Elizabeth Nolan Brown

There's been a fair amount of commentary on how social media has become less fun, less interesting, etc. And there's a ton on how it's become more passive—"everything is TV". But I haven't seen much on these things tie together? And I think they clearly do. reason.com/2026/10/05/t...

"The ex-husband of an Arizona woman who voluntarily took abortion pills in 2018 has won a civil lawsuit against the clinic that prescribed them," writes @enbrown.bsky.social. buff.ly/Pms6e0P

Those features - disappearing messages, anonymity protection - are keeping kids in France safe while they organize political protests. But there are a lot of policy proposals and laws that would restrict kids' access to these *exact* features to keep them "safe."

"[Snap] offers students a way to organize without putting everything on public display: Unsaved messages disappear, while bitmojis and generic usernames blur identities more than on Instagram, for instance." www.teenvogue.com/story/france...

I hate that “trafficking” is now what people say when it’s really just prostitution (which imho should be decriminalized). We have lost that battle of words And for the record i also hate Matt Gaetz

et tu, 🇨🇦? 'The Great White North is the latest country to contemplate legislation that could essentially mandate backdoors and increase data retention in encrypted services' - @mattburgess1.bsky.social & @lhn.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/kernel... @gate15.bsky.social @enbrown.bsky.social

From India's Supreme Court, something that makes sense! 'The safety of our children and their freedom are not at odds with each other. Our children are entitled to both' - via @enbrown.bsky.social reason.com/2026/10/19/m...

Not to pick on Sam here, but this is a useful point to highlight some of the impossibility of trust & safety work. Meta actually used to have a program *exactly* like this, BUT it became a central feature of Frances Haugen's Facebook Files as an example of Meta being evil. I'll explain...

Going to be spending a lot more time on Substack now reasonmagazine.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

You know what they say, the couple that Lifetime movie podcasts together…

We were honored to have @swin24.bsky.social & @enbrown.bsky.social walk us through Sydney Sweeney's Lifetime movie, The Wrong/Psycho Daughter. We kill the guitarist, visit the Yellow King Café and get the kitchen granite sealed. Obviously, Mellie goes full Buckcherry. (Now with more Mike Lindell!)

Um ... no thanks.

'The court's scathing and beautiful takedown of warrantless Flock searches is something to behold,' writes @enbrown.bsky.social. '"...we do not expect people we know...to randomly approach us to say: 'here is a detailed log of every place your vehicle has been...'"' reason.com/2026/10/07/j...

Flock = "indiscriminate mass surveillance" says a federal court reason.com/2026/10/07/j...

"when governments can force platforms to search their systems for evidence of wrongdoing, like through the threat of liability, then the evidence the platforms discover, warrantlessly, will be inadmissible against those users who put it there" www.techdirt.com/2026/10/05/s...

Just discovered that Utah has a tax on escort agencies. In other words, the state demands its cut of the profits for sex work. If only there was a word for that.

Anyone else out there have a kid with night terrors? Really makes you understand how people once believed in witches' curses and demonic possession

Here's my companion piece to this post, from @reason.com's print edition, on how the millennial internet is dead and (shocker, coming from a libertarian publication, I know 😏) it's largely the government's fault reason.com/2026/10/04/w...

An innocent Tennessee grandma spent six months in jail after being identified by facial recognition technology as a potential lead in a bank fraud case. But technology didn’t put this woman in jail, writes Autumn Billings @reason.com “Bad policing did.” reason.com/2026/09/29/a...

In absolutely (not) shocking news, @washingtonpost.com reports, 'officers are among at least 100...employees accused of abusing their access to license-plate readers...' www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... @enbrown.bsky.social @maggiemcneill.bsky.social @timcushing.bsky.social #Flock #FuckFlock

Tennessee can't stop people from telling teens how to get abortions in other states, says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reason.com/2026/09/28/y...

Drug scheduling decisions at the DEA "follow a mostly made-up procedure" "DEA does not have any policies or procedures regarding how its staff are to conduct evaluations or schedule substances," the Government Accountability Office says reason.com/2026/09/29/t...

“a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) didn't deny that the agency was using facial recognition to identify sex workers” reason.com/2026/09/19/c...

Flock "database queries are not searches within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment” and “no suspicion is required before the government searches a traveler's cellphone at the border," federal courts say 🤪😫 reason.com/2026/09/21/n...

This case was so appalling and why we talk about stigma so often. He raped and robbed sex workers and his lawyer argued in court the victims couldn't be trusted because "They are prostitutes. They are liars." This is why we combat dehumanizing language.

"Hot2Vote is launching a $100K campaign in Atlanta to ensure people are registered to vote — with the help of adult film stars. The multimedia effort includes more than 100 performers telling people 'always check their status' after the state’s mass cancellation of inactive voter registrations."

My 'we are not into bestiality' congressional hearing has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my congressional hearing.

Wow — jury quickly convicted on all 11 counts against this border agent who raped and robbed immigrant sex workers. No one bought his you-know-Chinese-hussies-lie defense reason.com/2026/09/17/b...

In North Carolina, spurned spouses can sue third parties for breaking up their marriages. It's a practice rooted in patriarchal views of married women as their husband's property. Kyrsten Sinema is facing one such lawsuit, because she texted a married man there reason.com/2026/09/09/k...