iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Today Senator Blackburn is expected to try ramming KOSA--the Kids Online Safety Act--through the Senate via unanimous consent. KOSA was an Internet censorship bill in its inception, and in 4 years the only thing its authors have done is try to disguise KOSA's nature rather than fix it.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 4h

hear me out: maybe the problem is that oaths of office don't include a slap across the face.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 21h

The dig at the Senator from Missouri about knowing Midwest sports teams was pretty savage. Gotta respect it.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 29/09/2026

Congratulations, you've "invented" the mobile home.

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Reposted by Ari Cohn

TechFreedom @techfreedom.org · 24/09/2026

How far can the government go when a president doesn’t like what a broadcaster says? On a new Tech Policy Podcast, @aricohn.com and @berinszoka.bsky.social are joined by @thefireorg.bsky.social’s Bob Corn-Revere to unpack the escalating fight between ABC and the FCC. tinyurl.com/5xzkj37n

techfreedom.simplecast.com

440: The Fellas at the Freaking FCC | Tech Policy Podcast

How far can the government go when a president doesn’t like what a broadcaster says? Host Ari Cohn is joined by Berin Szóka (TechFreedom) and Bob Corn-Revere (FIRE) to unpack the escalating fight betw...

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 24/09/2026

I never feel as simultaneously old and adolescent as when I empty the dishwasher at 6am and think to myself, "Hell yea it's gonna be a good day. A productive day."

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 22/09/2026

Depriving students of "one of the best ways to learn something" because other students might cheat (newsflash: some students will find a way to cheat on anything you choose) seems like a highly questionable pedagogical choice.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 19/09/2026

AI hatred continues to expose how many are so poorly-read that they don't recognize proper punctuation and writing styles. The problem is less AI and more idiots who are more obsessed with rooting out its use than being semi-literate. And that's from someone who refuses to use AI for writing.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 19/09/2026

Staying up all night to mix a track was a lot more fun when I was younger (and also not trying to extract usable dialogue from people who seem to have been recoding on the Titan submersible during implosion)

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 15/09/2026

Irrespective of literally everything else, Ed Sheeran and Macklemore sounds like the absolute worst kind of Geriatric Millennial Sad Wine Mom Tour lineup. Good God. Why.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 13/09/2026

Absolutely gross. What a disgrace.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 13/09/2026

Not invited for cheesecake on the lanai

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 11/09/2026

People are worried about AI-generated academia and meanwhile Human Slop continues to evade detection.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 06/09/2026

The Substance might have had a shot at being a halfway decent movie if it was an hour shorter. What an overrated chore of a movie.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 05/09/2026

A deep fingertip slice is by far the worst everyday injury. There's literally no way to live your life and not aggravate it.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 02/09/2026

13 feet is much farther than a human driver would likely have stopped. This is unserious.

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Rhett Derrick @lawzag.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Meta: I have a new plan? Ari: Is it a real new plan, or is it the tobacco master settlement agreement. Meta, frowning: Tobacco master settlement agreement.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 26/08/2026

Meta appears to be attempting regulatory capture via litigation settlement. It could backfire, if competitors have the courage to advertise their offerings as ones that do not impose government-demanded restrictions on user speech.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 25/08/2026

I refuse to believe her name is really "Jennica Pounds." What is this, Deep Throat State?

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 24/08/2026

Bragging about using process as punishment is certainly a choice.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 24/08/2026

Here's the thing: AI actually *is* here to stay, and there are many legitimate uses for it. Refusing to engage with reality because you've got apprehensiona makes you just as deluded & crazy as the biggest AI booster (or CEO). If you want to argue for moderatibg uses, fine. But live in reality.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 21/08/2026

I am renewing my call for a wealthy benefactor who will finance purchases of homes under HOA rule so I can drive the association members to the point of insanity, destroy the HOA from the inside/through lawfare, and then move on to the next one. www.news9.com/oklahoma-cit...

news9.com

Oklahoma City woman faces HOA fines for window AC during summer heat

Krystal Deak says she needs the window unit after her HVAC system caught fire, but her HOA says it violates neighborhood rules and will fine her $50 a week.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 21/08/2026

My first episode as host has arrived at last

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 20/08/2026

S.O. has been desperately trying to convince me that he ordered this "by accident." The more I look at it (or rather, it looks at me...) the less I believe him.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 19/08/2026

Bilzerian is obviously a total sack, but Randy Fine is reaping exactly the kind of politics he has sown.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 18/08/2026

Convincing institutions to stand up to the government when it threatens them over speech has required public pressure (and support) TechFreedom worked tirelessly to assemble a bipartisan coalition of former FCC officials to speak out and encourage exactly the kind of pushback ABC has embarked on ⤵️

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 18/08/2026

1/ It's taken perhaps longer than some of us would have preferred, but it seems to have sunk in that paying the extortionists only nets further extortion. The American public has been in the terrible position of having its right to receive information curtailed and chilled without effective remedy.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 18/08/2026

When you let the AI do your eyebrows

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 17/08/2026

"College students are partying TOO much!" "College students aren't partying ENOUGH" "There's a loneliness epidemic" "Loneliness is caused by technology that makes it easier to be connected to people" I swear people just want to pathologize being human. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 17/08/2026

I guess this is true if the definition of "defended the legality of" is "tried to deport people and revoke/dent visas for" brusselssignal.eu/2026/08/unde...

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 13/08/2026

My phone seems to think I'm some kind of archaeological Sir Mix-a-Lot and I truthfully have no explanation.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 11/08/2026

Well, S.O. has finally achieved Real Chicagoan status. The tornado alert hit our phones and the sirens started wailing outside, and the first thing he did was go out on the front balcony to check if he could see any tornadoes.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 11/08/2026

Over the past couple years it has continuously struck me how simultaneously timeless and ahead of its time Judd Hirsch's rant on the first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was. youtu.be/Ky_MlTQOb40?...

youtu.be

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip opening speech

YouTube video by NBCUniversaldist

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 10/08/2026

Oh boy did you read this city wrong. Keep your overpriced crap in NYC where it belongs, WatchHouse. You can get excellent coffee for not even 25% of that price around here.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 10/08/2026

I will never let semi-literate, poorly-read ding-dongs dictate how I write.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 09/08/2026

Just recently I warned (again) that online safety bills like KOSA/KIDS Act (and many others) threaten legitimate, protected discourse on topics like drugs or alcohol. As if to prove my point... platformpolemics.aricohn.com/p/the-kids-a...

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 09/08/2026

You can often tell whether someone is a masochist by whether or not they use banana plugs for their speakers.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 05/08/2026

Today Senate Commerce marks up several Bad Internet Bills, including KOSA - which for years experts have warned violates the 1st Amendment. Instead of fixing the problems, its sponsors denied they exist & tried to disguise them with obfuscatory language My statement: techfreedom.org/kosa-still-v...

KOSA has been an Internet censorship bill from the start.
It imposes what courts have refused—on First Amendment grounds—to impose for
decades: a duty to protect listeners from subjective, unknowable reactions to
constitutionally protected speech.
It creates a "papers please" social media regime where every single social media user
will be forced to identify themselves before speaking on social media, undermining
their constitutional right to read and speak anonymously, and enabling government
retaliation against disfavored ideas and expression.
And it hands the Federal Trade Commission — which has of late granted itself the
authority to enforce what it thinks customers should want rather than protect against
actual deception — a ready-made tool to coerce platforms into removing speech it
dislikes from the Internet.
Despite years of warnings from experts and civil society across the political and
ideological spectrum, KOSA's sponsors have stubbornly refused to acknowledge and
fix these critical First Amendment problems. They have instead attempted to hide
them behind increasingly obfuscatory language. But the First Amendment is not so
easily fooled, and the Commerce Committee must put an end to this constitutional
fiasco once and for all.

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Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 04/08/2026

The Second Amendment must protect the right to bear EMPs.

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Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

9th Cir. holds that the Bad Spaniels parody toy of a Jack Daniel's bottle is unlikely to harm the reputation of Jack Daniel's trademarks *because* it is parody. Held: no dilution by tarnishment; remanded for entry of judgment in favor of Bad Spaniels maker. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

After all, no matter how similar to its famous counterpart, a parodic junior mark ultimately “relies upon a difference from the original mark, presumably a humorous difference, in order to produce its desired effect.” Jordache Enters. v. Hogg Wyld, Ltd., 828 F.2d 1482, 1486 (10th Cir. 1987). Dr. Simonson’s analysis ignored the effect of a “humorous difference” on whether Bad Spaniels harms the reputation of JDPI’s famous marks. To be sure, the district court credited Dr. Simonson’s conclusion that the first step of his dilution analysis was satisfied “because the point of VIP’s product was to bring Jack Daniel’s whiskey to mind”; that conclusion was based on VIP’s transparently parodic use. But there is no evidence that Dr. Simonson considered the parodic nature of VIP’s junior marks when building Jack Daniel’s ANM, or that satire otherwise factored into his analysis of the mental association between the disputed marks. Parody, however, is inherent in the Bad Spaniels product—indeed, as Dr. Simonson recognized, it was the “whole point.” Failing to consider the effect of VIP’s obvious parody on the likelihood of tarnishment was a critical misstep, and the district court erred in adopting the conclusions that followed.

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Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 04/08/2026

The Free Speech Brigade going after Americans "for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission". (It was never about free speech and I sincerely hope that every single media outlet is aware of this now...) www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

To unmask anonymous online critics, DHS has sent hundreds of subpoenas to social-media companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Its agents have tracked down Americans at work and on the road, asking them to sign letters acknowledging their online speech about ICE “may” be a crime.

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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 04/08/2026

Congress: “We’ve tried nothing and we’re fresh out of ideas.”

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