Let Fly the Claudes of War, with Casey Newton
Let Fly the Claudes of War, with Casey Newton  
Podcast: Ctrl-Alt-Speech
Published On: Thu Feb 26 2026
Description: In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork, a podcast that makes sense of the rapidly changing world of tech. Together, they discuss:After a deadly raid, an AI power struggle erupts at the Pentagon (Washington Post)Following: Anthropic vs. The Pentagon (Platformer)Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge (TIME)Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web (The Rage)Discord is delaying its global age verification rollout (The Verge)Reddit fined £14m by UK data watchdog over age verification checks (BBC News)How to evaluate Trust & Safety vendors (Everything in Moderation*)Regulate platforms, not children – Commissioner urges caution over social media bans (Commissioner for Human Rights)MPs reject total ban, want data housed locally (The Star)Exclusive: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere (Reuters)Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and get in touch if you win! Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.