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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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 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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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:

• 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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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:

• 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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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:

• 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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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:

• Sam Altman says OpenAI isn’t ‘moral police of the world’ after erotica ChatGPT post blows up (CNBC)
• Where are all the women on Sora 2? This could be a nightmare for OpenAI. (Business Insider)
• Musk’s AI Is Being Used to Make Hardcore Porn: ‘Grok Is Learning Genitalia Really Fast!’ (Rolling Stone)
• Instagram Will Limit Content for Teenagers Based on PG-13 Ratings (NY Times)
• UK MPs urged to investigate TikTok’s plans to cut 439 content moderator jobs (The Guardian)
• TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’ (The Guardian)
• New AI video tools are fuelling violent racism on TikTok (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
• New York City Sues Instagram Rather Than Teach Kids Filters Aren’t Real (Techdirt)
• Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows (NPR)
• Congress is Asking the Wrong Questions About Discord and Boys (Time)
• Adolescence star Stephen Graham launches global project asking fathers to write to their sons (The Guardian)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

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 a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. 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 platforms are responding to the Charlie Kirk shooting (The Verge)
• Bluesky Issues Warning to Any Users Celebrating Charlie Kirk Assassination (Newsweek)
• Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Death (Wired)
• Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content-Moderation World (Wired)
• Has Britain Gone Too Far With Its Digital Controls? (New York Times)
• The Censorship Alarm Is Ringing in the Wrong Direction (Public Knowledge)
• We now know who the new owners of TikTok will be - if Trump gets his deal done with Xi (CNN)
• Nepal’s Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves to a Chat Room (New York Times)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at [email protected] and sponsorship enquiries to [email protected]. Thanks for listening.