Ctrl-Alt-Speech

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. 

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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!

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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!

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 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

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:

• House Judiciary Releases EU X Fine Details (House Judiciary X Account)
• New Report Exposes European Commission Decade-Long Campaign to Censor American Speech (House Judiciary Committee)
• X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok (BBC)
• Hey Gavin Newsom! Investigating TikTok’s Moderation Is Just As Unconstitutional As When Texas & Florida Tried It (Techdirt)
• Spain Aims to Ban Social Media for Children Under 16, Prime Minister Says (NY Times)
• TikTok Keyword Analysis (LinkedIn)
• Why newsrooms are taking comments seriously again (New_ Public)
• Whoops, Websites Realize That Killing Their Comment Sections Was A Mistake (Techdirt)

Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card!

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 Konstantinos Komaitis, Senior Resident Fellow for Global and Democratic Governance at the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council. Together, they discuss:

• Who Owns TikTok in the U.S. Now? (NY Times)
• TikTok is investigating why some users can't write 'Epstein' in messages (NPR)
• TikTok users freak out over app’s ‘immigration status’ collection — here’s what it means (TechCrunch)
• TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired)
• Social network UpScrolled sees surge in downloads following TikTok’s US takeover (TechCrunch)
• Europe votes to tackle deep dependence on US tech in sovereignty drive (Computerworld)
• Meta hides followers and following lists for users based in Iran (Iran International)
• Iran’s internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only (Rest of World)
• The ‘Social Media Addiction’ Narrative May Be More Harmful Than Social Media Itself (Techdirt)
• Payment processors were against CSAM until Grok started making it (The Verge)

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:

• My year with a flip phone (Financial Times)
• Claude’s Constitution (Anthropic)
• From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026 (Youtube)
• BBC to show programmes on YouTube in landmark deal (Financial Times)
• Rand Paul: I’ve changed my mind — Google and YouTube can’t be trusted to do the right thing and must be reined in (NY Post)
• Rand Paul Only Wants Google To Be The Arbiter Of Truth When The Videos Are About Him (Techdirt)
• Roskomnadzor Denies Reports That It’s Throttling Telegram Over Content Moderation Disputes (Moscow Times)
• Europeans set to launch an alternative to X. It’s called W (Cybernews)

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:

• UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk's Grok chatbot (Reuters)
• Musk’s xAI limits Grok’s ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash (CNBC)
• X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t (The Verge)
• State Department Threatens UK Over Grok Investigation, Because Only The US Is Allowed To Ban Foreign Apps (Techdirt)
• Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people (The Guardian)
• Statement from the Molly Rose Foundation (LinkedIn)
• Wes Streeting asks US expert Jonathan Haidt to address officials on social media ban for under-16s (The Guardian)
• Some social media use can benefit teen mental health (AAP)
• Arlington-focused Facebook group with 25,000 members is removed, angering moderators (ARLnow)
• Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content (The Verge)

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 sponsored Spotlight episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, host Ben Whitelaw talks to Oversight Board co-chair Paolo Carozza (Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana) and Board member Julie Owono (Executive Director of Internet Without Borders and research affiliate at Berkman Klein Centre) about the Board’s five-year journey and its plans for the future.

Together, Ben, Paolo and Julie discuss the Board’s recently published report, From Bold Experiment to Essential Institution, and what it means to call Board “essential” in today’s ever-evolving internet landscape. They also talk about how the Board has changed, the criticisms it faces around cost and influence, and what comes next in 2026 and beyond.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Oversight Board.

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

Follow Ben at Everything in Moderation and Mike at Techdirt.

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).