Ctrl-Alt-Speech publisher

In the first Ctrl-Alt-Speech episode of 2026, Mike and Ben look forward at the year ahead and begin building a bingo card of things that might happen. They discuss a short list of possible squares, ask for listeners to contribute more ideas, and go few a through suggestions that have already come in. Soon, we’ll release an official Ctrl-Alt-Speech bingo card for listeners to play along throughout the year.

Follow Ben at Everything in Moderation and Mike at Techdirt.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Misleading Panic over Misinformation (Cato Institute) 
• Claims that Online Misinformation Fears Are Overblown ‘Radically Understates’ the Scale of the Threat (Byline Times)
• EU Disinformation Code Takes Effect Amid Censorship Claims and Trade Tensions (Tech Policy Press)
• Content Moderation Is Not Censorship (Law & Liberty)
• Asked to think like a paedophile or act suicidal: Workers training Meta's AI in Ireland speak out (The Journal)
• The Hidden Human Cost of AI Moderation (Jacobin)
• Brazil rules that social media platforms are responsible for users’ posts (Rest of World)
• X opens up to Community Notes written by AI bots (The Verge)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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).

Our third annual Live at TrustCon recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Ben was back this year! Mike and Ben were joined live on stage with Kat Duffy, senior fellow for digital and cyberspace policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and Zoe Darme, Director for Trust, Knowledge and Information Products at Google. They cover:

• Security incident disclosure — July 2026 (Hugging Face)
• OpenAI and Hugging Face partner to address security incident during model evaluation (OpenAI)
• An OpenAI test model escaped and broke into a real company’s servers (CNN)
• France Joins a Global Move Toward Restricting Social Media for Children (NY Times)
• xAI sues user for exploiting AI tool to sexualise minors (Al Jazeera)

Special thanks to the Trust & Safety Professionals Association (TSPA) and all the work they do each year in putting on TrustCon, and for allowing us to host the live podcast as the closing session again this year.

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 speaks to PwC’s Dan Hays at TrustCon about the firm’s recently published Trust & Safety Outlook report.

They discuss: 

• How AI is simultaneously creating new risks and reshaping the tools used to address them;
• What the rise of autonomous agents means for governance, accountability and the future of the internet; and
• How platforms should respond to an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape.

The conversation also explores how Trust & Safety is becoming a more strategic function inside companies, how automation could change the role of practitioners and vendors, and which emerging risks remain most underestimated.

This episode is brought to you in conjunction with our sponsor, PwC. Download the report today.

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 roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Niklas Eder, co-founder and co-CEO of User Rights, a designated out of court dispute settlement body under the Digital Services Act which reviews complaints from users whose social media posts have been deleted or moderated. Together, Ben and Niklas discuss:

• UK to lay out social media curbs for 16 and 17 year-olds (POLITICO)
• ‘What’s the point?’ Teenagers give their verdict on Britain’s social media curfew (The Guardian)
• EU moves towards social media ban for children (Financial Times)
• They Helped Women Fight Online Abuse. They Were Barred From the U.S. (The New York Times)
• Discord confirms AI moderators have banned thousands over harmless images (Mashable)
• Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers (Knight First Amendment Institute)

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

• EU threatens Meta with fines over 'addictive' Facebook and Instagram (BBC News)
• Commission preliminarily finds the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook in breach of the Digital Services Act (European Commission)
• The Question of Legality and the Function of the Commission’s Preliminary Findings Against Meta (Verfassungsblog)

Our fun links this week are a lawn mowing game for post-World Cup stress relief and the Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers because we need more satire right now. 

This episode is sponsored by PwC, whose upcoming 2026 Trust and Safety Outlook Report explores the forces reshaping how organizations are approaching online safety and integrity. In our special bonus chat, Ben sits down with Dan Hays, Principal Partner of Strategy& (part of the PwC network), to talk about the future of trust and safety and get a sneak peek at some of the themes in their report before its release next week at TrustCon.

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:

• ‘It’s not like we knowingly have bad ads’: Meta on ad fraud, teen safety, and why AI will not replace agencies (The Media Leader)
• Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India (BBC)
• Meta Now Lets Anyone Use Your Instagram Photos in AI Images—Unless You Opt Out (Wired)
• At 17, She Sued Meta and Google, and Won. Now She’s Ready to Tell Her Story (Bloomberg)

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

• Beijing is looking at curbing overseas access to China's top AI models, sources say (Reuters)
• Fable 5 Is Back After Anthropic Irons Out Security Concerns With US Government (PC Mag)
• AI Giants Are Handing Out Tons of Free Computing Power to Grab Startup Share (WSJ)
• Introducing Tokens to the Future: Token Grants to AI Builders (LinkedIn)
• OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake (Financial Times)

Our fun links this week are Roost, the “slow-cial” messaging app, and PlotLines for visualizing classic novels on a map.

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 roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Cori Crider, executive director of the Future of Technology Institute, an independent non-profit focusing on technology that serves the public. She previously co-founded legal non-profit Foxglove and led national security litigation at human rights organisation, Reprieve. Together, Ben and Cori discuss:

• Australia to double potential fines for Facebook and Instagram (ABC News)
• 85% of kids are still using social media despite ban. But we need a new measure to judge its success (The Conversation)
• German expert panel suggests social media ban for under-13s (Reuters)
• EXCLUSIVE: EU could announce social media ban for kids in September (Euractiv)
• The EU Wants To Grow Homegrown Tech. Its Courts Keep Making That Impossible (Techdirt)
• Eurosky x Funk (German pub broadcaster youth programme) partnership (Linkedin)

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

• TikTok announce major redundancies amid push for AI content moderation (The Independent)
• Meta looks to AI to review harmful content in cost-cutting drive (Financial Times)

Our fun links this week are the rise of dopamine sites (Ben) and Polaroid’s billboard campaign (Cori).

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 a special bonus episode for our Patreon supporters, Mike and Ben discuss some of their favorite must-read books about online speech, platform power, and content moderation. This free teaser covers their first two picks: It’s Complicated by Danah Boyd and Behind the Screen by Sarah T. Roberts. 

To hear the full episode with all six books, become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter 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).