Ctrl-Alt-Speech
Ctrl-Alt-Speech

<p>Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly news podcast co-created by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation’s Ben Whitelaw. Each episode looks at the latest news in online speech, covering issues regarding trust &amp; safety, content moderation, regulation, court rulings, new services &amp; technology, and more.<br><br>The podcast regularly features expert guests with experience in the trust &amp; safety/online speech worlds, discussing the ins and outs of the news that week and what it may mean for the industry. Each episode takes a deep dive into one or two key stories, and includes a quicker roundup of other important news. It's a must-listen for trust &amp; safety professionals, and anyone interested in issues surrounding online speech.<br><br>If your company or organization is interested in sponsoring Ctrl-Alt-Speech and joining us for a sponsored interview, visit ctrlaltspeech.com for more information.<br><br>Ctrl-Alt-Speech is produced with financial support from the Future of Online Trust &amp; Safety Fund, a fiscally-sponsored multi-donor fund at Global Impact that supports charitable activities to build a more robust, capable, and inclusive Trust and Safety ecosystem and field.</p>

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:How London become a T&S hub (Everything in Moderation) Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For (Techdirt)Supreme Court Sides With Internet Provider in Copyright Fight Over Pirated Music (New York Times)US settles social media censorship case, bars agencies from threatening penalties (Reuters)Meta’s latest AI improves its terrible content moderation (The Register)Transparency Report 2025 (User Rights)An automated moderation error left Tumblr users panicked (The Verge)Don’t forget to listen along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and drop us a line if you win or have ideas for new squares. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story (Times of Israel)Maybe Turning War Into a Casino Was a Bad Idea? (The Atlantic)French music streamer Deezer battles deluge of AI fraud (Financial Times)I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI - and it only took 20 minutes (BBC)US to Receive $10 Billion Fee for TikTok Deal, WSJ Reports (Bloomberg)'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back (404 Media)‘Another internet is possible’: Norway rails against ‘enshittification’ (The Guardian)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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Grammarly turned me into an AI editor against my will and I hate it (Platformer)Grammarly has disabled its tool offering generative-AI feedback credited to real writers (Engadget)Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature (Wired)Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz. (NY Times)Molly vs the Machines review – a powerful story of love, loss and the dangers of social media (Guardian)UK: New Molly Russell documentary provides further evidence that social media needs complete redesign (Amnesty International)WhatsApp is launching parent-linked accounts for pre-teens (TechCrunch)Meta urged to boost oversight of fake AI videos (BBC)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.
In a special episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Ben and Mike discuss (with apologies to Tay-Tay) the three eras of content moderation in the media and what comes next. Their conversation builds on Ben’s essay in the soon-to-be-published Trust, Safety, and the Internet We Share Multistakeholder Insights, a new book looking at the evolution of the Trust & Safety industry and how platform policies decisions are made. The pre-print is available online.Together, they unpack three distinct phases: The Strange Fascination Era (2003–2015), when newsrooms powered platform growth and treated social media as an exciting new frontier; The “We’re Watching You” Era (2016–2020), when investigative reporting exposed online harms and pushed platforms to formalise Trust & Safety; and The Mask Off Era (2021–present), as platforms retreat from working with the media and the commitment to moderation waned.We’ll be back next week with our regular episode.  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.
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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Dr Blake Hallinan, Professor of Platform Studies in the Department of Media & Journalism Studies at Aarhus University. Together, they discuss:On Section 230’s 30th Birthday, A Look Back At Why It’s Such A Good Law And Why Messing With It Would Be Bad (Techdirt)An 18-Million-Subscriber YouTuber Just Explained Section 230 Better Than Every Politician In Washington (Techdirt)Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally (Discord)Media Literacy Parent's study (GOV.UK)EU says TikTok must disable ‘addictive’ features like infinite scroll, fix its recommendation engine (Techcrunch)We Didn’t Ask for This Internet with Tim Wu and Cory Doctorow (The New York Times)Despite Meta’s ban, Fidesz candidates successfully posted 162 political ads on Facebook in January 9 (Lakmusz.hu)Claude’s Constitution Needs a Bill of Rights and Oversight (Oversight Board)Account Closed Without Notice: Debanking Adult Industry Workers in Canada (ResearchGate)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.
In this special bonus for Ctrl-Alt-Speech listeners, we're cross-posting an episode from the Future Around And Find Out podcast hosted by Dan Blumberg with guest Kwaku Aning.This week Dan and Kwaku dig into: The uncanny valley that is AI agents and Moltbook—the "Reddit" that agents built for themselves to complain about humans, create a religion, and behave in ways that freak humans out Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI with a Super Bowl ad that's spicy (for cubs and cougars alike) We read Claude's "Constitution" and ask: Should AI do what you ask it to do—or what it thinks you really want long-term? Why Dan switched from OpenAI to Claude (and what he learned about tone, capability, and custom projects) OpenAI scrambles; the market stumbles; Jensen Huang acts like Sam Altman is "just someone I used to know" How AEO (AI Engine Optimization) becomes critical in an AI-agent world—and what that means for brand, marketing, and search Why social media is already past (dark social won) Elon's pivot to humanoid robots, data centers in space, and other cool things we definitely need Are we setting higher ethical standards for machines than for tech leaders? Subscribe to FAFO wherever you get your podcasts, or at futurearound.com 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:House Judiciary Releases EU X Fine Details (House Judiciary X Account)New Report Exposes European Commission Decade-Long Campaign to Censor American Speech (House Judiciary Committee)X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok (BBC)Hey Gavin Newsom! Investigating TikTok’s Moderation Is Just As Unconstitutional As When Texas & Florida Tried It (Techdirt)Spain Aims to Ban Social Media for Children Under 16, Prime Minister Says (NY Times)TikTok Keyword Analysis (LinkedIn)Why newsrooms are taking comments seriously again (New_ Public)Whoops, Websites Realize That Killing Their Comment Sections Was A Mistake (Techdirt)Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card! 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Konstantinos Komaitis, Senior Resident Fellow for Global and Democratic Governance at the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council. Together, they discuss:Who Owns TikTok in the U.S. Now? (NY Times)TikTok is investigating why some users can't write 'Epstein' in messages (NPR)TikTok users freak out over app’s ‘immigration status’ collection — here’s what it means (TechCrunch)TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired)Social network UpScrolled sees surge in downloads following TikTok’s US takeover (TechCrunch)Europe votes to tackle deep dependence on US tech in sovereignty drive (Computerworld)Meta hides followers and following lists for users based in Iran (Iran International)Iran’s internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only (Rest of World)The ‘Social Media Addiction’ Narrative May Be More Harmful Than Social Media Itself (Techdirt)Payment processors were against CSAM until Grok started making it (The Verge) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:My year with a flip phone (Financial Times)Claude’s Constitution (Anthropic)From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026 (Youtube)BBC to show programmes on YouTube in landmark deal (Financial Times)Rand Paul: I’ve changed my mind — Google and YouTube can’t be trusted to do the right thing and must be reined in (NY Post)Rand Paul Only Wants Google To Be The Arbiter Of Truth When The Videos Are About Him (Techdirt)Roskomnadzor Denies Reports That It’s Throttling Telegram Over Content Moderation Disputes (Moscow Times)Europeans set to launch an alternative to X. It’s called W (Cybernews) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk's Grok chatbot (Reuters)Musk’s xAI limits Grok’s ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash (CNBC)X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t (The Verge)State Department Threatens UK Over Grok Investigation, Because Only The US Is Allowed To Ban Foreign Apps (Techdirt)Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people (The Guardian)Statement from the Molly Rose Foundation (LinkedIn)Wes Streeting asks US expert Jonathan Haidt to address officials on social media ban for under-16s (The Guardian)Some social media use can benefit teen mental health (AAP)Arlington-focused Facebook group with 25,000 members is removed, angering moderators (ARLnow)Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content (The Verge) 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.
In this sponsored Spotlight episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, host Ben Whitelaw talks to Oversight Board co-chair Paolo Carozza (Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana) and Board member Julie Owono (Executive Director of Internet Without Borders and research affiliate at Berkman Klein Centre) about the Board’s five-year journey and its plans for the future.Together, Ben, Paolo and Julie discuss the Board’s recently published report, From Bold Experiment to Essential Institution, and what it means to call Board “essential” in today’s ever-evolving internet landscape. They also talk about how the Board has changed, the criticisms it faces around cost and influence, and what comes next in 2026 and beyond.This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Oversight Board. 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.
In the first Ctrl-Alt-Speech episode of 2026, Mike and Ben look forward at the year ahead and begin building a bingo card of things that might happen. They discuss a short list of possible squares, ask for listeners to contribute more ideas, and go few a through suggestions that have already come in. Soon, we’ll release an official Ctrl-Alt-Speech bingo card for listeners to play along throughout the year.Follow Ben at Everything in Moderation and Mike at Techdirt. 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.
In the last Ctrl-Alt-Speech of the year, Mike and Ben round up the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation with the following stories:Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content | Global development (The Guardian)Facebook is testing a link-posting limit for professional accounts and pages (Techcrunch)Meta adopts new age-check system to meet global child safety laws (FT)Russian ban on Roblox gaming platform sparks rare protest (Reuters)OpenAI hires George Osborne to spearhead global ‘Stargate’ expansion (FT)Oscars Bolts From ABC to YouTube Starting in 2029 (Hollywood Reporter) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Resonant Computing Manifesto Support Techdirt’s Uncompromising Coverage, Get Our First Commemorative Coin (Techdirt)US Ambassador Slams EU Tech Rules as Musk’s X Hit With Fine (Bloomberg)Why the X fine is causing so much transatlantic drama (Politico)Tech workers face new H1-B scrutiny as Trump targets ‘censorship’ (Washington Post)H1-B visa advice (LinkedIn - Alice Hunsberger)Australian leader defends social media ban as teens flaunt workarounds (Reuters)Age restrictions alone won't keep children safe online (Unicef)Focus must be on making social media safe for children as Australia brings in ban (Save The Children)Operation Bluebird tries to reclaim Twitter (LinkedIn)This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CCIA, an international, not-for-profit trade association representing a broad cross section of communications and technology firms and that promotes open markets, open systems, and open networks. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Vaishnavi J, former head of youth policy at Meta and founder and principal of Vyanams Strategies, a product advisory firm that helps companies, civil society, and governments build safer age appropriate experiences. Prior to founding Vys, she led video policy at Twitter, built its safety team in APAC and was Google's child safety polciy lead in APAC. Together Ben and Vaishnavi discuss:House overhauls KOSA in a new kids online safety package (The Verge)A nationwide internet age verification plan is sweeping Congress (The Verge)Grindr supports app store age-verification bill despite censorship concerns (Pink News)A summary of the technology sector’s response to the UK’s new online safety rules (Ofcom)Age Assurance Implementation Handbook (Vyanams)Interoperable Age Assurance (Age Verification Providers Association)EU's non-binding resolution around revamping child safety rules (European Parliament)‘We’ll be watching’: Social media companies warned about complying with ban as teens flock to alternative apps (Crikey)The Salesforce of safety: Software vendors as infrastructural/professional nodes in the field of online trust and safety (Sage, Platforms & Society)It's their job to keep AI from destroying everything (The Verge) 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.
In this sponsored Spotlight episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, host Ben Whitelaw speaks with George Vlasto, head of the Trust & Safety division at Resolver, as the organisation marks its 20th anniversary. Their conversation looks back at two decades of Resolver’s work supporting platforms and safeguarding online communities, and explores how that legacy has shaped its newest innovations.Ben and George dig into Resolver’s unique approach to scaling the detection of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and unpack why ATHENA — the company’s latest breakthrough — may be one of the most significant yet under-recognised tools in the fight against online harms.Further reading: Twenty Years of Protecting Children Online The Human at the Heart of the Machine: A 20-Year Lesson in Online Safety From Reactive to Predictive: Why It’s No Longer Enough to Spot What’s Already HappenedThis episode is brought to you in partnership with Resolver. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Meta wins FTC antitrust trial over Instagram, WhatsApp deals (CNBC)Commission eyes further simplification of tech rules after DSA review (Euractiv)Inside Europe's 'Jekyll and Hyde' tech strategy (Digital Policy)NetChoice sues Virginia to block its one-hour social media limit for kids (The Verge)Tech Giants Sue California Over Social Media Access Law (2) (Bloomberg Law)TikTok to give users power to reduce amount of AI content on their feeds (The Guardian) The Most Frustrating Word for Trust & Safety Professionals (LinkedIn) 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Kenji Yoshino, who has the excellent title of Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Kenji is also a member of the Oversight Board. Together Ben and Kenji discuss:‘Andrew Tate is dead’: inside the minds of 16-year-olds (The Observer)Introducing the Teen Safety Blueprint (OpenAI)OpenAI unveils blueprint for teen AI safety standards (Axios)OpenAI Faces Legal Storm Over Claims Its AI Drove Users to Suicide, Delusions (KQED)Irish watchdog opens content moderation probe into Elon Musk's X (Euractiv)This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CCIA, an international, not-for-profit trade association representing a broad cross section of communications and technology firms and that promotes open markets, open systems, and open networks. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now (New Yorker)Introducing Safe for Work? — all about T&S jobs (Everything in Moderation*)Kids Turn Podcast Comments Into Secret Chat Rooms, Because Of Course They Do (Techdirt)Reddit and Kick added to child social media ban (ABC News)X boss explains why ‘horrific’ video viewed by Axel Rudakubana wasn’t removed (The Independent)Southport Inquiry (YouTube)How Elon Musk is Boosting The British Right (Sky News)arXiv Changes Rules After Getting Spammed With AI-Generated 'Research' Papers (404 Media)TikTok Investigated in France Over Content That Promotes Suicide (Bloomberg) France Moves to Block the Shein Website Over a Sex Doll Scandal (New York Times) EU leaders paper over splits on US tech reliance (Politico) This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Safer by Thorn, a purpose-built CSAM and CSE solution. Powered by trusted data and Thorn’s issue expertise, Safer helps trust and safety teams proactively detect CSAM and child sexual exploitation messages. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Character.AI is banning minors from AI character chats (Financial Times)Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations (OpenAI)Senators propose banning teens from using AI chatbots (The Verge)EU accuses Meta, TikTok of breaching digital rules (Politico) Meta and TikTok are obstructing researchers’ access to data, European Commission rules (Science.org)Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve (Techdirt)China’s new law: only degree-holding influencers can discuss professional topics – netizens divided on its impact (IOL) Wizz is like ‘Tinder for kids,’ as teens use the app to hook up while adult predators lurk (NY Post) This episode is brought to you by our sponsor WebPurify, an Intouch company. IntouchCX is a global leader in digital customer experience management, back office processing, trust and safety, and AI services. Webpurify has just launched their very first podcast series, Trust Issues - Insights from the People Who Keep the Internet Safe, and Mike and Ben are fans. Listen to all three episodes on Spotify and watch on YouTube. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference (New York Times)AI-Generated Content a Triple Threat for Reddit Moderators (Cornell Tech)Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors (404 Media)As social media age restrictions spread, is the internet entering its Victorian era? (The Conversation)Winning with misinformation: New research identifies link between endorsing easily disproven claims and prioritizing symbolic strength (The Conversation)Tinder Launches Mandatory Facial Verification to Weed Out Bots and Scammers (Wired)This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Clavata.ai, a first-of-its-kind, automated content safety platform that allows you to go from defining a policy to enforcement in minutes. In our Bonus Chat, we speak with founder Brett Levenson on how to make T&S more consistent and explainable and the benefits of treating policy as code. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Sam Altman says OpenAI isn’t ‘moral police of the world’ after erotica ChatGPT post blows up (CNBC)Where are all the women on Sora 2? This could be a nightmare for OpenAI. (Business Insider)Musk’s AI Is Being Used to Make Hardcore Porn: ‘Grok Is Learning Genitalia Really Fast!’ (Rolling Stone)Instagram Will Limit Content for Teenagers Based on PG-13 Ratings (NY Times)UK MPs urged to investigate TikTok’s plans to cut 439 content moderator jobs (The Guardian)TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’ (The Guardian)New AI video tools are fuelling violent racism on TikTok (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)New York City Sues Instagram Rather Than Teach Kids Filters Aren’t Real (Techdirt)Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows (NPR)Congress is Asking the Wrong Questions About Discord and Boys (Time)Adolescence star Stephen Graham launches global project asking fathers to write to their sons (The Guardian) 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe and former Director at the Oversight Board. Together they discuss:Appeals Centre Europe Transparency Report (ACE)Most people want platforms (not governments) to be responsible for moderating content (Reuters Institute) Happy Birthday, Digital Services Act! – Time for a Reality Check (Algorithm Watch)Proof-of-age ID leaked in Discord data breach (The Guardian)Update on a Security Incident Involving Third-Party Customer Service (Discord)Another Day, Another Age Verification Data Breach: Discord’s Third-Party Partner Leaked Government IDs (Techdirt)Exclusive: Apple Quietly Made ICE Agents a Protected Class (Migrant Insider)My Email to Tim Cook (Wiley Hodges — Substack) 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Dave Willner, founder of Zentropi, and long-time trust & safety expert who worked at Facebook, AirBnB, and OpenAI in Trust & Safety roles. Together they discuss:Masnick's Impossibility Theorem: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well (Techdirt)UK makes new attempt to access Apple cloud data (Financial Times)Imgur pulls out of UK after data regulator warns of fines (TechCrunch)Leaked Meta guidelines show how it trains AI chatbots to respond to child sexual exploitation prompts (Business Insider)OpenAI's Sora joins Meta in pushing AI-generated videos. Some are worried about a flood of 'AI slop' (ABC News)Flights in Afghanistan grounded after internet shutdown (BBC) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:How platforms are responding to the Charlie Kirk shooting (The Verge)Bluesky Issues Warning to Any Users Celebrating Charlie Kirk Assassination (Newsweek)Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Death (Wired)Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content-Moderation World (Wired)Has Britain Gone Too Far With Its Digital Controls? (New York Times)The Censorship Alarm Is Ringing in the Wrong Direction (Public Knowledge)We now know who the new owners of TikTok will be - if Trump gets his deal done with Xi (CNN)Nepal’s Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves to a Chat Room (New York Times) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Nepal to block some social media including Facebook (Reuters)Why Nepal Banned 26 Social Media Platforms And What It Means (Medianama)A parliament in flames, a leader toppled. Nepal’s Gen-Z protesters ask: What comes next? (CNN)When Trolls Take On Tyrants: 4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over Extraterritorial Censorship (Techdirt)Wikipedia is resilient because it's boring (The Verge)Former Meta employees say they saw child abuse in VR before company blocked research (NBC News)Mark Zuckerberg sues Mark Zuckerberg (Techcrunch) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Jordan escalates global tech argument, with Farage's help (Politico) Farage’s rules for free speech: talk about anything but your lunch (The Times)Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones? (TES)My mom and Dr. DeepSeek (Rest of World)AI 'deadbots' are persuasive — and researchers say they're primed for monetization (NPR)OpenAI co-founder calls for AI labs to safety-test rival models (TechCrunch)Privacy-Preserving Age Verification—and Its Limitations (Steven M. Bellovin) 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.
This is the second of our special episodes for the month of August. Last time, we talked a bit about the past and future of Ctrl-Alt-Speech; this time, Mike and Ben answer some questions from our listeners, and also share a few of the latest reviews. We're taking one more week off after this, then we'll be back in the first week of September with a return to our regular weekly news roundups!  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.
We're taking a little break from our regular weekly news roundups this month, but we've got a couple special episodes lined up in the mean time, starting with a conversation all about the past and future of Ctrl-Alt-Speech. This week, Mike and Ben talk about how the podcast got started, how we create the episodes, our philosophy about sponsorship, and what we need to make Ctrl-Alt-Speech sustainable in the long run. We hope you enjoy it!  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.
Our second annual live at TrustCon recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Ben was unable to make the trip halfway around the world, but Mike was joined by trust & safety influencer Alice Hunsberger from Musubi and Ashken Kazaryan, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. They cover:As millions adopt Grok to fact-check, misinformation abounds (Al Jazeera)Analysis Of Grok’s Epstein Comments Show How This AI Chatbot Is Learning (Forbes)People With Body Dysmorphia Are Spiraling Out After Asking AI to Rate Their Looks (Rolling Stone)Can A Chatbot Be Your Therapist? Casper’s Neil Parikh Launches A New $93 Million-Backed Startup To Try (Forbes)A Realist Perspective on Trust & Safety (Tech Policy Press)This week’s sponsor is Modulate. In our bonus chat Mike Masnick talks with Modulate founder and CEO Mike Pappas, live at TrustCon, about the kinds of voice scams they’re seeing, with a focus on scams using social engineering techniques to pressure people to do things they probably shouldn’t do. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise (404 Media)Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People (404 Media)Ofcom head says age checks are ‘really big moment’ for children’s online safety (The Guardian)New online safety rules not 'the end of the conversation', says minister (BBC)Commission’s guidelines for online child safety target platforms of all sizes (Euractiv)I met the sextortion scammers destroying young lives for £1 a day (The Times)“Why me?” On shame, self-blame, and feeling so. damn. Stupid. (Blockparty)If It Breaks Wikipedia, It’s Probably Bad Policy (InternetExchange)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund and by our sponsor, the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. In our bonus chat Mike talks with DTSP Executive Director David Sullivan to talk about their new Safe Framework Specification, which is an official ISO standard (available for free download) which will help everyone better understand best practices and concepts around online trust & safety work. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Jack Cable calls out Cluely over bogus DMCA (X)The cofounder of the viral AI 'cheating' startup Cluely says he only hires people for 2 jobs (Business Insider)Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really) (Techdirt)Instagram wrongly accuses some users of breaching child sex abuse rules (BBC)Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot praises Adolf Hitler on X (FT)Grok Becomes ‘MechaHitler,’ Twitter Becomes X: How Centralized Tech Is Prone To Fascist Manipulation (Techdirt)See the leaked teen social media ban tech trial report that has experts worried (Crikey)New anti-fraud system is labelling hospital texts and other legitimate messages as ‘likely scam’ (Irish Independent)Why Ireland’s New “Scam Likely” Labels Might Actually Make SMS Fraud Worse for Banks and the Public (Medium)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:The Misleading Panic over Misinformation (Cato Institute) Claims that Online Misinformation Fears Are Overblown ‘Radically Understates’ the Scale of the Threat (Byline Times)EU Disinformation Code Takes Effect Amid Censorship Claims and Trade Tensions (Tech Policy Press)Content Moderation Is Not Censorship (Law & Liberty)Asked to think like a paedophile or act suicidal: Workers training Meta's AI in Ireland speak out (The Journal)The Hidden Human Cost of AI Moderation (Jacobin)Brazil rules that social media platforms are responsible for users’ posts (Rest of World)X opens up to Community Notes written by AI bots (The Verge)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Bridget Todd, a technology and culture writer, speaker and trainer and host of two great podcasts, There are No Girls on the Internet and IRL: Online Life is Real Life. Together, they cover:AI Models And Parents Don’t Understand ‘Let Him Cook’ (404 Media)Trial reveals flaws in tech intended to enforce Australian social media ban for under-16s (The Guardian)Inside /r/SGExams: Meet the young volunteers behind 1 of S’pore’s largest online forums for students (Straits Times)The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back (Rest of World)Man with real-life girlfriend and child proposes to AI chatbot after programming it to flirt: ‘I think this is actual love (New York Post)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Mercy Mutemi, lawyer and managing partner of Nzili & Sumbi Advocates. Together, they cover:Meta can be sued in Kenya for human trafficking and for algorithmic amplification of harm (Open Democracy)Billy Perrigo on investigating Facebook's 'ethical' outsourced content moderation in Kenya (Everything in Moderation)A first look at Meta’s Community Notes (Indicator Media)Get Noted (Columbia Journalism Review)The Meaning of Being an African YouTuber: Big Audiences, No Big Money + Is TikTok Excluding Africans From its Creator Economy? (Fast Company)Is TikTok Excluding Africans From its Creator Economy? (OkayAfrica)I was tricked, tortured, finally freed: inside a Burmese scam farm (The Times)Tanzania announces shutdown of X because of pornography (BBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:He’s a Master of Outrage on X. The Pay Isn’t Great. (NY Times)The vulnerable teen drawn into far-right extremism online (Financial Times)X, Bluesky and Reddit in France’s crosshairs amid porn clampdown (Politico)EU sidesteps Macron’s ultimatum to ban social media for kids under 15 (Euractiv)Commission seeks feedback on the guidelines on protection of minors online under the Digital Services Act (European Commission)OnlyFans releases stern statement as it DEACTIVATES Bonnie Blue’s account for defiant reason (The Tab)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Zeve Sanderson, the founding Executive Director of the NYU Center for Social Media & Politics. Together, they cover:If algorithms radicalize a mass shooter, are companies to blame? (The Verge)Large Language Models Are More Persuasive Than Incentivized Human Persuaders (Arxiv)A dangerous plan to ‘win’ the AI race is circulating (Washington Post)Texas governor signs law to enforce age verification on Apple, Google app stores (Reuters)AB 853: California AI Transparency Act.(CalMatters)Regulators Are Investigating Whether Media Matters Colluded With Advertisers (NY Times)Anthropic’s new AI model turns to blackmail when engineers try to take it offline (TechCrunch)Why Anthropic’s New AI Model Sometimes Tries to ‘Snitch’ (Wired)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Modulate. In our Bonus Chat, we speak with Modulate CTO Carter Huffman about how their voice technology can actually detect fraud. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Hank Green, popular YouTube creator and educator. After spending some time talking about being a creator at the whims of platforms, they cover:Crash Course Coin (Complexly)Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College (NY Mag)The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It (NY Times)How Miami Schools Are Leading 100,000 Students Into the A.I. Future (NY Times)We Shouldn’t Have To Explain To The FTC Why Content Moderation Is So Crucial To Free Speech, But We Did (Techdirt)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Cathy Gellis, an internet and First Amendment lawyer. Together, they cover:The Copyright Office Issues A Largely Disappointing Report On AI Training, And Once Again A Major Fair Use Analysis Inexplicably Ignores The First Amendment (Techdirt)Trump fires Copyright Office director after report raises questions about AI training (TechCrunch)Elon Musk’s X caves to ‘censorship’ demand from India as tensions build with Pakistan (AFP)In the government’s war on ‘disinformation’, facts are collateral damage (The Hindu)Elon Musk's Twitter: Indian government has asked us to block 8,000 accounts, however, we disagree as (Times of India)Elon Musk’s Grok AI Can’t Stop Talking About ‘White Genocide’ (Wired)White Afrikaner brought to US by Trump administration has history of antisemitic posts (The Guardian)U.S. says it is now monitoring immigrants' social media for antisemitism (NPR)Kanye’s Nazi Song Is All Over Instagram (404 Media)Instagram and Facebook Blocked and Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts (NY Times)Wikipedia fights the UK’s ‘flawed’ and ‘burdensome’ online safety rules (The Verge)What Attacks on Wikipedia Reveal about Free Expression (Tech Policy Press)Missouri AG Thinks Supreme Court Ruling Lets Him Control Social Media Moderation (It Doesn’t) (Techdirt)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:The group chats that changed America (Semafor)Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening (New York Times) Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators (The Guardian) Social media moderators’ lives are getting worse. Big Tech needs to take responsibility (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users—Even Children (Wall Street Journal)Kids should avoid AI companion bots—under force of law, assessment says (CalMatters)I'm a mom who works in tech, and AI scares me. I taught my daughter these simple guidelines to spot fake content (Business Insider) Playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with Meta over my fraudulent avatars (Financial Times)Meta slowest to remove scam content, says City watchdog (The Guardian)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Modulate. In our Bonus Chat, we speak with Modulate CEO Mike Pappas about the evolving landscape of online fraud and how the company’s work detecting abuse in gaming environments is helping identify financial misconduct across different types of digital platforms. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:4chan is dead. It's Toxic Legacy is everywhere (Wired)Wide-Ranging Decisions Protect Speech and Address Harms (Oversight Board)Meta’s oversight board rebukes company over policy overhaul (Reuters)Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) (Techdirt)Most young Aussie men are turning to masculinity influencers, and it's impacting their mental health (ABC News)Young Men’s Health in a Digital World (Movember)Teens, Social Media and Mental Health (Pew Research Center)National Science Foundation cancels research grants related to misinformation and disinformation (Nieman Lab)Bluesky Is Rolling Out Official Verification (Wired)Government censorship comes to Bluesky, but not its third-party apps … yet (TechCrunch)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case (Wall Street Journal)Mark Zuckerberg once suggested wiping all Facebook friends lists to boost usage (The Verge) Would You Give PornHub Your ID? (The Atlantic) How Social-Media Sites Can Fight Hate Without Censorship (The Atlantic) Facebook Banned Me for Life Because I Help People Use It Less (Slate, 2021)ASML Fellow Launches CLR:SKY (Berkman Klein Center)Block Party deep cleans your social media, notifications, settings, and more in one clickLiz Truss to launch ‘uncensored’ social network to counter mainstream media (The Guardian)OpenAI is building a social network (The Verge)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Prateek Waghre, former executive director at the Internet Freedom Foundation and currently a fellow at Tech Policy Press. Together, they cover:BookMyShow Restores Kunal Kamra’s Profile After Controversy (Medianama)Kunal Kamra show audience members served notices (The Times of India)Cops force banker to cut short vacation to join Kamra probe (The Times of India)Unblock Vikatan Website – Madras High Court Orders Central Government (Vikatan)A Lack of Sense, and Censor-ability in India (Tech Policy Press)India befriends Big Tech as Trump tariffs knock on door, aided by a string of biz-friendly moves (Livemint)Meta can be sued in Kenya over posts related to Ethiopia violence, court rules (Reuters)US to screen social media of immigrants, rights advocates raise concerns (Reuters)In Karnataka HC, Centre defends use of IT Act for takedown notices (Hindustan Times) This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Zuckerberg Tries to Enlist Trump in Fight Against Meta EU Ruling (WSJ)EU set to limit Apple and Meta fines to avoid ire of Donald Trump (Financial Times)Adolescence hard to watch as a dad, Starmer tells creators (BBC)‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens (The Conversation)Adolescence hits Netflix's Top 10 Global chart in just three weeks as it reaches over 96MILLION views (Daily Mail)Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral (NY Times)ESPN’s Pat McAfee and others amplified a false rumor. A teenager’s life was ‘destroyed’ (NY Times)Myanmar’s Internet Censorship Limits Information About Quake (NY Times)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Internet Society, a global nonprofit that advocates for an open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy Internet for everyone. In our Bonus Chat, Internet Society’s Natalie Campbell talks about issues around US leadership on digital trade and an open internet, related to a letter the Internet Society sent this week to the US Trade Representative. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:X takes Indian govt to court, alleges arbitrary censorship of content (Business Standard)India criticises X for calling compliance website a censorship tool (Reuters)Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest (Politico)Elon Musk pressured Reddit’s CEO on content moderation (The Verge)Snapchat CEO Talks Zuckerberg, Content Moderation, AR Glasses and More (SocialMediaToday)YouTube CEO on content moderation: ‘Where the world was five years ago is very different’ than today (Semafor)Porn on Spotify Is Infiltrating the Platform’s Top Podcast Charts (Bloomberg)Ofcom fines provider of OnlyFans £1.05 million (Ofcom)A New Social Media App Punishes Users for Rage-Baiting (Wired)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.  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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Twitter Inc. Official 'Bird Logo' Fascia Sign - An Iconic Fixture from the Company’s Market Square Headquarters in San Francisco (RR Auction)AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality (404 Media)Spain to impose massive fines for not labelling AI-generated content (Reuters)China Announces Generative AI Labeling to Cull Disinformation (Bloomberg) After Axing Fact-Checkers, Meta’s Community Notes Will Have Help From X (Adweek)UK to crack down on illegal content across social media (Financial Times)Lobsters and the Online Safety Act (Lobste.rs)We are sorry. The forum has closed down (The Hamster Forum)‘Kids can bypass anything if they’re clever enough!’ How tech experts keep their children safe online (The Guardian)The Snapchat Move That Leaves Teen Girls Heartbroken (WSJ)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. If you’re in London on Thursday 27th March, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Bluesky's CEO on the Future of Social Media (YouTube)The Take It Down Act isn’t a law, it’s a weapon (The Verge)Trump Promises To Abuse Take It Down Act For Censorship, Just As We Warned (Techdirt)Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir (NBC News)Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book (CNBC) Reddit's rule check feature will help users avoid breaking subreddit rules (Engadget)Users Make Voices Heard as Appeals Centre’s First Decisions Overturn Platforms (Appeals Centre Europe) 'Pretty Vile:' Spotify Removes Andrew Tate 'Pimping Hoes' Class After Employees Complain (404 Media)Keep kids off Roblox if you're worried, its CEO tells parents (BBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Resolver, the leading provider of risk intelligence and advisory services. In our Bonus Chat, Karley Chadwick, head of platform Trust and Safety Delivery at Resolver, talks about emerging safety trends in gaming and augmented reality and reflects on her experience as a threat analyst.If you’re in London on Thursday 27th March, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and CEO of RightsDuff Strategies. They cover:Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) (Techdirt)America’s Global Presence Isn’t ‘Soft Power.’ It’s a Superpower. (Foreign Policy)These teenage boys were blackmailed online – and it cost them their lives (USA Today)United Nations Convention against Cybercrime (UN)Chairman Jordan Subpoenas Big Tech for Information on Foreign Censorship of American Speech (House Judiciary Committee)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Facebook & Content Moderation (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)Australia takes enforcement action against Telegram for serious delay in terror and child sexual abuse transparency (eSafety Commission) US judge says Trump Media, Rumble need not follow Brazilian order they deem censorship (Reuters)Why the Rumble Suit Against a Brazilian Justice is Not About Free Speech (Tech Policy Press)Underage Users at Meta, Snap Show Large Australian Breaches (Bloomberg)‘Big Tech Censorship’ of Users Targeted by Trump’s FTC Chief (Bloomberg)Instagram 'Error' Turned Reels Into Neverending Scroll of Murder, Gore, and Violence (404 Media)Meta’s ‘free speech’ revamp divides oversight board (Financial Times)Microsoft Hosted Explicit Videos of This Startup Founder for Years. Here's How She Got Them Taken Down (Wired)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben are joined by a group of students from the Media Law and Policy class at the American University School of Communication. Together they cover:U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts (Washington Post)US lawmakers respond to the UK’s Apple encryption backdoor request (Engadget)UK: Encryption order threatens global privacy rights (Human Rights Watch)Analysis: AI Summit emphasizes innovation and competition over trust and safety (DFR Lab)An overdue idea for making the internet safer just got the funding it needs (Platformer)Google-backed public interest AI partnership launches with $400M+ for open ecosystem building (Techcrunch)Britain dances to JD Vance’s tune as it renames AI institute (Politico) Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)–M.P. v. Meta (Eric Goldman)TikTok Opts to Not Take Section 230 Immunity Fight to the US Supreme Court (Law.com)Shopify says risk of fraud, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye West store takedown (The Logic)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Elon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More Dangerous (Techdirt)US presses Brussels for answers over EU social media law (Politico)Inside the Elon Musk-Jim Jordan ‘mind meld’ shaking up Capitol Hill (Politico)Musk adds Shell, Nestlé, Lego to X advertiser ‘boycott’ lawsuit (The Hill)Musk Shows Us What Actual Government Censorship On Social Media Looks Like (Techdirt)In wake of Meta moderation shift, advertisers have accepted new status quo: brand safety is a myth (Digiday)Meta sees no ‘noticeable impact’ in advertiser demand since content policy shift (Marketing Week)Amazon Raises Its Ad Spending on Elon Musk’s X, in Major Reversal (Wall Street Journal)Senator Hawley Proposes Jail Time for People Who Download DeepSeek (404 Media)Apple Blasts EU Laws After First Porn App Comes to iPhones (Bloomberg)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Renee DiResta, associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. They cover:The new free speech crisis hiding in plain sight (MSNBC)‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Jr. Has Been Trying To Censor a Blogger for Years (Who What Why)In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment (TechCrunch)Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Suit (WSJ)Meta’s Free-Speech Shift Made It Clear to Advertisers: ‘Brand Safety’ Is Out of Vogue (WSJ)X refuses to remove stabbing video watched by Southport killer (Financial Times)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Application Of Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act To TikTok (The White House)Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship (The White House)America Is No Longer the Home of the Free Internet (The Atlantic)Good morning, America: Why India banned TikTok 5 years back (India Today)Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says (Reuters)Commission welcomes the integration of the revised Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online into the Digital Services Act (European Commission)Bluesky 2024 Moderation Report (Bluesky)Bluesky's 2024 moderation report shows how quickly harmful content grew as new users flocked in (Engadget)The Technological Poison Pill: How ATProtocol Encourages Competition, Resists Evil Billionaires, Lock-In & Enshittification (Techdirt)We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky (MIT Technology Review)If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:TikTok Oral Arguments (Supreme Court)Biden administration looks for ways to keep TikTok available in the U.S. (NBC News)Trump considers executive order hoping to ‘save TikTok’ from ban or sale in U.S. law (Washington Post)TikTok Users Gleefully Embrace Even More Chinese App To Spite US TikTok Ban (Techdirt)Meta employees criticize Zuckerberg decisions to end fact-checking (CNBC)Meta moderators were already in Texas before Zuckerberg announced move, say ex-workers (The Guardian)Not Many Meta Employees Will Have to Move to Texas After All (Wired)Meta just flipped the switch that prevents misinformation from spreading in the United States (Platformer)Brazil expresses concern over Meta’s changes to content moderation (Al Jazeera)EU reassesses tech probes into Apple, Google and Meta (Financial Times)Despite DEI & content moderation reversals, advertisers won’t flee Meta (The Drum)Meta’s ‘free speech’ overhaul sparks advertisers’ concern (Financial Times)French Woman Says AI Brad Pitt Scammed Her Out of $850K (Hollywood Reporter)French TV show pulled after ridicule of woman who fell for AI Brad Pitt (The Guardian)Why This OnlyFans Model Posts Machine Learning Explainers to Pornhub (404 Media)If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Here's why Meta ended fact-checking, according to experts (ABC News)Meta Follows Elon Musk’s Lead, Moves Staffers to Billionaire-Friendly Texas (Wired)Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” (The Intercept)Trust & Safety is how platforms put values into action (T&S Insider from Everything in Moderation)Nadler Releases Democratic Staff Report on Republicans' Deluded Theory to Undermine Free Speech (House Committee on the Judiciary)EU vows to 'energetically' pursue X probe under Digital rulebook (Bloomberg)Twitter Briefly Blocked The NY Post, Elon Cried Foul. Now He’s Doing Far Worse (Techdirt)The Great Decentralization (Noema Mag)If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Social media platforms have work to do to comply with Online Safety Act, says Ofcom (The Guardian)LFGSS and Microcosm shutting down 16th March 2025 (the day before the Online Safety Act is enforced) (LFGSS)The GamingOnLinux Forum is shutting (GamingOnLinux)Australia leads the world in setting new standards for online child safety (eSafety Commission)How will Australia's under-16 social media ban work? We asked the law's enforcer (NPR)Fentanyl Almost Killed Michael Brewer. Now He Wants Snap to Pay (Bloomberg)Telegram Moderation Overview (Telegram)U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to TikTok ban (CNBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. While Online Regulators may have stolen Christmas, Ctrl-Alt-Speech is going to try to take a short holiday break and will return in early January. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:He was suicidal and needed help. A 15-year-old girl pushed him to kill himself on a live stream (Washington Post)Romania’s top court annuls presidential election result (CNN)Continuing to protect the integrity of TikTok during Romanian elections (TikTok)Covert Facebook Network Found Targeting Romanian Voters (Bloomberg)TikTok pushes far right candidate content in Romanian election, Global Witness investigation shows (Global Witness)Romania annulled its presidential election results amid alleged Russian interference. What happens next? (Atlantic Council)X’s Yaccarino Praises Child Safety Bill and Urges House Backing (Bloomberg)Elon Musk’s X comes out in favor of pro-censorship law (Mashable - January 2024)Kenya’s President Wades Into Meta Lawsuits (TIME)Attacker Has Techdirt Reclassified As Phishing Site, Proving Masnick’s Impossibility Law Once Again (Techdirt)No actual moles were harmed in the making of this episode, which is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:TikTok Ban Upheld (DC Circuit)TikTok’s Romanian reckoning (Politico)Romania asks EU to investigate TikTok’s election handling after ultranationalist’s stunning win (Politico)TikTok Removes Covert Network Linked to Romanian Candidate (Bloomberg)GOP FTC Commissioners Abuse “Free Speech” Rhetoric To Push For Government Control Over Online Speech (Techdirt)Race to replace FTC chair Lina Khan pits antitrust hawks against candidate softer on Big Tech: sources (NY Post)Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too much (The Verge)The Curious Case Of ChatGPT’s Banned Names: Hard-Coding Blocks To Avoid Nuisance Threats (Techdirt)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Internet Society, a global nonprofit that advocates for an open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy Internet for everyone. In our Bonus Chat, Natalie Campbell and John Perrino from Internet Society join us to talk about the social media age restriction law in Australia, a proposed age verification bill in Canada, and the trend of age gating and age verification globally, and what it means for the open internet. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host David Sullivan, the Executive Director of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. They cover:Trump's FCC Pick Wants to Be the Speech Police. That's Not His Job (Wired)Sauce for the Goose: The FCC Lacks Authority to Interpret Section 230 Post-Loper Bright (The Federalist Society)Roblox gives parents more power to protect the safety of young gamers (NBC)Meta should allow third party imagery of terrorist attacks, with a warning (Oversight Board)As Bluesky soars, Threads rolls out custom feeds globally (TechCrunch)Threads’ algorithm will focus more on the people you follow (The Verge)The communications minister cited a study in support of a teen social media ban. Its co-author disagrees (Crikey)Meta says it has removed 2 million accounts linked to pig butchering scams (The Record)You Too Can Hire an ‘Etsy Witch’ to Curse Elon Musk (Wired)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia follows The Guardian in quitting Elon Musk’s X due to disinformation and ‘disturbing content’ (Fortune)Bluesky attracts millions as users leave Musk's X after Trump win (Reuters)Advertisers set to return to X as they seek favour with Elon Musk and Donald Trump (Financial Times) The plan to ban children under 16 from social media (The Times) Should smartphones be banned in schools? (Financial Times) Facebook and Instagram to Offer Subscription for No Ads in Europe (Facebook) An update on political advertising in the European Union (Google)Facebook’s Algorithms Think a Small English Community Is Up to No Good (Gizmodo)Phony X accounts are meddling in Ghana’s election (Rest of World)Sockpuppet network impersonating Americans and Canadians amplifies pro-Israel narratives on X (DFR Lab)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Pennsylvania Becomes Hot Spot for Election Disinformation (NY Times)After Trump Took the Lead, Election Deniers Went Suddenly Silent (NY Times)X Is a White-Supremacist Site (The Atlantic)Papers, Please? The Republican Plan to Wall Off the Internet (Tech Policy Press)What Trump's Victory Means for Internet Policy (CNET)The government plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms. Here's what we know so far (ABC Australia)Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue (Reuters)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:These look like Harris ads. Trump backers bought them (Washington Post)Facebook Took More Than $1 Million For Ads Sowing Election Lies (Forbes)Election officials are outmatched by Elon Musk’s misinformation machine (CNN)Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way (New York Times)Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election (ProPublica)The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference (New Yorker)This Is What $44 Billion Buys You (The Atlantic) How Russia, China and Iran Are Interfering in the Presidential Election (New York Times) Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? (New York Times) 'Sickening' Molly Russell chatbots found on Character.ai (BBC) This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat, Dom Sparkes, Trust and Safety Director for EMEA, and David Elliot, Head of Technology, try to lighten the mood by discussing how to make a compelling business case for online safety and the importance of measuring ROI. 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.
Ben and Mike are technically off this week, but we decided to run an experiment. After discussing Google’s NotebookLM and its ability to create AI-generated podcasts about any content, Mike experimented with how it would handle one of the stories Mike & Ben discussed last week: Daphne Keller’s The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform on Lawfare. Mike explains why we’re running this, some of the work that went into it, as well as his thoughts on the experiment, followed by the AI-generated version.This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:How Russian disinformation is reaching the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election (NBC News)The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform (Lawfare)ExTwitter Makes It Official: Blocks Are No Longer Blocks (Techdirt)People are flocking to Bluesky as X makes more unwanted changes (The Verge)Instagram blames some moderation issues on human reviewers, not AI (TechCrunch)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, which builds prosocial voice technology that combats online toxicity and elevates the health and safety of online communities. Mike Pappas joins us for our bonus chat, talking to Mike about the ever important decision between building your own trust & safety tools versus buying them from vendors. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:States sue TikTok over app’s effects on kids’ mental health (CNBC)Risks vs. Harms: Youth & Social Media (Substack)Instagram and Threads moderation is out of control (The Verge)TikTok lays off hundreds in Malaysia in move toward AI moderation (Asia Nikkei)​​Meta ‘Supreme Court’ expands with European center to handle TikTok, YouTube cases (Washingon Post)The DSA article you didn't know about, but should (T&S Insider)Streaming platform Kick bans Jack Doherty after he crashed his car on a livestream (Polygon) Truth Social Users Are Losing Ridiculous Sums of Money to Scams (Gizmodo)Hacked ‘AI Girlfriend’ Data Shows Prompts Describing Child Sexual Abuse (404 Media)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Professor Kate Klonick, who has studied and written about trust & safety for many years and is currently studying the DSA & DMA in the EU as a Fulbright Scholar. They cover:EU Commission’s Digital Fairness Fitness Check (European Commission)Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions (Nature)Inside Two Years of Turmoil at Big Tech's Anti-Terrorism Group (Wired)Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats (Techdirt)Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers (404 Media)Americans’ Views Mixed on Tech’s Role in Politics (Anchor Change with Katie Harbath)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the T&S field which provides a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Marlyn Savio, a psychologist and research manager at TaskUs, talks to Mike about a recent study they released regarding frontline moderators and their perceptions and experiences dealing with severe content. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Cathryn Weems, who has held T&S roles at Yahoo, Google, Dropbox, Twitter and Epic Games. They cover:Google outlines plans to help you sort real images from fake (The Verge)Fake AI “podcasters” are reviewing my book and it’s freaking me out (Ars Technica) We Don't Need Google to Help "Reimagine" Election Misinformation (Tech Policy Press)Social media owners top global survey of misinformation concerns (The Guardian)Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment (IPIE)X’s First Transparency Report Since Elon Musk’s Takeover Is Finally Here (Wired)Telegram will now provide some user data to authorities (BBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, clinical psychologist Dr Serra Pitts, who leads the psychological health team for Trust & Safety at Concentrix, talks to Ben about how to keep moderators healthy and safe at work and the innovative use of heart rate variability technology to monitor their physical response to harmful content. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Breton’s resignation could mark a new chapter for EU digital policy (Euractiv)Finnish horse enthusiast is an EU tech front-runner (Politico)Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes (New York Times)Instagram to make teenagers’ profiles private by default (Financial Times)AI chatbots might be better at swaying conspiracy theorists than humans (Arstechnica)SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your posts (TechCrunch)Meta bans Russian state media for 'foreign interference’ (Reuters)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Riana Pfefferkorn, a Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human Centered AI. They cover:Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation (Reuters)Social media ban for children to be introduced this year, but age limit undetermined (ABC)ASIO director-general Mike Burgess issues warning to big tech companies they may soon be forced to unlock encrypted chats (ABC)Utah Social Media Restrictions Likely Violate First Amendment, Judge Rules (Media Post)Nearly 40 states back surgeon general’s social media warning labels (The Verge)How TikTokers think about misinformation (Washington Post)Meta, TikTok, and Snap pledge to participate in program to combat suicide and self-harm content (TechCrunch)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Social networks can’t be forced to filter content for kids, says judge (The Verge)Judge Rejects Yet Another Attempt By Texas To Police Online Speech (Techdirt)Telegram apologizes for handling of deepfake porn content in S. Korea (Yonhap)Brazilian Supreme Court panel upholds X ban (Axios)Elon Musk’s Starlink backtracks to comply with Brazil’s ban on X (The Guardian)With Musk’s X banned in Brazil, its users carve out new digital homes (AP)The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (Wired)Posts That Include “From the River to the Sea” (Oversight Board)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’ (The Verge)Third Circuit’s Section 230 TikTok Ruling Deliberately Ignores Precedent, Defies Logic (Techdirt)France charges Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, releases him on €5M bail (Politico) Elon Musk’s X could face ban in Brazil after failure to appoint legal representative (The Guardian)Zuckerberg says he regrets caving to White House pressure on content (Politico)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Daphne Keller, the Director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center. They cover:Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of NetChoice Over California’s Age Appropriate Design Code (Ninth Circuit)Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta on appellate court decision regarding California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (State of California)Regulating platform risk and design: ChatGPT says the quiet part out loud (Stanford Cyberlaw blog)X says it is closing operations in Brazil due to judge’s content orders (CNBC)Indigenous creators are clashing with YouTube’s and Instagram’s sensitive content bans (Rest of World)Teens are making thousands by debating Trump vs. Harris on TikTok (Rest of World)Forced to rethink this Patreon (Chris Klimas Patreon)Ninth Circuit Allows Case Against YOLO Technologies to Proceed (Ninth Circuit)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:EU takes shot at Musk over Trump interview — and misses (Politico)Online Safety Act not fit for purpose after far-right riots, says Sadiq Khan (The Guardian)See why AI detection tools can fail to catch election deepfakes (The Washington Post)Harris campaign's Google ads rewrite news headlines (Axios)Children to be taught how to spot extremist content and fake news online (The Guardian)The friendliest social network you’ve never heard of (The Washington Post)The FTC finalizes its rules clamping down on fake online reviews (Engadget) Trust & Safety as Preventative Healthcare (Delbius)A key part of California’s online safety law for kids is still on hold after appeals court ruling (The Verge)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Bluesky adds Techdirt founder Mike Masnick to its board (TechCrunch)X, Owned by Elon Musk, Brings Antitrust Suit Accusing Advertisers of a Boycott (New York Times)WFA Shutters GARM, X Antitrust Suit Cited (MediaPost)UK faces resistance from X over taking down disinformation during riots (Financial Times)Open letter to UK online service providers (Ofcom)Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers (Financial Times) Turkey blocks access to Instagram for failure to comply with laws (Reuters)Harry and Meghan discuss 'protecting' their children (BBC)The Many Reasons Why NCMEC’s Board Is Failing Its Mission, From A NCMEC Insider (Techdirt)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Jim Jordan Demands Advertisers Explain Why They Don’t Advertise On MAGA Media Sites (Techdirt)TikTok Has a Nazi Problem (Wired)NazTok: An organized neo-Nazi TikTok network is getting millions of views (Institute for Strategic Dialogue)How TikTok bots and AI have powered a resurgence in UK far-right violence (The Guardian)Senate Passes Child Online Safety Bill, Sending It to an Uncertain House Fate (New York Tmes)The teens lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act (The Verge)Social Media Mishaps Aren’t Always Billionaire Election Stealing Plots (Techdirt)X suspends ‘White Dudes for Harris’ account after massive fundraiser (Washington Post)Why Won’t Google Auto-complete ‘Trump Assassination Attempt’? (Intelligencer)‘Technical glitch’ is no longer an excuse (Everything in Moderation from 2020)A message to our Black community (TikTok from 2020)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Discord. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Mike speaks to Juliet Shen and Camille Francois about the Trust & Safety Tooling Consortium at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, and the importance of open source tools for trust and safety. 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.
In the first ever live recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike and Ben are joined at TrustCon 2024 by Dona Bellow, Platform Safety Policy at Reddit, and Alice Hunsberger, PartnerHero’s VP of Trust & Safety and Content Moderation, to round up the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, including:Meta content moderation vendors hit by global cyber outage (Reuters)Could social media support healthy online conversations? New_ Public is working on it (Nieman Lab)Pathways - Expert advice, resources and opportunities for the tech industry to further build capacity to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (Tech Coalition)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the T&S field which provides a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, also recorded live at TrustCon, Mike sits down with Rachel Guevara, TaskUs Division Vice President of Trust and Safety, to talk about her impressions of this year’s conference and her thoughts on the future of trust and safety.You can also watch the video of the recording on our YouTube channel. 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.
In this sponsored Spotlight episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, host Ben Whitelaw talks to Mike Pappas, the founder & CEO of our launch sponsor Modulate, which builds prosocial voice technology that combats online toxicity and elevates the health and safety of online communities. Their conversation takes an in-depth look at how voice is becoming an increasingly important medium for online speech while technology is making more advanced voice moderation possible, and what that means for trust and safety.This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and our sponsor Modulate. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Russia and China pounce on Trump rally shooting to undermine U.S. (Washington Post) The Gunshots Rang Out. Then the Conspiracy Theories Erupted Online (New York Times) Chaos on social media platforms after Trump shooting is a mess of their own making (CNN)Elon Musk Wants His AI Bot to Deliver the News. It Is Struggling With the Job (WSJ)Spotify's new comment feature tries to solve a longtime problem (Fast Company)Comments on Podcasts Gives Creators and Listeners More Ways To Engage (Spotify)A grieving mom’s TikTok videos spark online speech battle (Washington Post)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Paul Danter, Global Head of Trust and Safety at Concentrix, talks about what he's excited for at next week’s TrustCon event and the huge potential for industry collaboration. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Domonique Rai-Varming, Senior Director, Trust & Safety at Trustpilot. Together they cover:Amazon, Expedia and Trustpilot unite to fight fake reviews (BBC)EU charges Elon Musk’s X for letting disinfo run wild (Politico) British female politicians targeted by fake pornography (The Guardian)The hidden workers behind AI tell their stories (Netzpolitik) How Machine Learning Can Undermine Human Rights: YouTube’s Struggle to Moderate the Syrian Crisis (Trust and Safety Foundation)Strengthening Our Approach to Mature Content on Etsy (Etsy)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
Although our hosts are both on vacation this week, we didn’t want to leave our listeners waiting too long for an update on today’s big news about online speech: the Supreme Court’s ruling in the NetChoice cases, which sends the Texas and Florida laws that would limit the ability of online platforms to moderate political speech back to the lower courts. So Mike Masnick has stepped briefly back to the microphone to join our producer, Leigh Beadon, for a quick mini episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, which we’re also posting to the Techdirt podcast feed. In this short discussion, Mike explains the immediate implications of the ruling, the way it separates procedural questions from its broader guidance on the First Amendment, and what it signals about how the court will evaluate issues like this in the future.Read more about the NetChoice ruling in our coverage on Techdirt:In Content Moderation Cases, Supreme Court Says ‘Try Again’ – But Makes It Clear Moderation Deserves First Amendment Protections (Mike Masnick)In The NetChoice Cases, Alito And His Buddies Are Wrong, But Even If They Were Right It May Not Matter, And That’s Largely Good News (Cathy Gellis)This episode is produced with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Supreme Court Sees Through The Nonsense, Rejects Lower Courts’ Rulings Regarding Social Media Moderation (Techdirt)How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety, States Say (New York Times)New Features to Help Protect Our Community (Snap)Trends in Financial Sextortion (Thorn/NCMEC)Teens lean on AI for mental health support (Mercury News)I Paid $365.63 to Replace 404 Media With AI (404 Media)Companies see backlog in DSA transparency database (Euronews)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms (New York Times)The Surgeon General Is Wrong. Social Media Doesn’t Need Warning Labels (The Daily Beast)Anthropic calls for AI red teaming to be standardized (Fortune)How small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline (Engadget)Pornhub to block five more states over age verification laws (The Verge)New York Outlaws 'Addictive' Social Media Feeds For Teen Users (PC Mag)Meta Oversight Board’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt: ‘Not all AI-generated content is harmful’ (Financial Times)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Meta says it won’t support suit against major child safety law (Washington Post)Obstacles to Autonomy: Post-Roe Removal of Abortion Information Online (Amnesty International)Abortion Groups Say Tech Companies Suppress Posts and Accounts (NY Times)The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantled (Platformer)How Politics Broke Content Moderation (Columbia Journalism Review)Propagandists are using AI too—and companies need to be open about it (MIT Tech Review)The rise and fall of Koo, India’s once-thriving Twitter alternative (Rest of World)An Anonymous-Messaging App Upended This High School (WSJ)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.  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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Yoel Roth, former head of trust & safety at Twitter and now head of trust & safety at Match Group. Together they cover:X tweaks rules to formally allow adult content (TechCrunch)Temu joins Shein in facing stricter regulation in the EU (The Verge)Facebook’s Taylor Swift Fan Pages Taken Over by Animal Abuse, Porn, and Scams (404 Media)Post-January 6th deplatforming reduced the reach of misinformation on Twitter (Nature)Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation (Nature)Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War (NY Times)Twitch terminates all members of its Safety Advisory Council (CNBC) This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:EU Explores Whether Telegram Falls Under Strict New Content Law (Bloomberg)Too Small to Police, Too Big to Ignore: Telegram Is the App Dividing Europe (Bloomberg) NIST Reports First Results From Age Estimation Software Evaluation (NIST) Supersharers of fake news on Twitter (Science) Digital town square? Nextdoor's offline contexts and online discourse (JQD:DM) The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing (CNN) TikTok offered an extraordinary deal. The U.S. government took a pass. (Washington Post) Q&A: Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator On 100 Days of the DSA (Tech Policy Press)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Meta and Coinbase link up with Match to fight pig-butchering, romance scams (Fortune)Indian Voters Are Being Bombarded With Millions of Deepfakes. Political Candidates Approve (Wired)Meta says AI-generated election content is not happening at a “systemic level” (MIT Technology Review)How Bluesky is thinking about spam (Bluesky)French TikTok block in overseas territory sets ‘dangerous precedent,’ critics warn (Politico)How a Chinese Influence Operation Is Targeting Pro-Trump Communities Online (Lawfare)X CEO Linda Yaccarino accuses Australia of ‘overreach’ after judge lifts ban on stabbing video (CNBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the trust and safety field providing a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, TaskUs SVP of Global Offerings Phil Tomlinson tells us about his time at the Trust and Safety Professional Association summit in Dublin, his key takeaways from the event, and the trust and safety lessons learned from well-designed conference lanyards. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram (European Commission)Meta, TikTok, other platforms told to expect EU guidelines soon on child protection, age verification (MLex)Got a text that you think is a scam? S’pore’s new centre to fight online harms can help verify it (Straits Times)Bipartisan Bill To Repeal Section 230 Defended In Facts-Optional Op-Ed (Techdirt)Indian journalists turned to YouTube to dodge Modi’s censorship. Some of their channels are now being blocked (Reuters Institute for Journalism)She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all (The Guardian)Commission services sign administrative arrangement with Ofcom to support the enforcement of social media regulations (Pub Affairs Bruxelles)Singapore’s proposed online safety laws look like more censorship in disguise (Rest of World)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership (Tom's Hardware)Tech firms must tame toxic algorithms to protect children online (Ofcom)Reddit Lays Out Content Policy While Seeking More Licensing Deals (Bloomberg)Extremist Militias Are Coordinating in More Than 100 Facebook Groups (Wired)Politicians Scapegoat Social Media While Ignoring Real Solutions (Techdirt)‘Facebook Tries to Combat Russian Disinformation in Ukraine’ – FB Public Policy Manager (Kyiv Post)TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Law Forcing Sale or Ban (New York Times)Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter (Swissinfo)Congressional Committee Threatens To Investigate Any Company Helping TikTok Defend Its Rights (Techdirt)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Alex Feerst, former General Counsel and head of trust & safety at Medium, and co-founder of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. Together they cover:Was There A Trojan Horse Hidden In Section 230 All Along That Could Enable Adversarial Interoperability? (Techdirt)EU Commission opens formal proceedings against Facebook and Instagram under the Digital Services Act (European Commission)OnlyFans Investigated over its duties to protect under-18s from restricted materials (Ofcom)Canadian banks need to do more to stop abusive e-transfers, survivors say (CBC)TikTok And Meta Aren’t Labeling State Propaganda About The War In Gaza (Forbes)How we fought bad apps and bad actors in 2023 (Google security blog)Meta’s oversight body prepares to lay off workers (Washington Post)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.  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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System (Stanford Internet Observatory)TikTok faces EU Commission’s second probe, potential suspension of reward program (Euronews)Meta Expands Its Mixed Reality Beyond the Quest Headsets (CNet)The biggest AI companies agree to crack down on child abuse images (Thorn)Wattpad has a community problem, so it’s killing DMs (The Verge)Discord CEO Jason Citron makes the case for a smaller, more private internet (The Verge)Stanford Internet Observatory’s CyberTipline Report (Stanford Law School) This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Schools Were Just Supposed To Block Porn. Instead They Sabotaged Homework and Censored Suicide Prevention Sites (The Markup)New Tools to Help Protect Against Sextortion and Intimate Image Abuse (Meta)Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide (Bloomberg)The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet (TIME)Mexican election agency and news organizations leverage Check (Meedan)Benjamin Cohen was falsely accused of the Bondi Junction stabbings. Here's how the lie spread around the world (ABC News) 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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Alice Hunsberger, VP of Trust and Safety and Content Moderation at Partnerhero and former Global Head of Customer Experience at Grindr. Together they cover: Measuring the Persuasiveness of Language Models (Anthropic)Our Approach to Labeling AI-Generated Content and Manipulated Media (Meta) Survey: New Laws Mandate Access To Social Media Data, But Obstacles Remain (Tech Policy Press) Brazil Might Regulate All Social Media After Clash With Elon Musk (Guardian) X automatically changed 'Twitter' to 'X' in users' posts, breaking legit URLs (Mashable)LinkedIn starts verifying recruiters to stop scams (Axios) Content policy is basically astrology? (T&S Insider from Everything in Moderation)  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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation, and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Elon Musk's X appoints new safety chiefs as it seeks to rebuild ads business (Fortune)X’s ‘complimentary’ Premium push gives people blue checks they didn’t ask for (The Verge)Mozilla Research: Platforms’ Election Interventions in the Global Majority Are Ineffective (Mozilla)Implementing the Online Safety Act: Additional duties for ‘categorised’ online services (Ofcom)Social networks could quit Britain under online safety laws, Reddit claims (The Telegraph)Patreon is taking Reddit’s approach to content moderation (The Verge)Facebook has blocked Kansas Reflector (Kansas Reflector) The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, the prosocial voice technology company making online spaces safer and more inclusive. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Modulate's Director of Marketing Mark Nolan chats with Mike about the the recent launch of the Gaming Safety Coalition, why its important for Modulate to work with other companies to create stronger gaming environments and the importance of a hybrid approach to T&S.       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.
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation, and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Users shocked to find Instagram limits political content by default (ArsTechnica)Oversight Board Publishes Policy Advisory Opinion on Referring to Designated Dangerous Individuals as “Shaheed” (Oversight Board)It’s not a glitch: how Meta systematically censors Palestinian voices (Access Now)High Court orders temporary suspension of Telegram's services in Spain (Reuters)Imagining a Roadmap to User-Led Governance of Meta (Tech Policy Press)Why Bluesky Remains The Most Interesting Experiment In Social Media, By Far (Techdirt)Meta’s most banned word, ad targeting vs moderation and new civility research (Everything in Moderation)The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. We weren't able to schedule our usual Bonus Chat at the end of the episode so Mike and Ben talk about their thinking on podcast sponsorship, why advertising content doesn't have to be all bad and how you get in touch if you're a company or organization looking to reach Ctrl-Alt-Speech's growing and global audience. 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.
In this week's online speech, content moderation and internet regulation round-up, Mike and Ben cover: Supreme Court Seems Skeptical Of The Claims That The Federal Government Coerced Social Media To Moderate (Techdirt) Reddit’s I.P.O. Is a Content Moderation Success Story (New York Times) Elon Musk's X Is Suspending Accounts That Reveal a Neo-Nazi Cartoonist's Alleged Identity (Wired) The Risks of Internet Regulation (Foreign Affairs) EU to impose election safeguards on Big Tech (Financial Times) Canada’s Online Harms Act is revealing itself to be staggeringly reckless (Globe and Mail)The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Block Party, which builds privacy and anti-harassment tools to increase user control, protection, and safety. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Block Party founder and CEO Tracy Chou discusses the impact of harassment on self-censorship and explains how she is making navigating privacy and safety settings on major platforms easier for users through her tool, Privacy Party.  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.
In this week's round-up of news about online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: The US TikTok ban and what it could mean for the future of the internet (Techdirt) The EU prepares to regulate Chinese marketplaces (Reuters) Telegram's CEO gives a rare interview - and what that says about online speech (Financial Times) Generative AI is already messing with elections (Al Jazeera) Bluesky open sources its moderation tooling software (Bluesky) Trust & Safety software market is set to double by 2028, according to a new report (Duco) The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, the prosocial voice technology company making online spaces safer and more inclusive. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Modulate CEO Mike Pappas joins us to talk about how safety lessons from the gaming world can be applied to the broader T&S industry and how advances in AI are helping make voice moderation more accurate.  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.
Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-Speech, a brand new a weekly news podcast co-created by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation’s Ben Whitelaw. Each episode will be looking at the latest news in online speech, covering issues regarding trust & safety, content moderation, regulation, court rulings, new services & technology, and more.Subscribe now and stay tuned for our debut episode coming next Friday!If your company or organization is interested in supporting Ctrl-Alt-Speech and joining us for a sponsored interview, visit ctrlaltspeech.com for more information. 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.