Yaël Ossowski RSS Feed

The present federal threat of kratom and 7-OH ‘panic policy’

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 11:53:00 +0100

While the instinct to regulate is an appropriate one, the tool of prohibition is a costly one.

The lesson of the 2016 fight to keep kratom off the DEA’s scheduling list was that federal agencies cannot ignore science and invoke “public health” without evidence. The knee-jerk response to emergency-scheduling of kratom and its key alkaloids was based in fear and not facts, and consumer sentiment and activism eventually turned the tide.

The boomerang effect from legacy kratom manufacturers

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:54:00 +0100

The legacy kratom manufacturing industry is reaching for the same tactics that almost banned their products and had their consumers criminalized a decade ago.

There’s a unique twist in the story about kratom in the United States that should make veterans of 2016’s scheduling attempt rather uneasy.

A decade ago, the kratom community watched the machinery of the federal government attempt to prohibit kratom in a loose and fast way. The substance was slandered as an Internet fad and public health menace.

The Pentagon Just Fired Anthropic: The AI Surveillance War Begins

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:55:00 +0100

In this episode of The Bitcoin Layer, Nik welcomes back Yaël Ossowski, Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, to break down the escalating standoff between Anthropic and the Pentagon.

They examine how Claude was reportedly used in the Venezuela raid, why Anthropic is drawing a hard line against warrantless surveillance and autonomous weapons, and the political fault lines forming between AI safety and permissionless innovation.

Yaël unpacks the third party doctrine and its direct implications for Bitcoiners’ financial privacy, and they close with a look at how the massive AI capex buildout is reshaping the U.S. economy and what it means for Bitcoin in the broader macro picture.

The (short) history of kratom policy in the United States

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 10:51:00 +0100

When the federal government attempted to use its regulatory authority to schedule the popular plant-based substance known as kratom in 2016, it learned an important lesson about science, stigma, and the limits of prohibitionist policy.

For the federal health establishment, kratom was an obscure botanical turned Internet trend, something best controlled through enforcement. It was seen as a product people didn’t understand, used by people the government didn’t listen to, and therefore it was treated as a problem to be eliminated rather than a behavior to be made safer.

Worried about AI Surveillance? Obliterate the Third-Party Doctrine

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:12:00 +0100

The showdown between the Department of War (Defense) and Anthropic over a government contract reveals a lot about American society’s relationship with technology and its governing institutions.

For one, we’re dealing with the advent of innovative technology that can be deployed and used by consumers and businesses to improve lives. But we’re also seeing that same technology be readily adopted by the largest and most consequential parts of the US government.

Canadian Politicians Cannot Blame an AI Chatbot for a Horrific Shooting Its Own Institutions Missed

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0100

When a tragedy occurs, the instinct to assign blame is understandable. Fingers are pointed, rhetoric gets heated, and calls for accountability mount.

However, we cannot allow these knee-jerk reactions to cloud the fallout of a horrific event to push a pre-existing policy agenda. Especially before the ink dries on the official police reports.

In this specific scenario, we’re talking about the unconscionable shooting that took place in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia on February 10, 2026, where 8 people were slain, and 27 were injured by gunfire before the depraved shooter took their own life.

Supreme Court tariff ruling a victory for consumers, balance of power

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:41:00 +0100

Yaël Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center join FOX 5 DC’s Jim Lokay to put an extra positive spin on the US Supreme Court’s ruling against President Trump’s executive tariffs.

Not only will this be a boon to consumers and their pocketbooks, it’s also a victory for the American system that splits power among three separate but co-equal branches.

Video on Fox 5 DC’s website here.

Is Bitcoin the Only Blockchain Immune to Political Corruption?

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:00:00 +0100

Bitcoin’s decentralized design makes it uniquely resistant to corruption—and Washington’s digital asset regulation should reflect that distinction.

The last few months have given us a masterclass in why the broader “crypto” ecosystem remains a minefield of political entanglement, self-dealing, and outright corruption. It also clarifies, for those of us who understand the technology, why Bitcoin stands apart.

Unlike company-issued crypto tokens, Bitcoin is an open-source, decentralized cryptocurrency with no board of directors or legal entity. It is created and maintained by code running on computers competing to solve the next block.

Putting Social Media On Trial Puts All Future Tech At Risk

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0100

On Forum Daily News, Yaël Ossowski speaks about a civil lawsuit in Los Angeles threatens to shape the future of tech innovation in the United States and globally.

On @forumdailynews, Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski discusses what is at stake in the trial, what plaintiffs are looking for, and how negating parental responsibility while casting tech as a villain will spell trouble for consumers who rely on innovative technology.

Have regulations ruined ride-hailing?

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Regulations ruined ride-hailing, Vienna edition.

Since 2021 in Austria, all ride-sharing, ride-hailing, and “digital dispatch” apps (services like Uber and Bolt) are regulated as taxi services.

For anyone to drive another person for money, no matter the arrangement, they are required to hold a Taxi license.

This was passed by the Austrian Parliament in 2020, under the ÖVP-Green coalition, mainly as an initiative of the Green party to ensure “fair competition under equal conditions”.

The E.U. Wants 'Deforestation-Free' Products. Consumers May Pay the Cost

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In its effort to protect global forests, the E.U. is imposing complex tracking requirements that could raise prices and create new trade hurdles.

Are the products you’re buying BPA-free? Nut-free? How about GMO-free? If the European Union (E.U.) has its way, we’ll soon be adding a new label to our shopping list vocabulary: “deforestation-free.”

Far from being another joke at the expense of Europe and its regulatory self-sabotage, this is precisely the aim of the E.U.’s 2023 Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which began applying to large companies last December, and will extend to small and medium-sized firms in June.

Kennedy's Lawfare Agenda Isn't What MAGA Bargained For

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A day doesn’t pass in Washington without some kind of new health controversy grabbing headlines and inviting fresh skepticism of national health authorities. 5G and brain health. Tylenol causes autism. Vaccine confusion galore. Though we survived the excesses of the COVID era and its dizzying health recommendations, those days aren’t necessarily behind us. It’s just changed flavors to be a bit more MAHA.

The almost whimsical claims advanced by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. are precisely what he did for years as a plaintiff attorney. He made it his mission to extract money from every industry possible in courtrooms and at settlement conference tables. Now he’s taken that show to the highest levels of government, and MAGA doesn’t seem to mind. But they should.

Trump’s credit card interest rate cap is a lose-lose

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

President Trump started 2026 with new fights on many fronts, including one that may even excite the left-wing flank in Washington — a battle with the consumer lending industry. On Truth Social last week, the president declared Americans will no longer be “ripped off” by the credit card industry, endorsing a one-year cap on interest rates at 10 percent.

Legal and constitutional questions aside, although this latest Trumpnomics move may win favor in some corners of the midterm electorate, the idea is not particularly new. In fact, it’s ripped directly from a bill introduced last year by populist duo Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), which proposes a permanent federal 10 percent annual percentage rate cap on personal credit cards.

We Can’t ‘True Crime’ Our Way to Fairer Courts

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If the true crime phenomenon on streaming platforms and podcasts has proven anything in the recent decade, apart from our collective addiction to onscreen misery, it’s that courtrooms and science don’t mix well. “”

A popular Netflix series “Exhibit A” explores dozens of cases muddied by fringe scientific evidence, including Touch DNA, cadaver dogs and blood splatter evidence. Another new series on Hulu, “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox,” reveals a farcical Italian murder trial driven by badly interpreted evidence, resulting in Knox having her freedom stripped away for four years.

Fruit Loops on trial: The harbinger of all bad lawsuits to come

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The companies behind Tony the Tiger, Fruit Loops, Heinz ketchup, Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Lucky Charms are lawyering up as the government takes them to court. Earlier this month, San Francisco launched a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against major food manufacturers, blaming them for the obesity and health crisis that has become a rallying cry for progressive activists and Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

“These companies created a public health crisis with the engineering and marketing of ultra-processed foods,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, who brought the suit on behalf of the state of California.

RFK Had His Shot at HHS, but MAGA Should Move On

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Not more than a year ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a handsomely paid partner for the injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, the largest and most profitable firm in the country, with a reputation as a reliable Democratic megadonor and interest group. As the controversial HHS Secretary enters his second year, RFK’s record thus far looks less like MAGA and more like California-liberal lawfare on federal government steroids.

So far, some of the major initiatives undertaken by RFK include an AI-chatbot-infested MAHA commission report riddled with technical errors, a muddled vaccine discouragement program, and a bureaucratic misfire of dismissing 954 employees only to rehire them a few weeks later.

The perils of Australia's under-16 social media ban | Yaël Ossowski on Forum Daily News

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4odiEoSGY

Australia’s under-16 social media ban is now live. On ‪@ForumDailyNews‬, Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski drilled through implications of social media bans and age-gating, why such schemes are unworkable and detrimental to privacy and security online, and why they’re likely coming soon to other countries.

December 10, 2025 https://consumerchoicecenter.org

COP30 & Climate Energy Politics Explained | Yael Ossowski on Tony Kinnett Show

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZxPA8ptPRs

I was invited on the Tony Kinnett show to break down the realities behind COP30, climate accords, and rising energy costs for consumers. From carbon credits to EU net-zero plans, we delve into the complexities of global climate policy and its implications for your finances.

Are we allowed to plan our own retirement?

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For decades, Americans have been told their 401(k) is “their” retirement, but when it comes to managing those funds, most find they have little to no control. Tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k) plans, Roth IRAs, Health Savings Accounts, and 403(b) plans generously reward people for setting money aside toward their golden years, and that comes with restrictions on the 6 in 10 Americans with some type of retirement plan.

Most of these accounts are maintained by third-party administrators hired by employers and hosted on convoluted legacy investing platforms. Plans limit investors who want more custom options for their 401(k), whether that be in the range of stocks or funds they can invest in, or how they’re able to engage outside help for advice. So if 401(k)s were intended to give Americans ownership over their future retirement, why are hopeful retirees so limited in what they can choose?

Climate lawfare is raising our energy bills, slowing our economy

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Trump administration is taking a well-earned victory lap after successfully delaying a carbon tax on the shipping and logistics industry at a United Nations meeting in London last month.

“The U.S. achieved a diplomatic victory and successfully rallied a coalition to stop the body’s proposed ‘net-zero framework,’” wrote Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the effort to delay by one year a proposal to implement new climate rules at the International Maritime Organization.

Republicans Are Walking Into a Trap on Section 230 Repeal

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling our legal system.

The twenty-six words tucked into the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded publishers from liability so they could host and moderate content and still allow a wide range of speech without fear of lawsuits. Since then, Section 230 has evolved to be one of the most powerful legal shields in the nation against civil litigation in U.S. courts. This gave the early digital economy the guardrails it needed to thrive by incentivizing creatives and disruptors to bring their big ideas to life.

Mr. President, Leave Wind Projects Alone

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Energy is getting very expensive for American households. NPR reported as recently as August that one in six families struggles to pay their utility bills, and energy costs nationwide are outpacing inflation by more than 100 percent.

New Englanders aren’t crazy to suspect their electric bills increased this year, and winter has yet to even arrive. Something must change, and while President Trump is right to point out the high costs and practical challenges of getting energy to New England, he’s wrong to close the door on certain sources.

If you want fewer Internet outages, more data centers!

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The US-east-1 outage of October 20th, 2025 explains why we need yet more data centers and energy capacity.

Yesterday, Internet users in the US and abroad awoke to some kind of errors and issues when loading their favorite websites and services. A global outage!

Hundreds of thousands of users flocked to real time monitoring websites like Downdetector to see why apps weren’t loading, email was delayed, and why even some credit card payments weren’t processed.

RFK’s Tylenol-autism link bails out his class action lawsuit-industry friends

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The federal health bureaucracy’s latest health advice deals with Tylenol, pregnancy, and a supposed link to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It’s a controversial flag for the Trump administration to plant, but it’s on-brand for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who knows precisely what he’s doing.

RFK Jr. is relying on select studies and questionable experts for his autism claims, using the bully pulpit of federal power to issue new warnings and guidance that will prove fodder in future lawsuits. Kennedy made his career as a tort lawyer suing companies, halting projects, and twisting science to achieve symbolic courtroom wins that reaped his firm hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Aussie experiment with ‘online safety’ is going about as well as you would expect

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Australian eSafety Commissioner is using the Online Safety Act to force online platforms to take down certain videos, or else.

The Anglosphere is in the midst of yet another drawn-out battle questioning the limits of freedom of speech, online safety, and the ability for online users to share information on their social media networks.

As my colleagues James Czerniawski and Mike Salem have covered extensively, the rollout of the Online Safety Act in the United Kingdom has focused on the first-order impact of users having to verify their ID when logging on to specific websites. The data and privacy risks inherent in that are clear, and considering the law has only been in effect for a few months, there will be even more second-order impacts to report on and outrage users.

The Shutdown's 800-pound Gorilla: Healthcare is political because the federal government dominates it

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Like a broken clock, a reboot of a superhero movie, or a rehabilitation of Charlie Sheen, Americans faced with yet another shutdown of the federal government.

With funding that expired on September 30th at midnight, the usual partisan fights are evolving and devolving in Washington, D.C., breaking open the fissures of the cobbled-together mess of the spending process that seems to create a budgetary crisis at every fiscal deadline.

This time, however, it’s not about a border wall or the debt ceiling (we’re currently over $37 trillion, btw) but rather about an obscure health insurance subsidy that impacts millions of patients and consumers across the country.

Lawyers call Bitcoin Core v30 CSAM concerns ‘overblown’

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was interviewed by Protos about the ongoing Bitcoin node debate between Core and Knots.

Though I’m not a lawyer, I know enough about Section 230 and existing judicial precedent that Bitcoin noderunners aren’t liable for what’s on the blockchain:

Bitcoin Policy Institute Fellow and Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director, Yaël Ossowski

According to Ossowski, “The amateur legal theory dogmatically espoused by a certain swathe of Bitcoiners about illegal content on the blockchain serves more as a justification for filtering than reasonable legal analysis.”

Ohio needs sensible regulations on kratom, not another war on a helpful drug

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The state of Ohio is in a mini-panic about the kratom plant and its derivative alkaloids, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). We should be cautious before we launch the next war on drugs, which would cause further harm to consumers and families.

Driven by some fear-mongering headlines, industry lobbying, and even Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calling the drugs “gas station heroin” (cheeky enough for a former heroin addict), the momentum is enough that Ohio’s leaders have been called on to act.

RFK's Tylenol Claims Are Expected To Fuel Wave of Lawsuits

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was interviewed by the New York Sun on the latest announcements by RFK Jr. surrounding Tylenol and acetaminophen, and how this will supercharge the lawsuit industry:

The deputy director at the Consumer Choice Center, Yaël Ossowski, says a district judge threw out the case because the expert testimonies used by the plaintiﬀs were determined to lean on dubious studies to make their case.

“It can’t be forgotten that one of the expert witnesses that was in that trial, who the judge lambasted, is essentially the Harvard researcher who’s being cited in most of these Tylenol warnings now by the government,” Mr. Ossowski tells the New York Sun. “So, the same individual who was eﬀectively called out for improper science testimony in this trial is the one that’s being relied upon for this evidence in the government’s new warning.”

FOX 5: The EU vs US on Big Tech Regulation

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Egle Markeviciute and Yael Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center join FOX 5 DC Jim Lokay to break down the clash between European regulators and American tech companies.

https://youtu.be/W1rQ8a1nYFw?si=_UQJ3JAomTejmzB_

“Chat Control betrays Europe’s self-professed image as a protector of human rights” —Free Speech Advocate Yaël Ossowski

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yaël Ossowski is the deputy director at the Consumer Choice Center, a leading advocate of privacy rights and freedom of expression, with offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Yaël Ossowski Photo: Consumer Choice Center

He spoke with europeanconservative.com’s Rafael Pinto Borges about ‘Chat Control,’ the controversial electronic messaging surveillance law currently under discussion in the European Council. The Council is expected to formalize its position on the Danish version of Chat Control on September 12th in preparation for a vote on October 14th.

Time is running out for EU Member States to decide on Chat Control

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On September 12, European Member States will have to finalize their positions on the proposed regulation to force client-side scanning of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in messaging apps, also known as Chat Control.

While the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU has previously stated they will push for CSAM-scanning during their Presidency, the number of people and political groups articulating opposition to automatic scanning of private communications, effectively ending end-to-end encryption, is growing.

Trump Is Bullying the EU — And Should Do It More

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Europe regulates, America innovates. It’s a popular meme on social media, and thanks to our Change-Agent-In-Chief, President Trump, we can add to that: Trump dominates.

The president’s recent executive actions to reverse discriminatory regulations and “non-tariff barriers” aimed at U.S. tech giants, not to mention snarky comments on free speech, have changed the game on how far-reaching European regulations impact users here at home. Trump even laid into Europe on Truth Social, declaring they could no longer treat US firms as both a “piggy bank” and a “doormat.”

Why Letitia James's Zelle Lawsuit Will Not Stop Fraud

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Letitia James is once again ramping up the lawfare machine from her perch as New York Attorney General. This time, rather than pursuing presidential candidates or thwarting DOGE cuts to the bureaucracy, she’s directing legal firepower at fraudsters using peer-to-peer finance apps, specifically Zelle.

Oddly, it’s not the well-documented networks of scammers and fraudsters using finance apps to lure unsuspecting New Yorkers into financial oblivion that are getting the bulk of James’ ire, but bankers. In a lawsuit filed last week, James is suing the banking consortium that owns Zelle—made up of Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, and others, for failing to catch more instances of consumer fraud.

DEA stonewalling is allowing cannabis black markets to thrive

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Walk into a few downtown bodegas or corner stores in a moderately sized American town, and you’ll likely find at least one selling some kind of cannabis product. Whether it’s CBD, Delta-8, HHC, or another synthetic derived from the cannabis plant, the simple truth is that these products are now openly bought, traded, and sold in states, whether it’s legal or illegal.

The latter comes with minimal safeguards and consumer confusion.

Return of Chat Control: something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Scandinavian state has been a stalwart supporter of CSAM scanning and chat control. Now, they hold the keys to make it a reality.

To break encryption, or not to break encryption, that is the question.

Across the continent, tech-native Europeans are spinning up new LLMs and AI chatbots on their phones and computers and connecting with friends on end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. But that experience may soon change.

In Brussels, the Commission, Danish Presidency, and Member States will be trying (once again) to revive the CSAM/chat control that would effectively break encryption online in the name of combatting child sexual abuse material, a process more colloquially known as “chat control”.

Trump’s Energy Reset: Dismantling Biden’s Climate Lawfare Legacy

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Comer investigation underscores why we should consider federal lawfare liability reforms that would put most of these frivolous cases to rest.

President Trump’s push to boost energy affordability by slashing green regulations and climate lawfare has been a powerful yet undercovered plank of his second term. Drastically changing course from the energy-restrictive policies of “Bidenomics” is a key factor that propelled Trump back to the White House. To keep pace, Congress is launching a fresh probe into the complex network and funding of lawsuits aimed at undermining affordable energy projects.

The direct primary care reform that may supercharge healthcare competition and patient choice

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nudged within the “One Big Beautiful Bill” is a small tax provision that may only apply to a small number of consumers, but it could have outlasting positive impacts on how healthcare services are delivered to American patients.

Beginning in 2026, American patients who engage the services of a doctor at a direct primary care clinic will be allowed to use their tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts to pay the subscripted fees charged by the clinic, as those payments will now qualify as “medical expenses” and this arrangement is not a “health insurance plan”.

TFTC #642: Building Bitcoin Policy with Yaël Ossowski

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/SOLOChDFfO4?si=K5dlHtNXnXJY8PY2

Yaël Ossowski from the Bitcoin Policy Institute discusses everything fake in modern society while exploring Bank Secrecy Act reform and negative versus positive rights in Bitcoin policy. The conversation covers Section 230 for energy policy, Fed independence concerns amid Treasury merger speculation, and Trump administration plans.

Topics include weaponized financial surveillance, Bitcoin developer protection, de minimis tax rules, and energy infrastructure challenges. Yael explains how the Bank Secrecy Act creates compliance burdens while failing to stop money laundering, and why negative rights approaches better protect Bitcoin users than positive legislation. The discussion touches on housing market corrections, Argentina’s economic reforms under Milei, and the need for blockchain regulatory certainty to protect developers building decentralized tools.

Crypto's Big Moment | Yael Ossowski on Mike Mozingo Show

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/FNNnMtpXbo0?si=ktfqWprHchoiifPj

The United States Congress passed the country’s first major standalone crypto bill. The landmark vote signals a sea change in the U.S. stance toward these digital currencies. The House approved the GENIUS Bill with a 308-122 vote with significant bipartisan support, adopting regulations for a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins that many believe will change the world of commerce for the better. Yael Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center weighed in on the crypto revolution on 94.3FM KNews in Palm Springs.

Can the U.S. Lead in AI Without Killing Innovation?

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/xPq2W7tLCnY?si=_EfhFCE7_uUqP7JG

In this episode, Demian Schatt welcomes back Yaël Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center and Bitcoin Policy Institute to break down the growing fight over AI regulation in the U.S. Yaël explains why a federal moratorium on state-level AI laws was proposed, how it fell out of Trump’s tech bill, and what it means for developers facing a patchwork of conflicting rules.

He highlights the threat of the “California spillover,” compares it to Europe’s AI Act, and argues that decentralized innovation needs clear federal standards, not 1,000 competing laws. From copyright lawsuits to energy restrictions on data centers, Yaël maps the legal landmines ahead and makes the case for open-source, privacy-first tools as the path forward.

Is your password healthy? | Yaël Ossowski on DC News Now's Tech Talk

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/M0iMct30mPg

Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski was interviewed on DC News Now’s Tech Talk give advice on password security, passkeys, two-factor authentication, and explain why consumers should start anonymizing their emails and randomly generating their passwords for max security.

July 11, 2025

https://www.dcnewsnow.com/tech-talk/tech-talk-checking-in-on-how-healthy-your-passwords-are/

Bitcoiners may not care about the government, but government cares about them | Yaël Ossowski at 2025 Bitcoin Policy Summit

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://youtu.be/NNP7TdN__Go

Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director and Bitcoin Policy Institute Fellow Yaël Ossowski presents the"Congressional Guide to Bitcoin" at the 2025 Bitcoin Policy Summit.

This includes reforms for De Minimis Taxation Exemptions, reforms of the Bank Secrecy Act, and changes to the Fannie Mae Selling Guide to allow Bitcoin and its crypto-offspring to be used as collateral for mortgages and home financing.

https://www.btcpolicy.org/articles/the-congressional-guide-to-bitcoin

June 25, 2025

We Need a Section 230 for Energy Production

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nearly thirty years ago, an obscure liability section of law aimed at restricting online porn powered a revolution for the Internet and online commerce. Now, in the age of the AI boom and a global resource crunch, we need the same principle put to use for American energy.

Section 230, tucked within the 1996 Communications Decency Act, exempted online companies from liability for third-party content. Without Section 230, known as the “twenty six words that created the Internet,” the expansive world of cyberspace that we know today simply wouldn’t exist. This law birthed a free-flowing and lightly regulated Internet, free from liability claims, to deliver millions of online services and websites now worth trillions.

Crypto 'Wrench Attack" Robberies, Consumer Security & Trump's Bitcoin policy | Yael Ossowski on CNN

Thu, 29 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMkQUYjz9j0

Yaël Ossowski of the Consumer Choice Center and Bitcoin Policy Institute joined CNN to reflect on recent crypto-related crimes that threaten consumer privacy, the federal bank secrecy laws that make purchasing Bitcoin and crypto assets riskier and make our data vulnerable, and the prospects for consumers to benefit from positive reforms from the Trump Administration on Bitcoin and crypto policy.

May 29, 2025

Legal advertising needs to be ready for AI boom

Thu, 29 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every industry in the world is scrambling to put artificial intelligence tools to creative use, and America’s robust sector of lawyers, law firms, and jurists is no exception.

Judges have hilariously busted lawyers for using ChatGPT to hallucinate court citations in briefs, and AI-generated attorneys have pleaded for their clients and faced ridicule online. There have been AI videos created using court transcripts from cases where no cameras were allowed, bringing cases to life rather ingeniously.

The government’s weak case to "break off" Instagram

Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For the last five weeks, an agency of the Federal government has attempted to convince a judge that Meta should be forcibly broken up for parts.

FTC v. Meta is nearing closing statements and could be decided in the weeks to come.

Social media influencers, small businesses advertisers, and roaming bands of phone scrollers have their online experiences on trial. That’s millions, if not billions of users not just in the United States but around the globe.

Regulators should champion FinTech innovations for retirement investing

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Like many people my age, I have serious doubts about the long-term viability of Social Security and whether or not I’ll ever get a check once I hang up the proverbial hard hat. I have a ways to go, but I do think about it often. Time flies.

Government projections aside, the only reasonable path most of us have to fully fund our golden retirement years (apart from early purchases of Bitcoin) will be tax-advantaged investing accounts. There are several to choose from including HSAs, IRAs, 401ks, 529 plans, and a few others. But when it comes to FinTech innovations for those accounts and services to help people fund their retirement, too many state regulators are closing doors on new tech tools, depriving consumers of choice in preparing for retirement.

The FTC’s shell game on social media ‘monopolies’

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Washington, D.C. this week, government lawyers wrapped up their antitrust lawsuit arguing that Instagram should be broken off from its parent company. The same for WhatsApp.

The company Meta, formerly Facebook, has been in a long protracted legal battle over its decade-old acquisitions of the photo sharing app Instagram and messaging app WhatsApp.

While those acquisitions were largely panned at the time – if not outright ridiculed as risky bets – the fact that the investments paid off and the apps have grown in popularity has done nothing to keep the government’s trustbusters at bay.

Trust Revolution Podcast

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

S01E05 Yaël Ossowski by Shawn Yeager

The balance of power between individuals and institutions is shifting.

Read on Substack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq_3pRxNFKw

In this episode of Trust Revolution, Shawn welcomes Yaël Ossowski, a consumer advocate and Bitcoin policy expert, for a candid discussion on the shifting balance of power between individuals and institutions.

Yaël shares his global perspective, shaped by living under multiple governments, from Canada to the U.S. to Austria. As Deputy Director of the Consumer Choice Center and a Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, he unpacks how overreach during the pandemic exposed institutional distrust, why agencies like the CFPB often hinder innovation, and how Bitcoin and decentralized technologies empower individuals to reclaim control. From vaping to stablecoins, they explore how consumer choice and sound money are fueling consumer empowerment.