why-google-and-apple-and-others-have-no-choice-they-cant-restart-tiktok-they-can-only-fight/

Mastadon is why we try to insulate platforms like Twitter from liability for their users' content: by not crippling them with it, we allow other, potentially better platforms to rise up in their place. That can't happen when we force platforms to behave in certain ways. Such regulation forecloses new player entrances and end up favoring the existing, imperfect businesses. (Hi fellow Mastodoners, this the the kind of thing I talk about...)

Yesterday I wrote about the amicus brief I filed at SCOTUS about how the TikTok ban is unconstitutional. Today I wrote about TRUMP's amicus brief... and how he basically told the Court that I'm right:

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/08/in-his-amicus-brief-trump-tells-scotus-that-the-copia-institute-is-right-ok-perhaps-inadvertently/

I spent my holiday break writing an amicus brief to try to convince SCOTUS not to gut the First Amendment when it hears the challenge to the TikTok ban this week. If it blesses the ban like the DC Circuit did it will be BAD bad bad... and untethered to principle and precedent.

Here's a post I wrote about the brief at Techdirt, for whom I wrote it.

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/07/on-friday-scotus-will-decide-whether-tiktok-can-be-banned-we-told-it-the-first-amendment-says-no/

@kat I'll be disappointed if you don't have a Red Sox hat to go with it.

My latest on Techdirt:

"Don’t Be Fooled: Laws like KOSA Are Just Book Banning Democrats Can Get Behind"

KOSA's maybe dead, but it could come back, and it's not the only such bill Democrats are trying to pass. If they want votes in November, they need to stop it.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/05/dont-be-fooled-kosa-is-nothing-but-book-banning-that-democrats-can-get-behind/

While we're busy dealing with the unconstitutional attempt to keep kids off the Internet with KOSA, I filed an amicus brief this week for the Copia Institute explaining to the Ninth Circuit why California's age verification bill violates its FIrst Amendment rights.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/16/the-copia-institute-tells-the-ninth-circuit-that-the-district-court-got-it-basically-right-enjoining-californias-age-design-law/

I wrote and filed one of the most important amicus briefs I've ever written. It is for the combined NetChoice cases at the Supreme Court challenging laws passed by FL and TX to regulate online speech via regulating the platforms enabling it. But really it is about whether the First Amendment still applies online.

I wrote it on behalf of the Copia Institute, @mchris, who administers techpolicy.social, and Bluesky.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/07/we-teamed-up-with-bluesky-to-tell-the-supreme-court-how-state-social-media-laws-dont-take-into-account-user-empowerment/

Me just now boarding my first flight abroad since 2019:

Boarding Agent: Stand in front of the face scan.

Me: I decline.

Agent: You must.

Me: No, I don't.

Supervisor: (to agent) Just board her. (to me) You'll have to do this eventually.

Me: I'm a lawyer who fights these things. Not on my watch.

@silverwizard Not speech.

I have a new post at Techdirt, about the Biden Administration's National Cybersecurity Strategy Document, and its call for software developer liability in particular.

In sum: that part is a bad idea.

"Move Over, Software Developers – In The Name Of Cybersecurity, The Government Wants To Drive"

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/06/move-over-software-developers-in-the-name-of-cybersecurity-the-government-wants-to-drive/

@timkmak Would you like a Bluesky invite? I'd be happy to hook you up.

An upshot to the "Twitter Files" nonsense is that employees are fools to communicate on employer IT systems.

But it would be absolute #infosec disaster for the company if employees used third parties'.

Better employee privacy protections needed to address this conflict.

@neil @tiffanycli By what metric?

@neil @tiffanycli As a reader, I do feel deterred. I follow tons of people and rarely have the time to expand. For your stuff, I might be inclined more so than others, but it's really not often possible.