Ctrl-Alt-Speech (Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw)

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of news about online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: 

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's online speech, content moderation and internet regulation round-up, Mike and Ben cover: 

• Supreme Court Seems Skeptical Of The Claims That The Federal Government Coerced Social Media To Moderate (Techdirt) 
• Reddit’s I.P.O. Is a Content Moderation Success Story (New York Times) 
• Elon Musk's X Is Suspending Accounts That Reveal a Neo-Nazi Cartoonist's Alleged Identity (Wired) 
• The Risks of Internet Regulation (Foreign Affairs) 
• EU to impose election safeguards on Big Tech (Financial Times) 
• Canada’s Online Harms Act is revealing itself to be staggeringly reckless (Globe and Mail)

The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Block Party, which builds privacy and anti-harassment tools to increase user control, protection, and safety. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Block Party founder and CEO Tracy Chou discusses the impact of harassment on self-censorship and explains how she is making navigating privacy and safety settings on major platforms easier for users through her tool, Privacy Party. 

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation, and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: 

• Users shocked to find Instagram limits political content by default (ArsTechnica)
• Oversight Board Publishes Policy Advisory Opinion on Referring to Designated Dangerous Individuals as “Shaheed” (Oversight Board)
• It’s not a glitch: how Meta systematically censors Palestinian voices (Access Now)
• High Court orders temporary suspension of Telegram's services in Spain (Reuters)
• Imagining a Roadmap to User-Led Governance of Meta (Tech Policy Press)
• Why Bluesky Remains The Most Interesting Experiment In Social Media, By Far (Techdirt)
• Meta’s most banned word, ad targeting vs moderation and new civility research (Everything in Moderation)

The episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. We weren't able to schedule our usual Bonus Chat at the end of the episode so Mike and Ben talk about their thinking on podcast sponsorship, why advertising content doesn't have to be all bad and how you get in touch if you're a company or organization looking to reach Ctrl-Alt-Speech's growing and global audience.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation, and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: 

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Alice Hunsberger, VP of Trust and Safety and Content Moderation at Partnerhero and former Global Head of Customer Experience at Grindr. Together they cover: 

• Measuring the Persuasiveness of Language Models (Anthropic)
• Our Approach to Labeling AI-Generated Content and Manipulated Media (Meta) 
• Survey: New Laws Mandate Access To Social Media Data, But Obstacles Remain (Tech Policy Press) 
• Brazil Might Regulate All Social Media After Clash With Elon Musk (Guardian) 
• X automatically changed 'Twitter' to 'X' in users' posts, breaking legit URLs (Mashable)
• LinkedIn starts verifying recruiters to stop scams (Axios) 
• Content policy is basically astrology? (T&S Insider from Everything in Moderation) 

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Schools Were Just Supposed To Block Porn. Instead They Sabotaged Homework and Censored Suicide Prevention Sites (The Markup)
• New Tools to Help Protect Against Sextortion and Intimate Image Abuse (Meta)
• Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide (Bloomberg)
• The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet (TIME)
• Mexican election agency and news organizations leverage Check (Meedan)
• Benjamin Cohen was falsely accused of the Bondi Junction stabbings. Here's how the lie spread around the world (ABC News)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System (Stanford Internet Observatory)
• TikTok faces EU Commission’s second probe, potential suspension of reward program (Euronews)
• Meta Expands Its Mixed Reality Beyond the Quest Headsets (CNet)
• The biggest AI companies agree to crack down on child abuse images (Thorn)
• Wattpad has a community problem, so it’s killing DMs (The Verge)
• Discord CEO Jason Citron makes the case for a smaller, more private internet (The Verge)
• Stanford Internet Observatory’s CyberTipline Report (Stanford Law School) 

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Alex Feerst, former General Counsel and head of trust & safety at Medium, and co-founder of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. Together they cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership (Tom's Hardware)
• Tech firms must tame toxic algorithms to protect children online (Ofcom)
• Reddit Lays Out Content Policy While Seeking More Licensing Deals (Bloomberg)
• Extremist Militias Are Coordinating in More Than 100 Facebook Groups (Wired)
• Politicians Scapegoat Social Media While Ignoring Real Solutions (Techdirt)
• ‘Facebook Tries to Combat Russian Disinformation in Ukraine’ – FB Public Policy Manager (Kyiv Post)
• TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Law Forcing Sale or Ban (New York Times)
• Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter (Swissinfo)
• Congressional Committee Threatens To Investigate Any Company Helping TikTok Defend Its Rights (Techdirt)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• EU Explores Whether Telegram Falls Under Strict New Content Law (Bloomberg)
• Too Small to Police, Too Big to Ignore: Telegram Is the App Dividing Europe (Bloomberg) 
• NIST Reports First Results From Age Estimation Software Evaluation (NIST) 
• Supersharers of fake news on Twitter (Science) 
• Digital town square? Nextdoor's offline contexts and online discourse (JQD:DM) 
• The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing (CNN) 
• TikTok offered an extraordinary deal. The U.S. government took a pass. (Washington Post) 
• Q&A: Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator On 100 Days of the DSA (Tech Policy Press)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Yoel Roth, former head of trust & safety at Twitter and now head of trust & safety at Match Group. Together they cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms (New York Times)
• The Surgeon General Is Wrong. Social Media Doesn’t Need Warning Labels (The Daily Beast)
• Anthropic calls for AI red teaming to be standardized (Fortune)
• How small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline (Engadget)
• Pornhub to block five more states over age verification laws (The Verge)
• New York Outlaws 'Addictive' Social Media Feeds For Teen Users (PC Mag)
• Meta Oversight Board’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt: ‘Not all AI-generated content is harmful’ (Financial Times)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Supreme Court Sees Through The Nonsense, Rejects Lower Courts’ Rulings Regarding Social Media Moderation (Techdirt)
• How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety, States Say (New York Times)
• New Features to Help Protect Our Community (Snap)
• Trends in Financial Sextortion (Thorn/NCMEC)
• Teens lean on AI for mental health support (Mercury News)
• I Paid $365.63 to Replace 404 Media With AI (404 Media)
• Companies see backlog in DSA transparency database (Euronews)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

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

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Domonique Rai-Varming, Senior Director, Trust & Safety at Trustpilot. Together they cover:

• Amazon, Expedia and Trustpilot unite to fight fake reviews (BBC)
• EU charges Elon Musk’s X for letting disinfo run wild (Politico) 
• British female politicians targeted by fake pornography (The Guardian)
• The hidden workers behind AI tell their stories (Netzpolitik) 
• How Machine Learning Can Undermine Human Rights: YouTube’s Struggle to Moderate the Syrian Crisis (Trust and Safety Foundation)
• Strengthening Our Approach to Mature Content on Etsy (Etsy)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

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

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Jim Jordan Demands Advertisers Explain Why They Don’t Advertise On MAGA Media Sites (Techdirt)
• TikTok Has a Nazi Problem (Wired)
• NazTok: An organized neo-Nazi TikTok network is getting millions of views (Institute for Strategic Dialogue)
• How TikTok bots and AI have powered a resurgence in UK far-right violence (The Guardian)
• Senate Passes Child Online Safety Bill, Sending It to an Uncertain House Fate (New York Tmes)
• The teens lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act (The Verge)
• Social Media Mishaps Aren’t Always Billionaire Election Stealing Plots (Techdirt)
• X suspends ‘White Dudes for Harris’ account after massive fundraiser (Washington Post)
• Why Won’t Google Auto-complete ‘Trump Assassination Attempt’? (Intelligencer)
• ‘Technical glitch’ is no longer an excuse (Everything in Moderation from 2020)
• A message to our Black community (TikTok from 2020)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Discord. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, Mike speaks to Juliet Shen and Camille Francois about the Trust & Safety Tooling Consortium at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, and the importance of open source tools for trust and safety.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Daphne Keller, the Director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center. They cover:

• Ninth Circuit Rules in Favor of NetChoice Over California’s Age Appropriate Design Code (Ninth Circuit)
• Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta on appellate court decision regarding California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (State of California)
• Regulating platform risk and design: ChatGPT says the quiet part out loud (Stanford Cyberlaw blog)
• X says it is closing operations in Brazil due to judge’s content orders (CNBC)
• Indigenous creators are clashing with YouTube’s and Instagram’s sensitive content bans (Rest of World)
• Teens are making thousands by debating Trump vs. Harris on TikTok (Rest of World)
• Forced to rethink this Patreon (Chris Klimas Patreon)
• Ninth Circuit Allows Case Against YOLO Technologies to Proceed (Ninth Circuit)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Riana Pfefferkorn, a Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human Centered AI. They cover:

• Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation (Reuters)
• Social media ban for children to be introduced this year, but age limit undetermined (ABC)
• ASIO director-general Mike Burgess issues warning to big tech companies they may soon be forced to unlock encrypted chats (ABC)
• Utah Social Media Restrictions Likely Violate First Amendment, Judge Rules (Media Post)
• Nearly 40 states back surgeon general’s social media warning labels (The Verge)
• How TikTokers think about misinformation (Washington Post)
• Meta, TikTok, and Snap pledge to participate in program to combat suicide and self-harm content (TechCrunch)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Cathryn Weems, who has held T&S roles at Yahoo, Google, Dropbox, Twitter and Epic Games. They cover:

• Google outlines plans to help you sort real images from fake (The Verge)
• Fake AI “podcasters” are reviewing my book and it’s freaking me out (Ars Technica) 
• We Don't Need Google to Help "Reimagine" Election Misinformation (Tech Policy Press)
• Social media owners top global survey of misinformation concerns (The Guardian)
• Expert Survey on the Global Information Environment (IPIE)
• X’s First Transparency Report Since Elon Musk’s Takeover Is Finally Here (Wired)
• Telegram will now provide some user data to authorities (BBC)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, clinical psychologist Dr Serra Pitts, who leads the psychological health team for Trust & Safety at Concentrix, talks to Ben about how to keep moderators healthy and safe at work and the innovative use of heart rate variability technology to monitor their physical response to harmful content.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Professor Kate Klonick, who has studied and written about trust & safety for many years and is currently studying the DSA & DMA in the EU as a Fulbright Scholar. They cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• States sue TikTok over app’s effects on kids’ mental health (CNBC)
• Risks vs. Harms: Youth & Social Media (Substack)
• Instagram and Threads moderation is out of control (The Verge)
• TikTok lays off hundreds in Malaysia in move toward AI moderation (Asia Nikkei)
• ​​Meta ‘Supreme Court’ expands with European center to handle TikTok, YouTube cases (Washingon Post)
• The DSA article you didn't know about, but should (T&S Insider)
• Streaming platform Kick bans Jack Doherty after he crashed his car on a livestream (Polygon) 
• Truth Social Users Are Losing Ridiculous Sums of Money to Scams (Gizmodo)
• Hacked ‘AI Girlfriend’ Data Shows Prompts Describing Child Sexual Abuse (404 Media)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• How Russian disinformation is reaching the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election (NBC News)
• The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform (Lawfare)
• ExTwitter Makes It Official: Blocks Are No Longer Blocks (Techdirt)
• People are flocking to Bluesky as X makes more unwanted changes (The Verge)
• Instagram blames some moderation issues on human reviewers, not AI (TechCrunch)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our launch sponsor Modulate, which builds prosocial voice technology that combats online toxicity and elevates the health and safety of online communities. Mike Pappas joins us for our bonus chat, talking to Mike about the ever important decision between building your own trust & safety tools versus buying them from vendors.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

Ben and Mike are technically off this week, but we decided to run an experiment. After discussing Google’s NotebookLM and its ability to create AI-generated podcasts about any content, Mike experimented with how it would handle one of the stories Mike & Ben discussed last week: Daphne Keller’s The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform on Lawfare. Mike explains why we’re running this, some of the work that went into it, as well as his thoughts on the experiment, followed by the AI-generated version.

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• These look like Harris ads. Trump backers bought them (Washington Post)
• Facebook Took More Than $1 Million For Ads Sowing Election Lies (Forbes)
• Election officials are outmatched by Elon Musk’s misinformation machine (CNN)
• Election Falsehoods Take Off on YouTube as It Looks the Other Way (New York Times)
• Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election (ProPublica)
• The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference (New Yorker)
• This Is What $44 Billion Buys You (The Atlantic) 
• How Russia, China and Iran Are Interfering in the Presidential Election (New York Times) 
• Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? (New York Times) 
• 'Sickening' Molly Russell chatbots found on Character.ai (BBC) 

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Concentrix, the technology and services leader driving trust, safety, and content moderation globally. In our Bonus Chat, Dom Sparkes, Trust and Safety Director for EMEA, and David Elliot, Head of Technology, try to lighten the mood by discussing how to make a compelling business case for online safety and the importance of measuring ROI.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Pennsylvania Becomes Hot Spot for Election Disinformation (NY Times)
• After Trump Took the Lead, Election Deniers Went Suddenly Silent (NY Times)
• X Is a White-Supremacist Site (The Atlantic)
• Papers, Please? The Republican Plan to Wall Off the Internet (Tech Policy Press)
• What Trump's Victory Means for Internet Policy (CNET)
• The government plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms. Here's what we know so far (ABC Australia)
• Canada orders shutdown of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue (Reuters)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia follows The Guardian in quitting Elon Musk’s X due to disinformation and ‘disturbing content’ (Fortune)
• Bluesky attracts millions as users leave Musk's X after Trump win (Reuters)
• Advertisers set to return to X as they seek favour with Elon Musk and Donald Trump (Financial Times) 
• The plan to ban children under 16 from social media (The Times) 
• Should smartphones be banned in schools? (Financial Times) 
• Facebook and Instagram to Offer Subscription for No Ads in Europe (Facebook) 
• An update on political advertising in the European Union (Google)
• Facebook’s Algorithms Think a Small English Community Is Up to No Good (Gizmodo)
• Phony X accounts are meddling in Ghana’s election (Rest of World)
• Sockpuppet network impersonating Americans and Canadians amplifies pro-Israel narratives on X (DFR Lab)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host David Sullivan, the Executive Director of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. They cover:

• Trump's FCC Pick Wants to Be the Speech Police. That's Not His Job (Wired)
• Sauce for the Goose: The FCC Lacks Authority to Interpret Section 230 Post-Loper Bright (The Federalist Society)
• Roblox gives parents more power to protect the safety of young gamers (NBC)
• Meta should allow third party imagery of terrorist attacks, with a warning (Oversight Board)
• As Bluesky soars, Threads rolls out custom feeds globally (TechCrunch)
• Threads’ algorithm will focus more on the people you follow (The Verge)
• The communications minister cited a study in support of a teen social media ban. Its co-author disagrees (Crikey)
• Meta says it has removed 2 million accounts linked to pig butchering scams (The Record)
• You Too Can Hire an ‘Etsy Witch’ to Curse Elon Musk (Wired)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Social media platforms have work to do to comply with Online Safety Act, says Ofcom (The Guardian)
• LFGSS and Microcosm shutting down 16th March 2025 (the day before the Online Safety Act is enforced) (LFGSS)
• The GamingOnLinux Forum is shutting (GamingOnLinux)
• Australia leads the world in setting new standards for online child safety (eSafety Commission)
• How will Australia's under-16 social media ban work? We asked the law's enforcer (NPR)
• Fentanyl Almost Killed Michael Brewer. Now He Wants Snap to Pay (Bloomberg)
• Telegram Moderation Overview (Telegram)
• U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to TikTok ban (CNBC)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. While Online Regulators may have stolen Christmas, Ctrl-Alt-Speech is going to try to take a short holiday break and will return in early January.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Here's why Meta ended fact-checking, according to experts (ABC News)
• Meta Follows Elon Musk’s Lead, Moves Staffers to Billionaire-Friendly Texas (Wired)
• Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” (The Intercept)
• Trust & Safety is how platforms put values into action (T&S Insider from Everything in Moderation)
• Nadler Releases Democratic Staff Report on Republicans' Deluded Theory to Undermine Free Speech (House Committee on the Judiciary)
• EU vows to 'energetically' pursue X probe under Digital rulebook (Bloomberg)
• Twitter Briefly Blocked The NY Post, Elon Cried Foul. Now He’s Doing Far Worse (Techdirt)
• The Great Decentralization (Noema Mag)

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Renee DiResta, associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. They cover:

• The new free speech crisis hiding in plain sight (MSNBC)
• ‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Jr. Has Been Trying To Censor a Blogger for Years (Who What Why)
• In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment (TechCrunch)
• Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Suit (WSJ)
• Meta’s Free-Speech Shift Made It Clear to Advertisers: ‘Brand Safety’ Is Out of Vogue (WSJ)
• X refuses to remove stabbing video watched by Southport killer (Financial Times)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Elon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More Dangerous (Techdirt)
• US presses Brussels for answers over EU social media law (Politico)
• Inside the Elon Musk-Jim Jordan ‘mind meld’ shaking up Capitol Hill (Politico)
• Musk adds Shell, Nestlé, Lego to X advertiser ‘boycott’ lawsuit (The Hill)
• Musk Shows Us What Actual Government Censorship On Social Media Looks Like (Techdirt)
• In wake of Meta moderation shift, advertisers have accepted new status quo: brand safety is a myth (Digiday)
• Meta sees no ‘noticeable impact’ in advertiser demand since content policy shift (Marketing Week)
• Amazon Raises Its Ad Spending on Elon Musk’s X, in Major Reversal (Wall Street Journal)
• Senator Hawley Proposes Jail Time for People Who Download DeepSeek (404 Media)
• Apple Blasts EU Laws After First Porn App Comes to iPhones (Bloomberg)

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

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

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and CEO of RightsDuff Strategies. They cover:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Bluesky's CEO on the Future of Social Media (YouTube)
• The Take It Down Act isn’t a law, it’s a weapon (The Verge)
• Trump Promises To Abuse Take It Down Act For Censorship, Just As We Warned (Techdirt)
• Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir (NBC News)
• Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book (CNBC) 
• Reddit's rule check feature will help users avoid breaking subreddit rules (Engadget)
• Users Make Voices Heard as Appeals Centre’s First Decisions Overturn Platforms (Appeals Centre Europe) 
• 'Pretty Vile:' Spotify Removes Andrew Tate 'Pimping Hoes' Class After Employees Complain (404 Media)
• Keep kids off Roblox if you're worried, its CEO tells parents (BBC)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor Resolver, the leading provider of risk intelligence and advisory services. In our Bonus Chat, Karley Chadwick, head of platform Trust and Safety Delivery at Resolver, talks about emerging safety trends in gaming and augmented reality and reflects on her experience as a threat analyst.

If you’re in London on Thursday 27th March, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:

• Twitter Inc. Official 'Bird Logo' Fascia Sign - An Iconic Fixture from the Company’s Market Square Headquarters in San Francisco (RR Auction)
• AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality (404 Media)
• Spain to impose massive fines for not labelling AI-generated content (Reuters)
• China Announces Generative AI Labeling to Cull Disinformation (Bloomberg) 
• After Axing Fact-Checkers, Meta’s Community Notes Will Have Help From X (Adweek)
• UK to crack down on illegal content across social media (Financial Times)
• Lobsters and the Online Safety Act (Lobste.rs)
• We are sorry. The forum has closed down (The Hamster Forum)
• ‘Kids can bypass anything if they’re clever enough!’ How tech experts keep their children safe online (The Guardian)
• The Snapchat Move That Leaves Teen Girls Heartbroken (WSJ)

This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. If you’re in London on Thursday 27th March, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.