Publications: Ash Johnson

App store–level age verification laws pose privacy, security, and free-speech risks while leaving websites unregulated, whereas device-level, opt-in parental controls offer a more comprehensive and safer way to protect children online.

Ash Johnson writes in The Hill that teen social media bans are based on moral panic rather than evidence, misdiagnose screen time as the harm, and should be replaced with nuanced, evidence-based policies that empower parents, incentivize safer platform design, and target specific, demonstrable risks.

Sen. Rand Paul’s call to revoke Section 230 over grievances with Big Tech highlights a broader risk: using the law as a political weapon would undermine online free speech, whereas reforms increasing transparency in content moderation could address concerns without dismantling its protections.

Governments across the political spectrum are increasingly pressuring online platforms to remove lawful content, threatening free speech by politicizing content moderation decisions that should remain in the hands of private companies and governed only by the law.

The implementation of the Digital Services Act’s transparency obligations fails to provide meaningful insight into online platforms’ content moderation decisions, the extraterritorial effects of the act, and its effects on online speech.

Strict data privacy laws like the GDPR have significantly reduced biopharmaceutical R&D investment—especially among smaller firms—highlighting the need for U.S. policymakers to reform HIPAA, pass innovation-friendly federal privacy legislation, and invest in privacy-enhancing technologies to protect both privacy and progress in medical research.

Rather than blanket social media bans, policymakers should adopt privacy-preserving tools that empower parents and teens to manage online safety directly.

There are many technology policy issues where states have created a patchwork of regulation that impose duplicative costs on businesses, cause confusion for consumers, and act as a drain on the U.S. economy. In order to address these issues, federal preemption would streamline regulation and decrease costs and confusion.

France may label certain social media platforms as porn sites to enforce age checks, a move that misrepresents platform use and raises privacy, free speech, and regulatory concerns.

China’s new “minor mode” gives parents customizable tools to manage children’s online activity—offering a rare, less-restrictive model within China’s otherwise authoritarian digital policy that the U.S. can draw from while maintaining democratic values.