App stores, payment processors, and Grok concerns

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Konstantinos Komaitis, Senior Resident Fellow for Global and Democratic Governance at the Digital Forensics Research Lab (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council. Together, they discuss:

• Who Owns TikTok in the U.S. Now? (NY Times)
• TikTok is investigating why some users can't write 'Epstein' in messages (NPR)
• TikTok users freak out over app’s ‘immigration status’ collection — here’s what it means (TechCrunch)
• TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes (Wired)
• Social network UpScrolled sees surge in downloads following TikTok’s US takeover (TechCrunch)
• Europe votes to tackle deep dependence on US tech in sovereignty drive (Computerworld)
• Meta hides followers and following lists for users based in Iran (Iran International)
• Iran’s internet blackout may become permanent, with access for elites only (Rest of World)
• The ‘Social Media Addiction’ Narrative May Be More Harmful Than Social Media Itself (Techdirt)
• Payment processors were against CSAM until Grok started making it (The Verge)

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.