Shows
Ctrl-Alt-SpeechLook What The Chat Dragged InIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:The group chats that changed America (Semafor)Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening (New York Times) Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators (The Guardian) Social media moderators’ lives are getting worse. Big Tech needs to take responsibility (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users—Even Children (Wall Street Journal)Kids should avoid AI companion bots—under force of law, assessment says (CalMatters)I'm a mom who...2025-05-0253 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechRed Pills & Blue ChecksIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:4chan is dead. It's Toxic Legacy is everywhere (Wired)Wide-Ranging Decisions Protect Speech and Address Harms (Oversight Board)Meta’s oversight board rebukes company over policy overhaul (Reuters)Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) (Techdirt)Most young Aussie men are turning to masculinity influencers, and it's impacting their mental health (ABC News)Young Men’s Health in a Digital World (Movember)Teens, Social Media and Mental Health (Pew Research Center)National Scie...2025-04-2553 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechWhy Can't We De-FriendIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case (Wall Street Journal)Mark Zuckerberg once suggested wiping all Facebook friends lists to boost usage (The Verge) Would You Give PornHub Your ID? (The Atlantic) How Social-Media Sites Can Fight Hate Without Censorship (The Atlantic) Facebook Banned Me for Life Because I Help People Use It Less (Slate, 2021)ASML Fellow Launches CLR:SKY (Berkman Klein Center)Block Party deep cleans your social media, notifications, settings, and more in one c...2025-04-1853 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechCan't Take(down) A Joke?In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by guest host Prateek Waghre, former executive director at the Internet Freedom Foundation and currently a fellow at Tech Policy Press. Together, they cover:BookMyShow Restores Kunal Kamra’s Profile After Controversy (Medianama)Kunal Kamra show audience members served notices (The Times of India)Cops force banker to cut short vacation to join Kamra probe (The Times of India)Unblock Vikatan Website – Madras High Court Orders Central Government (Vikatan)A Lack of Sense, and Censor-ability in India (Tech Policy...2025-04-1149 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechWorld Wide Wedge IssueIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Zuckerberg Tries to Enlist Trump in Fight Against Meta EU Ruling (WSJ)EU set to limit Apple and Meta fines to avoid ire of Donald Trump (Financial Times)Adolescence hard to watch as a dad, Starmer tells creators (BBC)‘Adolescence’ on Netflix: A painful wake-up call about unregulated internet use for teens (The Conversation)Adolescence hits Netflix's Top 10 Global chart in just three weeks as it reaches over 96MILLION views (Daily Mail)Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent...2025-04-0351 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechChief Equivocation OfficerIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:X takes Indian govt to court, alleges arbitrary censorship of content (Business Standard)India criticises X for calling compliance website a censorship tool (Reuters)Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest (Politico)Elon Musk pressured Reddit’s CEO on content moderation (The Verge)Snapchat CEO Talks Zuckerberg, Content Moderation, AR Glasses and More (SocialMediaToday)YouTube CEO on content moderation: ‘Where the world was five years ago is very different’ than today (Semafor)Porn on Spotify...2025-03-2952 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechOnce You Slop, You Can't StopIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Twitter Inc. Official 'Bird Logo' Fascia Sign - An Iconic Fixture from the Company’s Market Square Headquarters in San Francisco (RR Auction)AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality (404 Media)Spain to impose massive fines for not labelling AI-generated content (Reuters)China Announces Generative AI Labeling to Cull Disinformation (Bloomberg) After Axing Fact-Checkers, Meta’s Community Notes Will Have Help From X (Adweek)UK to crack down on illegal content across socia...2025-03-2053 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechThe TAKE IT DOWN TakedownIn this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Bluesky's CEO on the Future of Social Media (YouTube)The Take It Down Act isn’t a law, it’s a weapon (The Verge)Trump Promises To Abuse Take It Down Act For Censorship, Just As We Warned (Techdirt)Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir (NBC News)Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistl...2025-03-1356 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechE Pluribus ChaosIn this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and CEO of RightsDuff Strategies. They cover:Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) (Techdirt)America’s Global Presence Isn’t ‘Soft Power.’ It’s a Superpower. (Foreign Policy)These teenage boys were blackmailed online – and it cost them their lives (USA Today)United Nations Convention against Cybercrime (UN)Chairman Jordan Subpoenas Big Tech for Informatio...2025-03-0751 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechThe Comedy of ErrorsIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Facebook & Content Moderation (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)Australia takes enforcement action against Telegram for serious delay in terror and child sexual abuse transparency (eSafety Commission) US judge says Trump Media, Rumble need not follow Brazilian order they deem censorship (Reuters)Why the Rumble Suit Against a Brazilian Justice is Not About Free Speech (Tech Policy Press)Underage Users at Meta, Snap Show Large Australian Breaches (Bloomberg)‘Big Tech Censorship’ of Users Targeted by Trump’s FTC Chief...2025-02-2850 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechBackdoors and BackstepsIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben are joined by a group of students from the Media Law and Policy class at the American University School of Communication. Together they cover:U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts (Washington Post)US lawmakers respond to the UK’s Apple encryption backdoor request (Engadget)UK: Encryption order threatens global privacy rights (Human Rights Watch)Analysis: AI Summit emphasizes innovation and competition over trust and safety (DFR Lab)An overdue idea for making the inte...2025-02-1558 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechDigital Oligarchs Gunning for Europe (DOGE)In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Elon’s Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It’s Even More Dangerous (Techdirt)US presses Brussels for answers over EU social media law (Politico)Inside the Elon Musk-Jim Jordan ‘mind meld’ shaking up Capitol Hill (Politico)Musk adds Shell, Nestlé, Lego to X advertiser ‘boycott’ lawsuit (The Hill)Musk Shows Us What Actual Government Censorship On Social Media Looks Like (Techdirt)In wake of Meta moderation shift, advertisers have accepted new status quo: brand safety is a myth (Di...2025-02-0753 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechThis Episode has Masculine EnergyIn this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Renee DiResta, associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. They cover:The new free speech crisis hiding in plain sight (MSNBC)‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Jr. Has Been Trying To Censor a Blogger for Years (Who What Why)In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment (TechCrunch)Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Suit (WSJ)Meta’s Free-S...2025-01-3154 minCtrl-Alt-SpeechThe TickTock on TikTokIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Application Of Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act To TikTok (The White House)Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship (The White House)America Is No Longer the Home of the Free Internet (The Atlantic)Good morning, America: Why India banned TikTok 5 years back (India Today)Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says (Reuters)Commission welcomes the integration of the revised Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech...2025-01-2453 min