Can the government regulate social media features because they are "addictive"? Jane Bambauer and I talk with Emory Law professor Matthew Lawrence about whether features like infinite scroll, personalized feeds, "near-miss" reward patterns, and dopamine-driven engagement tactics are comparable to gambling or even drug addiction—and whether that means the government can step in. The conversation digs into current lawsuits, whether there's a constitutionally significant difference between content and design, how addiction is defined in law and neuroscience, and what First Amendment limits exist when regulating digital platforms. A smart, fast-moving discussion for anyone curious about the future of free speech, tech regulation, and the psychology behind our screens.
Our past episodes:
- Defamation Law in the Age of AI with Lyrissa Lidsky
- From Brandenburg to Britain: Rethinking Free Speech in the Digital Era with Eric Heinze
- A Conversation with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff
- Free Speech Unmuted: President Trump's Executive Order on Flag Desecration
- Free Speech and Doxing
- The Supreme Court Rules on Protecting Kids from Sexually Themed Speech Online
- Free Speech, Public School Students, and "There Are Only Two Genders"
- Can AI Companies Be Sued for What AI Says?
- Harvard vs. Trump: Free Speech and Government Grants
- Trump's War on Big Law
- Can Non-Citizens Be Deported For Their Speech?
- Freedom of the Press, with Floyd Abrams
- Free Speech, Private Power, and Private Employees
- Court Upholds TikTok Divestiture Law
- Free Speech in European (and Other) Democracies, with Prof. Jacob Mchangama
- Protests, Public Pressure Campaigns, Tort Law, and the First Amendment
- Misinformation: Past, Present, and Future
- I Know It When I See It: Free Speech and Obscenity Laws
- Speech and Violence
- Emergency Podcast: The Supreme Court's Social Media Cases
- Internet Policy and Free Speech: A Conversation with Rep. Ro Khanna
- Free Speech, TikTok (and Bills of Attainder!), with Prof. Alan Rozenshtein
- The 1st Amendment on Campus with Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
- Free Speech On Campus
- AI and Free Speech
- Free Speech, Government Persuasion, and Government Coercion
- Deplatformed: The Supreme Court Hears Social Media Oral Arguments
- Book Bans – or Are They?
The post Free Speech Unmuted: Does the First Amendment Protect Supposedly "Addictive" Algorithms?, with Matthew Lawrence appeared first on Reason.com.
