@thomaskadri
Associate Prof at the University of Georgia School of Law • Incoming Prof & Senior Fellow at the University of Miami • Working on digital speech, privacy & abuse • Legislative & Policy Director at the Clinic to End Tech Abuse at Cornell
Check out our article — Brokering Safety — for the full proposal of how to regulate brokered abuse through a centralized system enabling abuse victims to obscure their information across all data brokers with a single request: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Excellent & empathetic reporting by @iododds.bsky.social in @the-independent.com about data brokers & interpersonal abuse, with smart quotes from @samadler.bsky.social & mentions of our forthcoming @califlrev.bsky.social article w/ @chinmayisharma.bsky.social. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
Honored! Anyone curious to read the article can find it here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for naming my piece with @thomaskadri.bsky.social on Deepfake Torts as one of the top ten “Downloads of the Year” for 2025!
legaltheoryblog.com/2026/01/01/d...
As deepfake technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and accessible, American lawmakers are responding with a flurry of urgent legislative action to address its potential harms. Our 50-state survey of proposed and enacted deepfake legislation reveals a complex regulatory landscape in which jurisdictions are adopting a range of legal approaches, including criminal punishments, civil remedies, or a combination of methods. We also find that legislators are frequently turning to tort-law frameworks to address the harms of deepfakes. This article explores the current landscape of tort-based regulations of deepfakes. In addition to providing an overview of the most recent legislative developments, we unpack and compare the various tort-law methods arising at the state and federal level. We further consider how lawmakers are modifying existing tort laws to address the unique concerns raised by deepfakes. While individualistic tort remedies allow victims of deepfakes to seek direct recourse through familiar private rights of action, our analysis also identifies practical and conceptual limitations with this approach. Traditional tort frameworks struggle to address key challenges posed by deepfakes, including anonymous creation, viral distribution at technological scale, and harms affecting both individuals and society broadly. In light of these limitations, legislators are innovatively adapting traditional tort concepts—such as standing, mental states, causation, immunities, and remedies—to address deepfakes’ unique characteristics. Yet the very need for these adaptations reveals some of tort law’s shortcomings and suggests a space for complementary regulatory approaches. We consider some potential approaches that could provide this more complete framework, like tort liability for entities that enable deepfake creation and circulation, and civil enforcement mechanisms that empower state actors to vindicate both individual and societal interests. Ultimately, our finding…
My new piece with @sonjawest.bsky.social is live in the Journal of Tort Law!
Our original 50-state survey of 466 deepfake laws reveals a complex landscape in which lawmakers are experimenting with novel criminal, civil & administrative tools to address deepfakes. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Can't wait to dive into this! Nothing like some smart obscurity takes to start the week.
If you fancy a meta experience today, consider listening to an AI-generated workshop from @christianturner.bsky.social's enTalkenator of my article with @sonjawest.bsky.social about AI-generated deepfakes being featured as DoTW by @lsolum.bsky.social! www.entalkenator.com/podcast/work...
Thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for the generous recommendation of my forthcoming piece with @sonjawest.bsky.social!
I talked to 404 Media about devices for tracking and spying on your partner being sold on TikTok. This is not stalkerware, but these are devices for tech-enabled abuse and I think we should be talking about tech-enabled abuse more broadly.
www.404media.co/tiktok-shop-...
Appreciate the opportunity to write with @thomaskadri.bsky.social and @chinmayisharma.bsky.social for @lawfaremedia.org to call for a more expansive right to obscurity, building off our article—Brokering Safety—forthcoming in @califlrev.bsky.social
Excited to share a @lawfaremedia.org piece with @thomaskadri.bsky.social and @samadler.bsky.social that builds off our article Brokering Safety, forthcoming in @califlrev.bsky.social, that calls for an overdue conversation about how much we privilege data broker profits over human safety.
For more details on the full proposal, check out our draft: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
A new provocation from me, @samadler.bsky.social & @chinmayisharma.bsky.social to extend the proposal in our forthcoming Calif. L. Rev. (@califlrev.bsky.social) piece by letting *anyone* force data brokers to obscure info through a centralized process. It's time to call the 1st Amendment question!
@ugaschooloflaw.bsky.social Professor @thomaskadri.bsky.social recently spent time as a fellow at @eui-eu.bsky.social in Florence, Italy.
(1/3)
So proud to see this piece out in the world and excited about the research agenda it anticipates, shedding light on the political economy and capitalist maneuvers of prison healthcare. petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2025/04/18/t...
2:26 Thomas Kadri (External) That l've co-authored with Chinmay Sharma. Thomas Kadri (External) And Sam Adler called brokering safety explores how data brokers
Thank you @thomaskadri.bsky.social for pairing scholarship with action. Drawing on our article with @chinmayisharma.bsky.social (Brokering Safety), Thomas testified in support of MA’s Location Shield Act and emphasized its importance in mitigating abuse survivors’ privacy self-management burden.
Sharma, Kadri, & Adler on Data Brokers and Safety for Abuse Victims, buff.ly/E4hgZG3 - Chinmayi Sharma (Fordham Law), Thomas Kadri (University of Georgia School of Law), & Sam Adler (Fordham Law) have posted Brokering Safety (114 Calif. L. Rev. (2026)) on SSRN.
I too would recommend anything written by @chinmayisharma.bsky.social and @thomaskadri.bsky.social!
The article won’t be published until 2026, so there’s plenty of time for us to improve it. Please send feedback — or just come heckle us at the upcoming Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference at @yaleisp.bsky.social or the Privacy Law Scholars Conference at UCLA! 🙏
“Brokering Safety” is forthcoming in Calif. L. Rev.! With @chinmayisharma.bsky.social & @samadler.bsky.social, we expose privacy law's complicity in how data brokers worsen stalking & IPV, then pitch a system for victims to obscure data across all brokers in one go. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The article is forthcoming in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology but won't be published for a little while. Comments are most welcome! 🙏
Brenda Dvoskin & I just posted “Safe Sex in the Age of Big Tech Feminism.” We interrogate feminist strands animating regulations to keep people—esp. women—safe from the risks of online sexuality, then offer an alternate agenda grounded in queer & crit feminist theory. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The article I co-authored with @thomaskadri.bsky.social and @samadler.bsky.social, "Brokering Safety," is forthcoming in the California Law Review! It proposes a system that would enable victims to obscure their info across all data brokers with a single request.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The article I co-authored with @thomaskadri.bsky.social and @chinmayisharma.bsky.social , Brokering Safety, is forthcoming in the California Law Review! We look forward to presenting the article at the Consumer Law Scholars Conference and Privacy Law Scholars Conference.
University of Georgia School of Law Professor @thomaskadri.bsky.social was selected as a Visiting Fellow at the Law Department of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
(1/3)
Congratulations! Very excited to read the final version!
Finally, one goal of publishing these open-access books for free is to do my small part to make legal education more affordable, accessible & adaptable.
In that spirit, since I don’t have a publisher to amplify this work, please help me spread the word by sharing widely!
Please let me know if you have reactions or use the materials in some way. I’m happy to keep you posted about new editions, share more adaptable versions, or just chat about these projects or the issues they raise.
And though the primary goal was pedagogical, I’d like to think that engaging with these materials can be generative for scholarship, too. (It certainly has been for me, as the Epilogue on Imagery & Tech included in both books reveals.)
