Ctrl-Alt-Speech publisher

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben are joined by a group of students from the Media Law and Policy class at the American University School of Communication. Together they cover:

• U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts (Washington Post)
• US lawmakers respond to the UK’s Apple encryption backdoor request (Engadget)
• UK: Encryption order threatens global privacy rights (Human Rights Watch)
• Analysis: AI Summit emphasizes innovation and competition over trust and safety (DFR Lab)
• An overdue idea for making the internet safer just got the funding it needs (Platformer)
• Google-backed public interest AI partnership launches with $400M+ for open ecosystem building (Techcrunch)
• Britain dances to JD Vance’s tune as it renames AI institute (Politico) 
• Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)–M.P. v. Meta (Eric Goldman)
• TikTok Opts to Not Take Section 230 Immunity Fight to the US Supreme Court (Law.com)
• Shopify says risk of fraud, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye West store takedown (The Logic)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Mike Pappas, the founder & CEO of our launch sponsor Modulate, which builds prosocial voice technology that combats online toxicity and elevates the health and safety of online communities. Their conversation takes an in-depth look at how voice is becoming an increasingly important medium for online speech while technology is making more advanced voice moderation possible, and what that means for trust and safety.

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and our sponsor Modulate.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• TikTok Ban Upheld (DC Circuit)
• TikTok’s Romanian reckoning (Politico)
• Romania asks EU to investigate TikTok’s election handling after ultranationalist’s stunning win (Politico)
• TikTok Removes Covert Network Linked to Romanian Candidate (Bloomberg)
• GOP FTC Commissioners Abuse “Free Speech” Rhetoric To Push For Government Control Over Online Speech (Techdirt)
• Race to replace FTC chair Lina Khan pits antitrust hawks against candidate softer on Big Tech: sources (NY Post)
• Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too much (The Verge)
• The Curious Case Of ChatGPT’s Banned Names: Hard-Coding Blocks To Avoid Nuisance Threats (Techdirt)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Internet Society, a global nonprofit that advocates for an open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy Internet for everyone. In our Bonus Chat, Natalie Campbell and John Perrino from Internet Society join us to talk about the social media age restriction law in Australia, a proposed age verification bill in Canada, and the trend of age gating and age verification globally, and what it means for the open internet.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Facebook & Content Moderation (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)
• Australia takes enforcement action against Telegram for serious delay in terror and child sexual abuse transparency (eSafety Commission) 
• US judge says Trump Media, Rumble need not follow Brazilian order they deem censorship (Reuters)
• Why the Rumble Suit Against a Brazilian Justice is Not About Free Speech (Tech Policy Press)
• Underage Users at Meta, Snap Show Large Australian Breaches (Bloomberg)
• ‘Big Tech Censorship’ of Users Targeted by Trump’s FTC Chief (Bloomberg)
• Instagram 'Error' Turned Reels Into Neverending Scroll of Murder, Gore, and Violence (404 Media)
• Meta’s ‘free speech’ revamp divides oversight board (Financial Times)
• Microsoft Hosted Explicit Videos of This Startup Founder for Years. Here's How She Got Them Taken Down (Wired)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 news about online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: 

• The US TikTok ban and what it could mean for the future of the internet (Techdirt) 
• The EU prepares to regulate Chinese marketplaces (Reuters) 
• Telegram's CEO gives a rare interview - and what that says about online speech (Financial Times) 
• Generative AI is already messing with elections (Al Jazeera) 
• Bluesky open sources its moderation tooling software (Bluesky) 
• Trust & Safety software market is set to double by 2028, according to a new report (Duco) 

The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, the prosocial voice technology company making online spaces safer and more inclusive. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Modulate CEO Mike Pappas joins us to talk about how safety lessons from the gaming world can be applied to the broader T&S industry and how advances in AI are helping make voice moderation more accurate. 

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 takes shot at Musk over Trump interview — and misses (Politico)
• Online Safety Act not fit for purpose after far-right riots, says Sadiq Khan (The Guardian)
• See why AI detection tools can fail to catch election deepfakes (The Washington Post)
• Harris campaign's Google ads rewrite news headlines (Axios)
• Children to be taught how to spot extremist content and fake news online (The Guardian)
• The friendliest social network you’ve never heard of (The Washington Post)
• The FTC finalizes its rules clamping down on fake online reviews (Engadget) 
• Trust & Safety as Preventative Healthcare (Delbius)
• A key part of California’s online safety law for kids is still on hold after appeals court ruling (The Verge)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Bridget Todd, a technology and culture writer, speaker and trainer and host of two great podcasts, There are No Girls on the Internet and IRL: Online Life is Real Life. Together, they cover:

• AI Models And Parents Don’t Understand ‘Let Him Cook’ (404 Media)
• Trial reveals flaws in tech intended to enforce Australian social media ban for under-16s (The Guardian)
• Inside /r/SGExams: Meet the young volunteers behind 1 of S’pore’s largest online forums for students (Straits Times)
• The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back (Rest of World)
• Man with real-life girlfriend and child proposes to AI chatbot after programming it to flirt: ‘I think this is actual love (New York Post)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Meta and Coinbase link up with Match to fight pig-butchering, romance scams (Fortune)
• Indian Voters Are Being Bombarded With Millions of Deepfakes. Political Candidates Approve (Wired)
• Meta says AI-generated election content is not happening at a “systemic level” (MIT Technology Review)
• How Bluesky is thinking about spam (Bluesky)
• French TikTok block in overseas territory sets ‘dangerous precedent,’ critics warn (Politico)
• How a Chinese Influence Operation Is Targeting Pro-Trump Communities Online (Lawfare)
• X CEO Linda Yaccarino accuses Australia of ‘overreach’ after judge lifts ban on stabbing video (CNBC)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the trust and safety field providing a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, TaskUs SVP of Global Offerings Phil Tomlinson tells us about his time at the Trust and Safety Professional Association summit in Dublin, his key takeaways from the event, and the trust and safety lessons learned from well-designed conference lanyards.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 special bonus for Ctrl-Alt-Speech listeners, we're cross-posting an episode from the Future Around And Find Out podcast hosted by Dan Blumberg with guest Kwaku Aning.

This week Dan and Kwaku dig into: 

• The uncanny valley that is AI agents and Moltbook—the "Reddit" that agents built for themselves to complain about humans, create a religion, and behave in ways that freak humans out 
• Anthropic takes aim at OpenAI with a Super Bowl ad that's spicy (for cubs and cougars alike) 
• We read Claude's "Constitution" and ask: Should AI do what you ask it to do—or what it thinks you really want long-term? 
• Why Dan switched from OpenAI to Claude (and what he learned about tone, capability, and custom projects) 
• OpenAI scrambles; the market stumbles; Jensen Huang acts like Sam Altman is "just someone I used to know" 
• How AEO (AI Engine Optimization) becomes critical in an AI-agent world—and what that means for brand, marketing, and search 
• Why social media is already past (dark social won) 
• Elon's pivot to humanoid robots, data centers in space, and other cool things we definitely need 
• Are we setting higher ethical standards for machines than for tech leaders? 

Subscribe to FAFO wherever you get your podcasts, or at futurearound.com

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Nepal to block some social media including Facebook (Reuters)
• Why Nepal Banned 26 Social Media Platforms And What It Means (Medianama)
• A parliament in flames, a leader toppled. Nepal’s Gen-Z protesters ask: What comes next? (CNN)
• When Trolls Take On Tyrants: 4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over Extraterritorial Censorship (Techdirt)
• Wikipedia is resilient because it's boring (The Verge)
• Former Meta employees say they saw child abuse in VR before company blocked research (NBC News)
• Mark Zuckerberg sues Mark Zuckerberg (Techcrunch)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• TikTok Oral Arguments (Supreme Court)
• Biden administration looks for ways to keep TikTok available in the U.S. (NBC News)
• Trump considers executive order hoping to ‘save TikTok’ from ban or sale in U.S. law (Washington Post)
• TikTok Users Gleefully Embrace Even More Chinese App To Spite US TikTok Ban (Techdirt)
• Meta employees criticize Zuckerberg decisions to end fact-checking (CNBC)
• Meta moderators were already in Texas before Zuckerberg announced move, say ex-workers (The Guardian)
• Not Many Meta Employees Will Have to Move to Texas After All (Wired)
• Meta just flipped the switch that prevents misinformation from spreading in the United States (Platformer)
• Brazil expresses concern over Meta’s changes to content moderation (Al Jazeera)
• EU reassesses tech probes into Apple, Google and Meta (Financial Times)
• Despite DEI & content moderation reversals, advertisers won’t flee Meta (The Drum)
• Meta’s ‘free speech’ overhaul sparks advertisers’ concern (Financial Times)
• French Woman Says AI Brad Pitt Scammed Her Out of $850K (Hollywood Reporter)
• French TV show pulled after ridicule of woman who fell for AI Brad Pitt (The Guardian)
• Why This OnlyFans Model Posts Machine Learning Explainers to Pornhub (404 Media)

If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Jack Cable calls out Cluely over bogus DMCA (X)
• The cofounder of the viral AI 'cheating' startup Cluely says he only hires people for 2 jobs (Business Insider)
• Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really) (Techdirt)
• Instagram wrongly accuses some users of breaching child sex abuse rules (BBC)
• Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot praises Adolf Hitler on X (FT)
• Grok Becomes ‘MechaHitler,’ Twitter Becomes X: How Centralized Tech Is Prone To Fascist Manipulation (Techdirt)
• See the leaked teen social media ban tech trial report that has experts worried (Crikey)
• New anti-fraud system is labelling hospital texts and other legitimate messages as ‘likely scam’ (Irish Independent)
• Why Ireland’s New “Scam Likely” Labels Might Actually Make SMS Fraud Worse for Banks and the Public (Medium)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 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.

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 Dave Willner, founder of Zentropi, and long-time trust & safety expert who worked at Facebook, AirBnB, and OpenAI in Trust & Safety roles. Together they discuss:

• Masnick's Impossibility Theorem: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well (Techdirt)
• UK makes new attempt to access Apple cloud data (Financial Times)
• Imgur pulls out of UK after data regulator warns of fines (TechCrunch)
• Leaked Meta guidelines show how it trains AI chatbots to respond to child sexual exploitation prompts (Business Insider)
• OpenAI's Sora joins Meta in pushing AI-generated videos. Some are worried about a flood of 'AI slop' (ABC News)
• Flights in Afghanistan grounded after internet shutdown (BBC)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Alex Feerst, former General Counsel and head of trust & safety at Medium, and co-founder of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. Together they cover:

• Was There A Trojan Horse Hidden In Section 230 All Along That Could Enable Adversarial Interoperability? (Techdirt)
• EU Commission opens formal proceedings against Facebook and Instagram under the Digital Services Act (European Commission)
• OnlyFans Investigated over its duties to protect under-18s from restricted materials (Ofcom)
• Canadian banks need to do more to stop abusive e-transfers, survivors say (CBC)
• TikTok And Meta Aren’t Labeling State Propaganda About The War In Gaza (Forbes)
• How we fought bad apps and bad actors in 2023 (Google security blog)
• Meta’s oversight body prepares to lay off workers (Washington Post)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Meta wins FTC antitrust trial over Instagram, WhatsApp deals (CNBC)
• Commission eyes further simplification of tech rules after DSA review (Euractiv)
• Inside Europe's 'Jekyll and Hyde' tech strategy (Digital Policy)
• NetChoice sues Virginia to block its one-hour social media limit for kids (The Verge)
• Tech Giants Sue California Over Social Media Access Law (2) (Bloomberg Law)
• TikTok to give users power to reduce amount of AI content on their feeds (The Guardian) 
• The Most Frustrating Word for Trust & Safety Professionals (LinkedIn)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Grammarly turned me into an AI editor against my will and I hate it (Platformer)
• Grammarly has disabled its tool offering generative-AI feedback credited to real writers (Engadget)
• Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature (Wired)
• Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz. (NY Times)
• Molly vs the Machines review – a powerful story of love, loss and the dangers of social media (Guardian)
• UK: New Molly Russell documentary provides further evidence that social media needs complete redesign (Amnesty International)
• WhatsApp is launching parent-linked accounts for pre-teens (TechCrunch)
• Meta urged to boost oversight of fake AI videos (BBC)

Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and get in touch if you win!

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Bluesky adds Techdirt founder Mike Masnick to its board (TechCrunch)
• X, Owned by Elon Musk, Brings Antitrust Suit Accusing Advertisers of a Boycott (New York Times)
• WFA Shutters GARM, X Antitrust Suit Cited (MediaPost)
• UK faces resistance from X over taking down disinformation during riots (Financial Times)
• Open letter to UK online service providers (Ofcom)
• Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers (Financial Times) 
• Turkey blocks access to Instagram for failure to comply with laws (Reuters)
• Harry and Meghan discuss 'protecting' their children (BBC)
• The Many Reasons Why NCMEC’s Board Is Failing Its Mission, From A NCMEC Insider (Techdirt)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Ben and Mike discuss (with apologies to Tay-Tay) the three eras of content moderation in the media and what comes next. 

Their conversation builds on Ben’s essay in the soon-to-be-published Trust, Safety, and the Internet We Share Multistakeholder Insights, a new book looking at the evolution of the Trust & Safety industry and how platform policies decisions are made. The pre-print is available online.

Together, they unpack three distinct phases: The Strange Fascination Era (2003–2015), when newsrooms powered platform growth and treated social media as an exciting new frontier; The “We’re Watching You” Era (2016–2020), when investigative reporting exposed online harms and pushed platforms to formalise Trust & Safety; and The Mask Off Era (2021–present), as platforms retreat from working with the media and the commitment to moderation waned.

We’ll be back next week with our regular episode. 

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Breton’s resignation could mark a new chapter for EU digital policy (Euractiv)
• Finnish horse enthusiast is an EU tech front-runner (Politico)
• Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes (New York Times)
• Instagram to make teenagers’ profiles private by default (Financial Times)
• AI chatbots might be better at swaying conspiracy theorists than humans (Arstechnica)
• SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your posts (TechCrunch)
• Meta bans Russian state media for 'foreign interference’ (Reuters)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Meta says it won’t support suit against major child safety law (Washington Post)
• Obstacles to Autonomy: Post-Roe Removal of Abortion Information Online (Amnesty International)
• Abortion Groups Say Tech Companies Suppress Posts and Accounts (NY Times)
• The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantled (Platformer)
• How Politics Broke Content Moderation (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Propagandists are using AI too—and companies need to be open about it (MIT Tech Review)
• The rise and fall of Koo, India’s once-thriving Twitter alternative (Rest of World)
• An Anonymous-Messaging App Upended This High School (WSJ)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now (New Yorker)
• Introducing Safe for Work? — all about T&S jobs (Everything in Moderation*)
• Kids Turn Podcast Comments Into Secret Chat Rooms, Because Of Course They Do (Techdirt)
• Reddit and Kick added to child social media ban (ABC News)
• X boss explains why ‘horrific’ video viewed by Axel Rudakubana wasn’t removed (The Independent)
• Southport Inquiry (YouTube)
• How Elon Musk is Boosting The British Right (Sky News)
• arXiv Changes Rules After Getting Spammed With AI-Generated 'Research' Papers (404 Media)
• TikTok Investigated in France Over Content That Promotes Suicide (Bloomberg) 
• France Moves to Block the Shein Website Over a Sex Doll Scandal (New York Times) 
• EU leaders paper over splits on US tech reliance (Politico) 

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Safer by Thorn, a purpose-built CSAM and CSE solution. Powered by trusted data and Thorn’s issue expertise, Safer helps trust and safety teams proactively detect CSAM and child sexual exploitation messages.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Dr Blake Hallinan, Professor of Platform Studies in the Department of Media & Journalism Studies at Aarhus University. Together, they discuss:

• On Section 230’s 30th Birthday, A Look Back At Why It’s Such A Good Law And Why Messing With It Would Be Bad (Techdirt)
• An 18-Million-Subscriber YouTuber Just Explained Section 230 Better Than Every Politician In Washington (Techdirt)
• Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally (Discord)
• Media Literacy Parent's study (GOV.UK)
• EU says TikTok must disable ‘addictive’ features like infinite scroll, fix its recommendation engine (Techcrunch)
• We Didn’t Ask for This Internet with Tim Wu and Cory Doctorow (The New York Times)
• Despite Meta’s ban, Fidesz candidates successfully posted 162 political ads on Facebook in January 9 (Lakmusz.hu)
• Claude’s Constitution Needs a Bill of Rights and Oversight (Oversight Board)
• Account Closed Without Notice: Debanking Adult Industry Workers in Canada (ResearchGate)

Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and get in touch if you win!

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• 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.

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).

Although our hosts are both on vacation this week, we didn’t want to leave our listeners waiting too long for an update on today’s big news about online speech: the Supreme Court’s ruling in the NetChoice cases, which sends the Texas and Florida laws that would limit the ability of online platforms to moderate political speech back to the lower courts. So Mike Masnick has stepped briefly back to the microphone to join our producer, Leigh Beadon, for a quick mini episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, which we’re also posting to the Techdirt podcast feed. In this short discussion, Mike explains the immediate implications of the ruling, the way it separates procedural questions from its broader guidance on the First Amendment, and what it signals about how the court will evaluate issues like this in the future.

Read more about the NetChoice ruling in our coverage on Techdirt:

• In Content Moderation Cases, Supreme Court Says ‘Try Again’ – But Makes It Clear Moderation Deserves First Amendment Protections (Mike Masnick)
• In The NetChoice Cases, Alito And His Buddies Are Wrong, But Even If They Were Right It May Not Matter, And That’s Largely Good News (Cathy Gellis)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 the first ever live recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike and Ben are joined at TrustCon 2024 by Dona Bellow, Platform Safety Policy at Reddit, and Alice Hunsberger, PartnerHero’s VP of Trust & Safety and Content Moderation, to round up the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, including:

• Meta content moderation vendors hit by global cyber outage (Reuters)
• Could social media support healthy online conversations? New_ Public is working on it (Nieman Lab)
• Pathways - Expert advice, resources and opportunities for the tech industry to further build capacity to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (Tech Coalition)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the T&S field which provides a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, also recorded live at TrustCon, Mike sits down with Rachel Guevara, TaskUs Division Vice President of Trust and Safety, to talk about her impressions of this year’s conference and her thoughts on the future of trust and safety.

You can also watch the video of the recording on our YouTube channel.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Cathy Gellis, an internet and First Amendment lawyer. Together, they cover:

• The Copyright Office Issues A Largely Disappointing Report On AI Training, And Once Again A Major Fair Use Analysis Inexplicably Ignores The First Amendment (Techdirt)
• Trump fires Copyright Office director after report raises questions about AI training (TechCrunch)
• Elon Musk’s X caves to ‘censorship’ demand from India as tensions build with Pakistan (AFP)
• In the government’s war on ‘disinformation’, facts are collateral damage (The Hindu)
• Elon Musk's Twitter: Indian government has asked us to block 8,000 accounts, however, we disagree as (Times of India)
• Elon Musk’s Grok AI Can’t Stop Talking About ‘White Genocide’ (Wired)
• White Afrikaner brought to US by Trump administration has history of antisemitic posts (The Guardian)
• U.S. says it is now monitoring immigrants' social media for antisemitism (NPR)
• Kanye’s Nazi Song Is All Over Instagram (404 Media)
• Instagram and Facebook Blocked and Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts (NY Times)
• Wikipedia fights the UK’s ‘flawed’ and ‘burdensome’ online safety rules (The Verge)
• What Attacks on Wikipedia Reveal about Free Expression (Tech Policy Press)
• Missouri AG Thinks Supreme Court Ruling Lets Him Control Social Media Moderation (It Doesn’t) (Techdirt)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 second annual live at TrustCon recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Ben was unable to make the trip halfway around the world, but Mike was joined by trust & safety influencer Alice Hunsberger from Musubi and Ashken Kazaryan, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. They cover:

• As millions adopt Grok to fact-check, misinformation abounds (Al Jazeera)
• Analysis Of Grok’s Epstein Comments Show How This AI Chatbot Is Learning (Forbes)
• People With Body Dysmorphia Are Spiraling Out After Asking AI to Rate Their Looks (Rolling Stone)
• Can A Chatbot Be Your Therapist? Casper’s Neil Parikh Launches A New $93 Million-Backed Startup To Try (Forbes)
• A Realist Perspective on Trust & Safety (Tech Policy Press)

This week’s sponsor is Modulate. In our bonus chat Mike Masnick talks with Modulate founder and CEO Mike Pappas, live at TrustCon, about the kinds of voice scams they’re seeing, with a focus on scams using social engineering techniques to pressure people to do things they probably shouldn’t do.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Kenji Yoshino, who has the excellent title of Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Kenji is also a member of the Oversight Board. Together Ben and Kenji discuss:

• ‘Andrew Tate is dead’: inside the minds of 16-year-olds (The Observer)
• Introducing the Teen Safety Blueprint (OpenAI)
• OpenAI unveils blueprint for teen AI safety standards (Axios)
• OpenAI Faces Legal Storm Over Claims Its AI Drove Users to Suicide, Delusions (KQED)
• Irish watchdog opens content moderation probe into Elon Musk's X (Euractiv)

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CCIA, an international, not-for-profit trade association representing a broad cross section of communications and technology firms and that promotes open markets, open systems, and open networks.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise (404 Media)
• Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People (404 Media)
• Ofcom head says age checks are ‘really big moment’ for children’s online safety (The Guardian)
• New online safety rules not 'the end of the conversation', says minister (BBC)
• Commission’s guidelines for online child safety target platforms of all sizes (Euractiv)
• I met the sextortion scammers destroying young lives for £1 a day (The Times)
• “Why me?” On shame, self-blame, and feeling so. damn. Stupid. (Blockparty)
• If It Breaks Wikipedia, It’s Probably Bad Policy (InternetExchange)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund and by our sponsor, the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. In our bonus chat Mike talks with DTSP Executive Director David Sullivan to talk about their new Safe Framework Specification, which is an official ISO standard (available for free download) which will help everyone better understand best practices and concepts around online trust & safety work.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe and former Director at the Oversight Board. Together they discuss:

• Appeals Centre Europe Transparency Report (ACE)
• Most people want platforms (not governments) to be responsible for moderating content (Reuters Institute) 
• Happy Birthday, Digital Services Act! – Time for a Reality Check (Algorithm Watch)
• Proof-of-age ID leaked in Discord data breach (The Guardian)
• Update on a Security Incident Involving Third-Party Customer Service (Discord)
• Another Day, Another Age Verification Data Breach: Discord’s Third-Party Partner Leaked Government IDs (Techdirt)
• Exclusive: Apple Quietly Made ICE Agents a Protected Class (Migrant Insider)
• My Email to Tim Cook (Wiley Hodges — Substack)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• He’s a Master of Outrage on X. The Pay Isn’t Great. (NY Times)
• The vulnerable teen drawn into far-right extremism online (Financial Times)
• X, Bluesky and Reddit in France’s crosshairs amid porn clampdown (Politico)
• EU sidesteps Macron’s ultimatum to ban social media for kids under 15 (Euractiv)
• Commission seeks feedback on the guidelines on protection of minors online under the Digital Services Act (European Commission)
• OnlyFans releases stern statement as it DEACTIVATES Bonnie Blue’s account for defiant reason (The Tab)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and CEO of RightsDuff Strategies. They cover:

• Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) (Techdirt)
• America’s Global Presence Isn’t ‘Soft Power.’ It’s a Superpower. (Foreign Policy)
• These teenage boys were blackmailed online – and it cost them their lives (USA Today)
• United Nations Convention against Cybercrime (UN)
• Chairman Jordan Subpoenas Big Tech for Information on Foreign Censorship of American Speech (House Judiciary Committee)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 networks can’t be forced to filter content for kids, says judge (The Verge)
• Judge Rejects Yet Another Attempt By Texas To Police Online Speech (Techdirt)
• Telegram apologizes for handling of deepfake porn content in S. Korea (Yonhap)
• Brazilian Supreme Court panel upholds X ban (Axios)
• Elon Musk’s Starlink backtracks to comply with Brazil’s ban on X (The Guardian)
• With Musk’s X banned in Brazil, its users carve out new digital homes (AP)
• The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (Wired)
• Posts That Include “From the River to the Sea” (Oversight Board)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference (New York Times)
• AI-Generated Content a Triple Threat for Reddit Moderators (Cornell Tech)
• Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors (404 Media)
• As social media age restrictions spread, is the internet entering its Victorian era? (The Conversation)
• Winning with misinformation: New research identifies link between endorsing easily disproven claims and prioritizing symbolic strength (The Conversation)
• Tinder Launches Mandatory Facial Verification to Weed Out Bots and Scammers (Wired)

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Clavata.ai, a first-of-its-kind, automated content safety platform that allows you to go from defining a policy to enforcement in minutes. In our Bonus Chat, we speak with founder Brett Levenson on how to make T&S more consistent and explainable and the benefits of treating policy as code.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Prateek Waghre, former executive director at the Internet Freedom Foundation and currently a fellow at Tech Policy Press. Together, they cover:

• BookMyShow Restores Kunal Kamra’s Profile After Controversy (Medianama)
• Kunal Kamra show audience members served notices (The Times of India)
• Cops force banker to cut short vacation to join Kamra probe (The Times of India)
• Unblock Vikatan Website – Madras High Court Orders Central Government (Vikatan)
• A Lack of Sense, and Censor-ability in India (Tech Policy Press)
• India befriends Big Tech as Trump tariffs knock on door, aided by a string of biz-friendly moves (Livemint)
• Meta can be sued in Kenya over posts related to Ethiopia violence, court rules (Reuters)
• US to screen social media of immigrants, rights advocates raise concerns (Reuters)
• In Karnataka HC, Centre defends use of IT Act for takedown notices (Hindustan Times) 

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Russia and China pounce on Trump rally shooting to undermine U.S. (Washington Post) 
• The Gunshots Rang Out. Then the Conspiracy Theories Erupted Online (New York Times) 
• Chaos on social media platforms after Trump shooting is a mess of their own making (CNN)
• Elon Musk Wants His AI Bot to Deliver the News. It Is Struggling With the Job (WSJ)
• Spotify's new comment feature tries to solve a longtime problem (Fast Company)
• Comments on Podcasts Gives Creators and Listeners More Ways To Engage (Spotify)
• A grieving mom’s TikTok videos spark online speech battle (Washington Post)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Paul Danter, Global Head of Trust and Safety at Concentrix, talks about what he's excited for at next week’s TrustCon event and the huge potential for industry collaboration.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Character.AI is banning minors from AI character chats (Financial Times)
• Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations (OpenAI)
• Senators propose banning teens from using AI chatbots (The Verge)
• EU accuses Meta, TikTok of breaching digital rules (Politico) 
• Meta and TikTok are obstructing researchers’ access to data, European Commission rules (Science.org)
• Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve (Techdirt)
• China’s new law: only degree-holding influencers can discuss professional topics – netizens divided on its impact (IOL) 
• Wizz is like ‘Tinder for kids,’ as teens use the app to hook up while adult predators lurk (NY Post) 

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor WebPurify, an Intouch company. IntouchCX is a global leader in digital customer experience management, back office processing, trust and safety, and AI services. 

Webpurify has just launched their very first podcast series, Trust Issues - Insights from the People Who Keep the Internet Safe, and Mike and Ben are fans. Listen to all three episodes on Spotify and watch on YouTube.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Resonant Computing Manifesto 
• Support Techdirt’s Uncompromising Coverage, Get Our First Commemorative Coin (Techdirt)
• US Ambassador Slams EU Tech Rules as Musk’s X Hit With Fine (Bloomberg)
• Why the X fine is causing so much transatlantic drama (Politico)
• Tech workers face new H1-B scrutiny as Trump targets ‘censorship’ (Washington Post)
• H1-B visa advice (LinkedIn - Alice Hunsberger)
• Australian leader defends social media ban as teens flaunt workarounds (Reuters)
• Age restrictions alone won't keep children safe online (Unicef)
• Focus must be on making social media safe for children as Australia brings in ban (Save The Children)
• Operation Bluebird tries to reclaim Twitter (LinkedIn)

This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CCIA, an international, not-for-profit trade association representing a broad cross section of communications and technology firms and that promotes open markets, open systems, and open networks.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork, a podcast that makes sense of the rapidly changing world of tech. Together, they discuss:

• After a deadly raid, an AI power struggle erupts at the Pentagon (Washington Post)
• Following: Anthropic vs. The Pentagon (Platformer)
• Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge (TIME)
• Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web (The Rage)
• Discord is delaying its global age verification rollout (The Verge)
• Reddit fined £14m by UK data watchdog over age verification checks (BBC News)
• How to evaluate Trust & Safety vendors (Everything in Moderation*)
• Regulate platforms, not children – Commissioner urges caution over social media bans (Commissioner for Human Rights)
• MPs reject total ban, want data housed locally (The Star)
• Exclusive: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere (Reuters)

Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and get in touch if you win!

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Professor Kate Klonick, who has studied and written about trust & safety for many years and is currently studying the DSA & DMA in the EU as a Fulbright Scholar. They cover:

• EU Commission’s Digital Fairness Fitness Check (European Commission)
• Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions (Nature)
• Inside Two Years of Turmoil at Big Tech's Anti-Terrorism Group (Wired)
• Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats (Techdirt)
• Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers (404 Media)
• Americans’ Views Mixed on Tech’s Role in Politics (Anchor Change with Katie Harbath)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the T&S field which provides a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Marlyn Savio, a psychologist and research manager at TaskUs, talks to Mike about a recent study they released regarding frontline moderators and their perceptions and experiences dealing with severe content.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Musk's X appoints new safety chiefs as it seeks to rebuild ads business (Fortune)
• X’s ‘complimentary’ Premium push gives people blue checks they didn’t ask for (The Verge)
• Mozilla Research: Platforms’ Election Interventions in the Global Majority Are Ineffective (Mozilla)
• Implementing the Online Safety Act: Additional duties for ‘categorised’ online services (Ofcom)
• Social networks could quit Britain under online safety laws, Reddit claims (The Telegraph)
• Patreon is taking Reddit’s approach to content moderation (The Verge)
• Facebook has blocked Kansas Reflector (Kansas Reflector) 

The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, the prosocial voice technology company making online spaces safer and more inclusive. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Modulate's Director of Marketing Mark Nolan chats with Mike about the the recent launch of the Gaming Safety Coalition, why its important for Modulate to work with other companies to create stronger gaming environments and the importance of a hybrid approach to T&S.      

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 the last Ctrl-Alt-Speech of the year, Mike and Ben round up the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation with the following stories:

• Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content | Global development (The Guardian)
• Facebook is testing a link-posting limit for professional accounts and pages (Techcrunch)
• Meta adopts new age-check system to meet global child safety laws (FT)
• Russian ban on Roblox gaming platform sparks rare protest (Reuters)
• OpenAI hires George Osborne to spearhead global ‘Stargate’ expansion (FT)
• Oscars Bolts From ABC to YouTube Starting in 2029 (Hollywood Reporter)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• He was suicidal and needed help. A 15-year-old girl pushed him to kill himself on a live stream (Washington Post)
• Romania’s top court annuls presidential election result (CNN)
• Continuing to protect the integrity of TikTok during Romanian elections (TikTok)
• Covert Facebook Network Found Targeting Romanian Voters (Bloomberg)
• TikTok pushes far right candidate content in Romanian election, Global Witness investigation shows (Global Witness)
• Romania annulled its presidential election results amid alleged Russian interference. What happens next? (Atlantic Council)
• X’s Yaccarino Praises Child Safety Bill and Urges House Backing (Bloomberg)
• Elon Musk’s X comes out in favor of pro-censorship law (Mashable - January 2024)
• Kenya’s President Wades Into Meta Lawsuits (TIME)
• Attacker Has Techdirt Reclassified As Phishing Site, Proving Masnick’s Impossibility Law Once Again (Techdirt)

No actual moles were harmed in the making of this episode, which is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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).

This is the second of our special episodes for the month of August. Last time, we talked a bit about the past and future of Ctrl-Alt-Speech; this time, Mike and Ben answer some questions from our listeners, and also share a few of the latest reviews. We're taking one more week off after this, then we'll be back in the first week of September with a return to our regular weekly news roundups! 

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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 Yoel Roth, former head of trust & safety at Twitter and now head of trust & safety at Match Group. Together they cover:

• X tweaks rules to formally allow adult content (TechCrunch)
• Temu joins Shein in facing stricter regulation in the EU (The Verge)
• Facebook’s Taylor Swift Fan Pages Taken Over by Animal Abuse, Porn, and Scams (404 Media)
• Post-January 6th deplatforming reduced the reach of misinformation on Twitter (Nature)
• Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation (Nature)
• Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War (NY Times)
• Twitch terminates all members of its Safety Advisory Council (CNBC)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Commission opens formal proceedings against Meta under the Digital Services Act related to the protection of minors on Facebook and Instagram (European Commission)
• Meta, TikTok, other platforms told to expect EU guidelines soon on child protection, age verification (MLex)
• Got a text that you think is a scam? S’pore’s new centre to fight online harms can help verify it (Straits Times)
• Bipartisan Bill To Repeal Section 230 Defended In Facts-Optional Op-Ed (Techdirt)
• Indian journalists turned to YouTube to dodge Modi’s censorship. Some of their channels are now being blocked (Reuters Institute for Journalism)
• She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all (The Guardian)
• Commission services sign administrative arrangement with Ofcom to support the enforcement of social media regulations (Pub Affairs Bruxelles)
• Singapore’s proposed online safety laws look like more censorship in disguise (Rest of World)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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).

Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-Speech, a brand new a weekly news podcast co-created by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation’s Ben Whitelaw. Each episode will be looking at the latest news in online speech, covering issues regarding trust & safety, content moderation, regulation, court rulings, new services & technology, and more.

Subscribe now and stay tuned for our debut episode coming next Friday!

If your company or organization is interested in supporting Ctrl-Alt-Speech and joining us for a sponsored interview, visit ctrlaltspeech.com for more information.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• TikTok must face a lawsuit for recommending the viral ‘blackout challenge’ (The Verge)
• Third Circuit’s Section 230 TikTok Ruling Deliberately Ignores Precedent, Defies Logic (Techdirt)
• France charges Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, releases him on €5M bail (Politico) 
• Elon Musk’s X could face ban in Brazil after failure to appoint legal representative (The Guardian)
• Zuckerberg says he regrets caving to White House pressure on content (Politico)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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:

• Application Of Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act To TikTok (The White House)
• Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship (The White House)
  America Is No Longer the Home of the Free Internet (The Atlantic)
• Good morning, America: Why India banned TikTok 5 years back (India Today)
• Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says (Reuters)
• Commission welcomes the integration of the revised Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online into the Digital Services Act (European Commission)
• Bluesky 2024 Moderation Report (Bluesky)
• Bluesky's 2024 moderation report shows how quickly harmful content grew as new users flocked in (Engadget)
• The Technological Poison Pill: How ATProtocol Encourages Competition, Resists Evil Billionaires, Lock-In & Enshittification (Techdirt)
• We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky (MIT Technology Review)

If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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).