Ctrl-Alt-Speech

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.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

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

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

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

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

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

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

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

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

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.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

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

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

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

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

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.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

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

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

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

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

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.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

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.

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

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

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

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

Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.

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).