A wide-ranging conversation with Northeastern’s John Wihbey on how algorithms, laws, and business models shape speech online—and what smarter, lighter regulation could look like.
Guest bio: John Wihbey is a professor of media & technology at Northeastern University and director of the AI Media Strategies Lab. Author of Governing Babel (MIT Press). He has advised foundations, governments, and tech firms (incl. pre-X Twitter) and consulted for the U.S. Navy.
Topics discussed:
- Section 230’s 1996 logic vs. the algorithmic era
- EU DSA, Brazil/India, authoritarian models
- AI vs. AI moderation (deepfakes, scams, NCII)
- Hate/abuse, doxxing, and speech “crowd-out”
- Platform opacity; case for transparency/data access
- Creator-economy economics; downranking/shadow bans
- Dead Internet Theory, bots, engagement gaming
- Sports, betting, and integrity (NBA/NFL)
- Gen Z jobs; becoming AI-literate change agents
- Teaching with AI: simulations, human-in-loop assessment
Main points & takeaways:
- Keep Section 230 but add obligations (transparency, appeals, researcher access).
- Europe’s DSA has exportable principles, adapted to U.S. free-speech norms.
- States lead on deepfake/NCII and youth-harm laws.
- AI offense currently ahead; detection/provenance + humans will narrow the gap.
- Lawful hate/abuse can practically silence others’ participation.
- CSAM detection is harder with synthetics; needs better tooling/cooperation.
- News/creator models are fragile; ad dollars shifted to platforms.
- Opaque ranking punishes small creators; clearer recourse is needed.
- Engagement metrics are Goodharted; bots inflate signals.
- Live sports thrive on synchronization; gambling risks long-term integrity.
- Students should aim to be the person who uses AI well, not fear AI.
Top 3 quotes:
- “Keep 230, but add transparency and obligations—we don’t need censorship; we need visibility into how platforms actually govern speech.”
- “AI versus AI is the new reality—offense is ahead today, but defense will catch up with detection, provenance, and human oversight.”
- “The platform is king—monetization and discoverability are controlled by opaque algorithms, and that unpredictability crushes small creators.”
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