Ctrl-Alt-Speech publisher

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Chris Messina, inventor of the #hashtag in social media, who has worked on internet and social media efforts for decades. Together they discuss:

• Oakland Unified Announces New Cell Phone Policy Now in Effect; Policy is Based on New State Law Requiring Cell Phone-Free School Days (Oakland Unified School District)
• In conversation with Jonathan Haidt, author of ‘The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness’ (Left to Their Own Devices)
• French court blocks social media ban for under 15s (Politico)
• Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta (NPR)
• Discord halts livestreams in Brazil after watchdog cites child safety failures (ABC News)

And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:

• AI Companion Legislation in the United States (Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law)
• In China, treatment for mental-health problems is a luxury (The Economist)
• I Don’t Trust A.I. But I Told it Everything (NY Times)

Our fun links this week include Berd, the open source anthropomorphic agent management tool from Jack Dorsey and Block, and Dopamine Shop, Fake Eats, and other places to shop without shopping.

If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.

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).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover.

In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:

• Claude will apply invisible watermarks to AI text and images (The Verge)
• Claude-inspired copypasting (LinkedIn)
• Anthropic investors bet on $2tn valuation in record IPO (Financial Times)
• The Future is for Everyone (Meta)
• OpenAI’s head of ethics leaves start-up less than a year after joining (Financial Times)
• US court rules Meta, other tech firms must face thousands of lawsuits over social media addiction (Reuters)
• Ninth Circuit Rewrites Section 230 To Remove The Part That Actually Mattered (Techdirt)
• Otherwise Obectionable podcast (Techdirt)

And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:

• Breton calls for EU disinformation inquiry over Ceuta (Euractiv)
• Meta and TikTok agree to fact-check content on Spain border crossings after deadly rush (Reuters)
• Social media rumours spark biggest migration crisis between Morocco and Spain in years (Euronews)
• Thierry Breton: “Ceuta? La minaccia viene dall’algoritmo che guida gli arrivi” (La Stampa)

Our fun links this week are this typing website for tiny fingers and a museum for your favourite memes — and the thinking behind it.

If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.

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).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover.

In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:

• India summons Meta executives over briefly restricted Modi Facebook post (Reuters)
• ‘No explanation given’: Arvind Kejriwal claims Meta restricted his account in India (The Times of India)
• Meta apologises to India for restricting PM Modi's post (Reuters)
• India temporarily bans Telegram over exam paper leak concern (BBC)
• eBay agrees $56m settlement with bloggers over harassment case (BBC)
• Artist starts legal case against Meta for deleting her Instagram account (The Art Newspaper)

And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:

• Telegram CEO says an extortionist planted CSAM in a chat to get it pulled from the App Store (The Verge)
• TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by Suicide (Bloomberg)
• TikTok Says ‘Moderator Error’ Kept Perez Hilton Livestream Up (Wired)

Our fun links this week are the Nintendo gameplay counsellors and a revamped app for sharing your toilet flushing habits. 

If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.

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).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover.

In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:

• The U.S. Is About to Design an AI Regulator. Here’s How to Get It Right (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Mark Zuckerberg Says U.S. Should Accelerate AI Development, Not Restrict It (WSJ)
• Want AI you can trust? Start by building the right institutions (Atlantic Council)
• Anthropic Says It’s Against A Ban On Open Weight Models. It Just Wants To Ban Everything That Makes Them Good (Techdirt)
• The High Stakes Behind the EU’s €890M Google DMA Fine (Tech Policy Press)
• Europe bears its teeth, political panic about OpenAI hack and YouTube refines partner policy (Everything in Moderation)
• Trump vows new tariffs on the E.U. after Brussels fines Google $1 billion (Qz)

And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:

• Elon Musk’s xAI sues Minnesota over law banning ‘nudification’ technology (The Guardian)
• The Worst Person You Know Just Filed A Good First Amendment Lawsuit Against A Very Badly Drafted Nudify App Ban (Techdirt)

Our fun links this week are a replica of Scooby Doo’s Mystery-Machine and the Saltburn cricket scandal because we need more satire right now.

If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.

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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).

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 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).