Kerry Maeve Sheehan
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kmaeve.bsky.social
Kerry Maeve Sheehan
@kmaeve.bsky.social
Legal Advocacy Counsel at Chamber of Progress. Tech Policy lawyer. Free speech, free culture, free people enthusiast. Former iFixit, Meta, EFF, Public Knowledge. Feminist. She/her. Views my own.
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Would love to see more journalists post the cables behind these stories. It would help others file FOIAs for related cable traffic.

And if you want to know how to read a State Dept cable - here's a great primer from @foianate.bsky.social @nsarchive.bsky.social
unredacted.com/2010/11/29/f...
Trump administration moves to deny visas to factcheckers and content moderators
Action detailed in a state department memo directs officials to deny visas to any applicant engaging in ‘censorship’
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
this is really it — this case isn't about the legitimacy of birthright citizenship or the 14th amendment, it's about the legitimacy of the court, and any ruling that doesn't uphold the former decides the latter
Counterpoint:

The Supreme Court lacks the authority to change the text of the Constitution.

So either it affirms the text or (further, and more completely) nukes its authority as Constitutional arbiter.

There’s no third option. Art III (courts) can’t just usurp Art V (amendments).
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 25d
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration. n.pr/48E1oko
December 5, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Tackled by ICE agents, tear-gassed by CBP: Since 2017, @pressfreedomtracker.us has documented immigration-related press freedom violations against journalists, including incidents tagged under immigration, Department of Homeland Security and ICE detention.

Explore more here:
Immigration-related press freedom violations, 2017-present
Immigration-related press freedom violations, 2017-present
pressfreedomtracker.us
November 14, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
November 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Congratulations to the people of MAINE
QUESTION ONE WAS DEFEATED
VOTED NO !!
November 5, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
November 5, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Live Updates: In New York, Mayor’s Race Draws Highest Turnout Since 2001 www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11...
Live Updates: Mamdani Wins N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race After Highest Turnout in Decades
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
I receive so many questions about what research in civil society is like -- Join our virtual panel to hear more about exactly that! @cdt.org @datasociety.bsky.social @aclu.org

With @thakurdhanaraj.bsky.social @alicetiara.bsky.social and @mkgerchick.bsky.social

To register:
cdt.org/event/advoca...
Advocating with Evidence: Lessons for Tech Researchers in Civil Society
Advocating with Evidence: Lessons for Tech Researchers in Civil Society November 13, 2025, 10-11am ET online Civil society is struggling to address how technology and the tech industry contribute to e...
cdt.org
October 27, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Starting tomorrow! Join CDT & Stand Together Trust for The Age of Constitutional Evasion: Jawboning and Other Forms of Government Pressure to Control Private Speech — a 2-day virtual event exploring free expression & government influence online.

📅 Oct 28–29 | 12–3 PM ET
🔗 standtogether.swoogo...
October 27, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
ICE had access to a nationwide network of AI-enabled surveillance cameras that constantly track vehicles', and by extension peoples, movements without a warrant www.404media.co/ice-secret-s...
October 16, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
The politician in South Carolina who has introduced a bill redefining contraception as abortion also wants people who share websites to be charged with aiding and abetting homicide.
October 16, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Bluesky and Dreamwidth blocked all Mississippi users from using their services because Mississippi’s oppressive age verification mandate makes it impossible for smaller platforms to comply. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For
If you live in Mississippi, you may have noticed that you are no longer able to log into your Bluesky or Dreamwidth accounts from within the state. That’s because, in a chilling early warning sign
www.eff.org
September 14, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
The FTC is vastly overstepping its authority, and forcing Pornhub to take actions that will effectively keep actual CSAM purveyors out of jail.

Prosecutors can't use the results of these state-mandated scans as evidence in prosecutions w/o a warrant. That's under a ruling by then-Judge Gorsuch.
BREAKING: A Utah federal judge just approved the proposed stipulated order. That is, the government has now officially ordered Aylo to scan all uploaded files for CSAM & NCII. That means Aylo is an agent of the government under the 4th Amendment. Criminal defense attorneys, start your engines.
This is SO problematic:

* If imperfect content moderation is a deceptive-prong violation, then any UGC platform is a target, bc perfection is impossible.
* Big 4A govt agent problems if this means Aylo must monitor uploads.
* 18 USC 2257 is not the FTC's to enforce.

www.ftc.gov/news-events/...
September 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
Also, since FTC regulates via consent orders, not litigation, this order puts *other* adult & UGC sites on notice that scanning is now expected. So CSAM/NCII defendants caught by scans on *other* sites can point to the Aylo order and say "see, this scan wasn't voluntary, it was for fear of FTC."
The FTC is vastly overstepping its authority, and forcing Pornhub to take actions that will effectively keep actual CSAM purveyors out of jail.

Prosecutors can't use the results of these state-mandated scans as evidence in prosecutions w/o a warrant. That's under a ruling by then-Judge Gorsuch.
BREAKING: A Utah federal judge just approved the proposed stipulated order. That is, the government has now officially ordered Aylo to scan all uploaded files for CSAM & NCII. That means Aylo is an agent of the government under the 4th Amendment. Criminal defense attorneys, start your engines.
September 8, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
In looking at the impacts of the UK Online Safety act, a huge takeaway is not more transparency, but rather the emergence of a thicket of snarled law you must wade through to understand anything

Which of course increases dependence on European consultancy now necessary to meet compliance standards…
Keeping up with UKOS is fine if you have a giant public policy team like Meta or Alphabet. But for me, or small NGOs, or Wikimedia... It's a meaningful barrier that you can't understand what is going on without reading twenty interconnected documents and understanding a complex procedural history.
August 13, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
OK, I read the UK ruling about Wikipedia and the Online Safety Act, and... I definitely don't recommend it. Unless you enjoy the elevation of process over substance, in which case go for it.

www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
www.judiciary.uk
August 12, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
just like cigarette companies and McDonald’s trying to hook kids young, scanning faces with liveness detection (for a population that may not have an ID or credit card yet) means collecting their biometric data and getting them used to handing it over early
August 6, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Kerry Maeve Sheehan
the roll out age verification in the UK has clearly been devastating (clear examples of censorship & discrimination, & they’re scanning young people’s faces) but if platforms are also now blocking VPN workarounds that’s the end of the ability to “freely travel” online
August 6, 2025 at 5:43 PM