In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork, a podcast that makes sense of the rapidly changing world of tech. Together, they discuss:

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

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

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is 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.