Timeline
Every post and feed across this instance
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The Difficulty of Being a Teen Online
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
The Bell Tolls for TikTok
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Rated R for Ridiculous
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)
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
This Episode has Masculine Energy
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
What's Next for Ctrl-Alt-Speech
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!
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Zuck and Cover
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
How The Online Regulators Stole Christmas
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Blunder from Down Under
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Digital Oligarchs Gunning for Europe (DOGE)
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
The Most Moderated Word on Meta
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Presidents & Precedents
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
ChatGPT Told Us Not to Say This, but YOLO
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Nothing to FCC Here
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Think Globally, Stack Locally
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Watch Out, AI is Getting More Persuasive
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Locate Your Nearest X-it
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Between a Rock and a Hard Policy
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Moderation Without Representation
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
An Appeal a Day Keeps the Censor Away
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Regulate, Rinse, Repeat
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
The Haidt of Hypocrisy
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Won't Someone Please Think of the Adults?
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Outsourced But Not Out Of Mind
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Murthy, Reddit, and the Speech Deciders
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Sorry, This Episode Will Not Cheer You Up
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Backdoors and Backsteps
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Spotlight: Modulate CEO Mike Pappas on Voice Moderation
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.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Comply & Demand
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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The Comedy of Errors
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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The Global Internet - Or Is It?
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Do Not Leave a Fake Review for this Podcast
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Teen But Not Heard
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Deepfake It Till You Make It
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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FAFO: Claude Goes High Brow With Its Super Bowl Ad & "Constitution"; OpenAI Scrambles
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
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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It's a Banned, Banned, Banned, Banned World
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Bullshit in a China Shop
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Move Fast and Mistake Things
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Spotlight: Building Better CSAM Detection with Resolver’s George Vlasto
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 Happened
This episode is brought to you in partnership with Resolver.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Moderating is Such Sweet Sorrow
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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This One Weird Trick to Save the Open Internet
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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You Can't Antitrust Anyone These Days
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)
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Writing Some Wrongs
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!
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Should Speech Cost a GARM and a Leg?
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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The (Content Moderation) Eras Tour
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.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Smells Like Teen Safety
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Moderating Politics & Politicizing Moderation
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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New Blocks On The Kids
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Panic! At The Discord
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)
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
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Why Can't We De-Friend
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 click
- Liz 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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com -
Minisode: The Supreme Court's NetChoice Ruling
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.
Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).
www.buzzsprout.com