Moderated Content

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

• OpenAI published its first transparency report on covert influence operations using the company’s AI models finding the tools were used for existing campaigns by Russia, China, Iran and Israel with limited reach. - Ina Fried/ Axios, OpenAI 
• In very related news, Meta announced it removed foreign influence operations using AI-generated content. - Aisha Counts/ Bloomberg News, Margarita Franklin, Lindsay Hundley, Mike Torrey, David Agranovich, Mike Dvilyanski/ Meta
  • Meta claims it is still able to detect influence operations using AI-generated content, but recent Stanford Internet Observatory research found such content is being widely used for spam that generates engagement with surreal or emotional content.
  • Both Meta and OpenAI point fingers at Israeli actors for using generative AI in influence operations and Meta claimed a victory in stopping the infamous Russian Doppelganger operation.
• California legislators are considering dozens of bills with AI regulations. One of the most prominent and controversial is SB 1047, the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act. - Jeremy B. White/ Politico
  • What it Would Do: The bill would create sweeping AI safety regulations against “hazardous capabilities” and a Frontier Model Division of California Department of Technology to set those new rules for the most powerful AI models, including a “kill switch.” The bill also includes CalCompute, a public cloud computing cluster for AI safety research.
  • The Politics: The bill was introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener, an ambitious Democrat seeking to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While state lawmakers have introduced many ambitious AI safety regulations, Governor Gavin Newsom is urging a focus on innovation to protect the state’s tech industry. - Jeremy B. White/ Politico

TikTok Tick-Tock

• TikTok is funding a lawsuit brought by a diverse group of eight creators against the federal government’s divest-or-ban measure. The new suit was combined with the lawsuit brought by TikTok and parent company ByteDance with an expedited schedule to hear the case in September. - Josephine Rozzelle/ CNBC, David Shepardson/ Reuters, Julia Shapero/ The Hill, Taylor Lorenz, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post
  • The creators include a cattle rancher, cookie baker, feminist activist, college football coach and a rapping conservative commentator. Their challenge focuses on First Amendment free speech rights.
• The tech trade association NetChoice booted TikTok earlier in May following pushback from Congressional offices that warned of an investigation into organizations tied to TikTok. - Daniel Lippman, Brendan Bordelon/ Politico
• In a possible preview of what to expect in Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court released a unanimous decision in NRA v. Vullo that found a New York state official likely violated the free speech rights of the National Rifle Association by pressuring banks and insurers to cut ties with the organization after the Parkland high school shooting. - Justin Jouvenal/ The Washington Post

Down Under

• An Australian court rejected an eSafety Commissioner global removal order for X to hide content with video of a stabbing attack at a Sydney church. eSafety has since dropped the case against X. - Jake Evans, Jordyn Butler/ ​​ABC News (Australia), Rod McGuirk/ Associated Press, Tanvi Nair/ Australian Institute of International Affairs, Sumathi Bala/ CNBC, Josh Taylor/ The Guardian
  • The court ruling acknowledged that the order would likely “be ignored or disparaged in other countries.”

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

TikTok Tick-Tock

• A law requiring TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban was passed and signed into law as part of a foreign aid and national security funding package. - Casey Newton/ Platformer, Rebecca Kern/ Politico, Mike Scarcella/ Reuters, John Perrino/ Tech Policy Press, Sapna Maheshwari, David McCabe/ The New York Times, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post, Cristiano Lima-Strong/ The Washington Post, @TikTokPolicy

Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (EU Policy Corner)

• The European Commission opened formal proceedings against Meta on potential DSA violations including the “deprecation and planned discontinuation of CrowdTangle” happening “without an adequate replacement” ahead of the European elections. - Jon Brodkin/ Ars Technica, Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Clothilde Goujard, Aoife White/ Politico, Natasha Lomas/ TechCrunch, Lisa O'Carroll/ The Guardian, Adam Satariano/ The New York Times, European Commission, Mathias Vermeulen (@mathver)
  • The probe will also investigate how foreign influence operations are spreading on Facebook and Instagram, how Meta is handling political advertising and content recommendations and issues with flagging and removing illegal content.
  • Meta’s Threads announced it wouldn’t recommend political commentary earlier this year and recent research found the pro-Kremlin Doppelganger network is buying Facebook ads ahead of the EU election. - Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Taylor Lorenz, Naomi Nix/ The Washington Post
• The REPORT Act was signed into law by President Biden on May 7 after passing both chambers of Congress on April 29. The law makes common sense updates to the nation's online child abuse reporting system and expands reporting requirements to include instances of child grooming and trafficking. - Dave Williams/ Capitol Beat, Julie Tsirkin/ NBC News, Lauren Forristal/ TechCrunch, Amanda Silberling/ TechCrunch, Kate Klonick, Margo Williams/ The Klonickles, The White House, @HouseFloor, Office of Congresswoman Laurel Lee, Office of Senator Jon Ossoff, Office of Senator Marsha Blackburn
• Georgia lawmakers passed the Protecting Georgia's Children on Social Media Act of 2024, SB 351, requiring age verification and parental consent for teens under 16 to create social media accounts. The bill also updates school education requirements to cover online safety. - Brenna Goth/ Bloomberg Law, FOX 5 Atlanta

Legal Corner

• SCOTUS denied an application for a stay of the Texas age verification law for adult sites. The cert petition is still pending and they didn’t give a reason, but it’s still kind of amazing given the precedent is so firmly against them and you’d normally expect a stay when First Amendment rights are threatened. - Andrew Chung/ Reuters, Adam Liptak/ The New York Times, Free Speech Coalition

Sports Corner

• Alex said he is “excited” to root for the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs with his Sacramento Kings failing to make the playoffs. If only there was more New York sports coverage. - Chris Herring/ ESPN
  • Despite calling New York sports fans “the worst,” his show notes writer says there is still time to be a bandwagon Jalen Brunson fan.

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos are joined by Stanford Internet Observatory’s Shelby Grossman to discuss SIO’s just-released report on the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Online Child Safety Ecosystem. Read the report here.

SIO is also calling for presentation proposals for its annual Trust and Safety Research Conference. Proposals are due April 30. Details are here: https://io.stanford.edu/conference

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos are joined by University of Washington professor Kate Starbird to discuss research on election rumors.

Kate Starbird is an associate professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering where she is also a co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public. - University of Washington

• House Judiciary Committee Kate Starbird interview transcript
• House Judiciary Committee Alex Stamos interview transcript

Sports Corner

Noted American sports expert Evelyn Douek discusses the NCAA women’s basketball championship in this slam dunk segment. Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks defeated superstar Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 on Sunday in what is expected to be the most watched women’s basketball game of all time with an average ticket price hovering around $500. - Jill Martin/ CNN, Alexa Philippou/ ESPN

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

• X this week had its lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate thrown out by a Californian district court. It’s a good and important win for free speech. - Emma Roth / The Verge
• A Kremlin-linked group was spreading divisive stories about Kate Middleton as online rumors swirled about her whereabouts. Why? - Mark Lander and Adam Satariano / The New York Times
   
• In the aftermath of the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, the destruction of X as a platform for useful information about breaking news was all too clear. - A.W. Ohlheiser / Vox
   
• Meta is shutting down its transparency tool, CrowdTangle. Brandon Silverman joins to talk about the tool and what this means for the future of platform transparency. - Vittoria Elliott / Wired
  
  
  • Brandon’s substack is Some Good Trouble
  • A group of civil society organizations and researchers wrote an open letter objecting to Meta’s decision - Mozilla
  • GW’s tracker of Platform Transparency Tools & The Brussels Effect

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek is joined by Professor Genevieve Lakier of the University of Chicago Law School to discuss the Supreme Court oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri. 

• For one of their previous conversations on this topic, listen to this episode from September last year talking about the 5th Circuit’s decision in the case.
• They also discuss Stanford’s amicus brief in the case, and the Stanford Internet Observatory’s blog post summarizing factual errors that have pervaded the case.

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

• Is the deepfake apocalypse finally here? Alex and Evelyn discuss the recent robocalls impersonating President Biden ahead of the New Hampshire primary and sexually explicit fake images of Taylor Swift that spread on X, resulting in the platform blocking searches for one of the most famous people in the world.

Let’s Get Meta

• Meta will start labeling AI-generated images on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The company is working with other technology and media companies to develop standards for identifying and labeling AI generated content, but will that be effective?
• In other democracy saving announcements by Meta, Threads will not “proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow.” Good thing they disclose what political content means… oh wait.
• Also in full transparency, Meta removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with little explanation of the decision which comes months after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

X/Twitter Corner

• Meanwhile, X is selling checkmarks to terrorists and failing to remove Chinese influence operations.

In Full Transparency

• TikTok is restricting searches in its Creative Center tool, used to track hashtag trends and popularity. The change comes after the tool was used to scrutinize content related to the Israel-Hamas war. The data was never that great, but this is a loss for everyone.
• Don’t worry, the Digital Service Act comes into full force this weekend with transparency requirements, and it’s definitely fully sorted out without legal challenges and with EU country regulators ready to enforce.

Legal Corner

• A federal judge blocked an Ohio law requiring parental consent law from going into effect shortly after technology trade association NetChoice filed a challenge.
• The Kids Online Safety Act was updated and now has a filibuster-proof majority of 62 co-sponsors. The bill could pass the Senate this year, but still faces long odds in the House where there is dysfunction and no companion legislation. Fewer legislation gets passed in an election year, and opponents say the updates amount only to a new coat of paint with the same structural issues in potential violation of the First Amendment.

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos talk to Riana Pfefferkorn and David Thiel of the Stanford Internet Observatory about the technical and legal challenges of addressing computer-generated child sexual abuse material. They mention: 

• Riana’s new paper on the topic, “Addressing Computer-Generated Child Sex Abuse Imagery: Legal Framework and Policy Implications” - Riana Pfefferkorn / Lawfare
• David’s report documenting Child Sexual Abuse Material in a major dataset used to train AI models - David Thiel / SIO; Samantha Cole / 404 Media

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!