Check out Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike Masnick's brand new podcast with Ben Whitelaw, creator of the Everything in Moderation newsletter.

In this teaser excerpt from the debut episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike and Ben discuss the US bill that aims to ban TikTok, or at least force ByteDance to divest from it.

Listen to the whole episode, covering all the week's biggest news in online speech, by visiting ctrlaltspeech.com or subscribing to Ctrl-Alt-Speech on your podcast platform of choice!

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ctrl-alt-speech/id1734530193

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1734530193

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1N3tvLxUTCR7oTdUgUCQvc

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/93842011-b662-430a-8e51-218433a7e647

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcky6_VTbejGkZ7aHqqc3ZjufeEw2AS7Z

More: https://www.ctrlaltspeech.com/

As is tradition, now that we've announced the winners of our latest public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1928, it's time for a special episode of the podcast taking a closer look at them. Just like in past years, Mike is joined by myself and our game design partner Randy Lubin to discuss our thoughts on the winners in all six categories, and a bunch of other great games that didn't quite make the cut.

Anyone who follows Techdirt knows we're very interested in the progress of Bluesky, the decentralized social network that embraces our concept of protocols over platforms. Bluesky recently ended its invite-only beta and opened its doors to the public, so it seems like a great time for a check-in, and who better to check in with than Bluesky CEO Jay Graber? Jay joins us on this week's episode for a discussion about Bluesky's progress and what the future holds.

In our coverage of the problems with KOSA and other legislative pushes to "protect the children" online, we usually (for obvious reasons) come at the subject from the technology side, and look at all the ways these laws misunderstand the internet. But that's not their only flaw: these proposals also tend to lack any real understanding of child safety. Maureen Flatley is someone who has been vocal from the other side, having covered child safety issues for about as long as we've covered tech, and she joins us on this week's episode to discuss how KOSA and its ilk aren't rooted in what we really know about keeping kids safe.

As we've written about repeatedly, efforts to protect kids online and improve their mental health at the moment all seem to be focused on taking social media away from them, even though all the evidence suggests this would be harmful, not helpful. Today, we're joined by Rob Morris, who aims to take a different approach with his online mental health service Koko, for a discussion about how the real way to help kids is to meet them where they're at.

A couple weeks ago, we released the 2024 edition of our Sky Is Rising report about the state of the entertainment industries. Last week, Mike and I joined Corbin Barthold on Techfreedom's Tech Policy Podcast for a discussion about the report and, more broadly, the state of culture in the internet era and the conversations that surround it. You can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode of the Techdirt Podcast.

Back in April, we were joined on the podcast by Chris Riley, the Executive Director of the new nonprofit Data Transfer Initiative that aimed to promote data portability and empower users to transfer their data from one service to another. Today, the Initiative has released its first annual report, and Chris is back on the podcast for a discussion all about how things are going, and what's on deck for 2024.

Data Transfer Initiative Annual Report 2023 (PDF): https://dtinit.org/assets/DTI-Annual-Report-2023.pdf

We've got a nice fresh live recording for you today! Just yesterday, Mike was at the Knight Foundation's INFORMED Conference to participate in a panel discussion with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, moderated by former Twitter Trust & Safety head Yoel Roth. The subject was decentralized and federated social media, especially its implications for content moderation, and you can listen to the whole panel here on this week's episode.

Last month, we wrote about Apple's nonsensical attack on Beeper, a universal messaging app that exemplifies many of the things we talk about here on Techdirt, like adversarial interoperability and the value of embracing open protocols over walled platforms. This week, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky joins us on the podcast to talk about the app, the fight with Apple, and the power of protocols.

We're back from the holidays, and it's time for a new episode of the Techdirt Podcast! This week, we're joined by Ravi Iyer, Research Director for the USC Marshall School's Neely Center and Managing Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute, to discuss a proposed "design code" that aims to make social media better serve society. Mike isn't entirely convinced by the approach, leading to a long discussion about all its ins and outs.