Freedom Four

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. "Killing Section 230 Would End Our Free Internet," by Agustina Vergara Cid (The Orange County Register):

The internet is far from perfect, however, and truly appalling and illegal things happen there. But Section 230 doesn't protect platforms from federal criminal law violations, the promotion or facilitation of sex trafficking, or intellectual property violations. Individual users can be held liable for their own behavior -- as in the case of defamation. It's not that this law takes liability away altogether, it just shifts liability away from the platform and back to the person who actually posted the content.

750 words/3 minutes

2. "Colleges Must Give Up Federal Funding to Achieve True Intellectual Freedom," by Onkar Ghate and Sam Weaver (The Hill, 2025):

Even in the best-case scenario, when federal bureaucrats try to proceed conscientiously, such a system creates increased conformity within an academic field. The bureaucrats will tend to defer to recognized experts in the field, which means established theories and methodologies are much more likely to receive federal support, making it difficult for intellectual minorities and innovators to compete. This plays out across the entire university, which is strongly incentivized to hire researchers likely to receive federal grants.

600 words/2 minute

3. "How Government Attempts to Reduce Health Spending Can Paradoxically Raise Health Costs," by Paul Hsieh (Forbes):

A more long-term answer would be to encourage the growth of free-market clinics such as the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, that offer price transparency and work outside the traditional insurance system to provide quality care at lower cost. In the current heavily regulated US medical system, market-based reforms cannot fully address the problem -- but they would be a step in the right direction of rational pricing of medical services and procedures.

1000 words/4 minutes

4. "There Is No Imminent Infectious Disease Crisis at the Border," by Amesh Adalja and Agustina Vergara Cid (STAT):

Paradoxically, the administration whose health secretary wants to institute a "pause" on infectious disease research and expresses doubt regarding the germ theory of disease is now going to invoke infectious diseases as a threat.

700 words/2 minutes

-- CAV