Moderated Content

Alex and Evelyn discuss how the horrific events in Israel over the weekend make clear how important social media is during fast-moving historical events, and how X/Twitter has fundamentally degraded as a source of information. They also discuss China's ramped up crack down on app stores, and the Supreme Court's cert grant in the Netchoice cases, that could reshape the internet.

Alex and Evelyn record an episode in front of probably their entire active listener base. They talk about an update on SIO's investigations into child sexual abuse material on platforms; the fight for free speech in India; the poor outlook for election integrity at X in 2024, and what this might mean for other platforms; platform transparency mandates with Daphne Keller; and challenges to age verification laws with Alison Boden, the Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition.

Alex and Evelyn discuss reporting on a proposed deal between TikTok and the US government for it to continue to operate in the country, and the broader geopolitical context of US-China relations; how to think about search-term blocking; YouTube preventing Russell Brand from monetizing his videos on its platform; the Musk stories from the week that matter; and the enjoining of the California Age Appropriate Design Code by a California judge.

Evelyn sits down with Genevieve Lakier, a Professor at University of Chicago Law School, to discuss the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Missouri v. Biden, narrowing but affirming a district court injunction prohibiting large parts of the federal government from communicating with platforms about content moderation.

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:OpenAI published a blog promoting how the company’s most powerful large language model, GPT-4, is being used to update platform policy and enforce content moderation rules faster and more consistently than human reviewers. - Priya Anand/ Bloomberg News, Reed Albergotti/ Semafor, Simon Hurtz/ The Verge, Lilian Weng, Vik Goel, Andrea Vallone/ OpenAIDid they forget a section on the importance of human review? Not quite, but you have to actually read the blog to see that this is experimental and focused on updating platform policies and then assisting human experts with policy enforcement.Alex has been testing GPT-4-based moderation tools in the classroom with his students and surprised Evelyn with his optimism. - Casey Newton/ PlatformerMeanwhile, the company is failing to enforce its own policy against using ChatGPT to create materials that target specific voting demographics. Everything is a content moderation issue, and the policy you have is the policy you actually enforce. - Cat Zakrzewski/ The Washington Post Apple is back in the news again under pressure from a new child safety advocacy campaign pushing the company to do more to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after the company scrapped plans to scan user content for CSAM. - Tripp Mickle/ The New York Times, Lily Hay Newman/ WiredMeta announced it took down the largest Chinese influence operation, known as “Spamouflage,” saying the campaign was fairly basic and ineffective despite operating across thousands of accounts across more than 50 apps. - Sheera Frenkel/ The New York Times, Sarah E. Needleman/ The Wall Street JournalX-Twitter CornerMusk is threatening to sue the ADL, but that doesn’t actually mean he is going to sue the ADL. It’s yet another humiliating example of Musk undercutting the authority of X “CEO” Linda Yaccarino. - Sebastian Tong/ Bloomberg News, Jordan Valinsky/ CNNHappy DSA Day!The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force for the largest online platforms and search engines on August 25. - Théophane Hartmann/ Euractiv, Chris Velazco/ The Washington PostCompanies released blog posts about how oh-so-seriously they are taking their obligations with a mix of actually positive steps and completely performative measures. - Nick Clegg/ MetaMeanwhile, the European Commission released a “Case Study” on risk assessment under the DSA for Russian disinformation, and boy-oh-boy do we have thoughts. It's a scary document that seems to validate concerns from those who worry the DSA will be used to repress speech. - European CommissionMeta decided not to follow the Oversight Board’s recommendation to suspend former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s account. The decision raises questions about what the multi-month Board case achieved and how Meta views the purpose of the Board when it disregards its expert input in high-profile cases like this. - Meta Transparency Center Casey Newton has an in-depth report on why the notorious Kiwi Farms website is still up and what content moderation looks like at the infrastructure layer. - Casey Newton/ PlatformerLegal CornerAnother U.S. Supreme Court content moderation showdown seems inevitable as the Biden administration filed an opinion encouraging the Court to take up the NetChoice cases challenging Florida and Texas laws that would restrict moderation action on political content and accounts. - Rebecca Klar/ The Hill, Makena Kelly/ The Verge, Cat Zakrzewski/ The Washington PostThe solicitor general’s brief stated the obvious by arguing there is a circuit split, the questions in the cases are important, and all parties want the review. A federal judge in Texas ruled a state law requiring age verification for adult websites is unconstitutional, blocking enforcement due to a “chilling effect” in a state where sodomy is illegal. - Ashley Belanger/ Ars Technica, Adi Robertson/ The VergeThe Texas Office of the Attorney General is expected to appeal the decision in the case brought by the Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry trade association.A federal judge in Arkansas ruled that a law requiring age verification and parental consent to create an account on social media websites is likely unconstitutional, granting NetChoice’s request to block the law from taking effect on September 1. - Andrew Demillo/ Associated Press, Rebecca Kern/ PoliticoEvelyn is not quite sure what to make of these two pretty decent opinions that faithfully applied precedent, but it will definitely be a big year in First Amendment law for the internet and we will be here to cover all of it!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:X-Twitter CornerTwitter followed through on its threat to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The rationale has changed from a violation of the Lanham Act, a federal trademark statute, to a breach of contract and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). It's still a bad idea and not at all free-speechy. - Bryan Pietsch/ The Washington Post But in a pleasant surprise, X appealed an Indian court ruling that it was not compliant with federal government orders to remove political content, arguing it could embolden New Delhi to block more content and broaden the scope of censorship. Does Musk know about this? - Aditya Kalra, Arpan Chaturvedi, Munsif Vengattil/ ReutersMeanwhile, Apple removed Meduza’s flagship news podcast, “What Happened,” from Apple Podcasts and then reinstated it two days later without explaining… what happened. - MeduzaEarlier this summer, the Russian state censorship authority asked Apple to block the Latvian-based, independent Russian- and English-language news outlet’s show.About a month ago, the Oversight Board told Meta to suspend Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen from Facebook and Instagram. He originally threatened to leave the platform altogether, but instead is back and posting. Meta has three more weeks until the deadline to respond to the Board’s recommendation. (Shoutout to Rest of World for being one of the only outlets covering this!) - Danielle Keeton-Olsen, Sreynat Sarum/ Rest of World  TikTok announced a number of new measures that it is rolling out in the EU to comply with the Digital Services Act, which comes into effect for major platforms at the end of the month. Especially ironic in light of our discussion last week, one of the measures is a chronological feed. - Natasha Lomas/ TechCrunch, TikTokGoogle said demand for its free Perspective API has skyrocketed as large language model builders are using it as a solution for content moderation. But Perspective is a blunt tool with documented issues, including high false-positives and bias, and a lack of context that can be easily fooled by adversarial users. (Shoutout to Yoel Roth for skeeting about this on Bluesky) - Alex Pasternack/ Fast Company, @yoyoel.comThis is scary: A lawsuit brought by the adult entertainment industry group Free Speech Coalition (FSC) against the state of Utah to stop enforcement of a new state law requiring age verification to access adult websites was dismissed. - Sam Metz/ Associated PressThe court held that the law can’t be challenged and paused with an injunction before it goes into effect because it’s not enforced by the government, but with private lawsuits. Not only that, but the court said the group can’t raise the constitutional arguments it made against the law until a resident uses it to file a lawsuit.This has to be wrong as a matter of First Amendment law, which is usually very concerned about chilling effects. FSC appealed the ruling, so we’ll have to wait and see. If this survives, it will be a scary loophole to First Amendment scrutiny.Sports CornerAussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! The Matildas are through to the Women’s World Cup quarter finals with a 2-0 win over Denmark and Sam Kerr’s return to the pitch for the final 10 minutes of play. - Jon Healy, Simon Smale/ ABC News (Australia)We send our commiserations to the U.S. Women's team for bowing out of the World Cup in the worst possible way. Hold your head up high, Megan Rapinoe, you’ve left an indelible mark on the sport and U.S. women’s athletics! - Issy Ronald/ CNNStanford Athletics is in rare company, but not the kind you want to be in. All but three other teams will leave the Pac-12 as the historic college athletics conference faces an uncertain future. - John Marshall/ Associated PressJoin 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. They’re joined this week by NYU’s Joshua Tucker and Stanford’s Jennifer Pan to discuss new studies released from an academic research partnership with Meta on the 2020 U.S. election.The X FilesElon Musk reinstated an account that posted child sexual abuse material just a few days earlier. The account, known for spreading conspiracy theories, then criticized Musk for spreading false information and censoring the Obama birther conspiracy. - Joseph Menn, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post Musk then reinstated Ye on X, but don’t worry, the platform formerly known as Twitter received reassurance that the artist formerly known as Kanye West won’t share any more antisemitic or harmful content. - Rebecca Elliott/ The Wall Street JournalWe’re sure Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino will have no problem hiring an exceptional head of Brand Safety with this kind of model trust and safety best practices on display. - @katecongerIn his latest move in a campaign for free speech absolutism, Elon Musk’s lawyer is threatening to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit advocacy group, for saying mean things about Twitter in research reports. - Sheera Frenkel, Ryan Mac/ The New York Times, ​​Center for Countering Digital HateCCDH lawyer Roberta Kaplan must have had a great time writing back to Musk lawyer Alex Spiro: “We write in response to the ridiculous letter you sent our clients on behalf of X… CCDH will not be bullied by your clients.” - Center for Countering Digital Hate, @jsrailtonNo LabelsMeta is not labeling state media propaganda accounts on Threads, unlike Facebook and Instagram, but says it will do so “soon.” - Newley Purnell/ The Wall Street Journal Shutting This DownDozens of digital and human rights advocacy groups, led by Access Now, called on European Commissioner Thierry Breton to clarify his comments that the Digital Services Act could be used to shut down social media companies during protests. - Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Access NowA Commission official responded to the letter within 24 hours, writing that “Europe stands by the freedom of expression and a neutral and open internet.” - @Mr_ZakkaGetting Meta on MetaNYU’s Joshua Tucker and Stanford’s Jennifer Pan discuss four studies released in Nature and Science from a research partnership with Meta on the 2020 U.S. election. Tucker is a lead investigator on the project and Pan is lead author on two of the articles published in Science.A group of leading academics were granted access to work with Meta researchers to study data from consenting Facebook and Instagram users during the 2020 presidential election. Their findings are complicated and disputed, but indicate that changes to limit algorithmic recommendations did not make a significant difference in partisanship or political knowledge. A key finding shows that conservatives were more likely to engage with election misinformation, and Tucker points out that it is impossible to understand the overall effect social media has on election information and political beliefs.The ResearchNature: Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizingScience: Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on FacebookScience: Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinionsScience: How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?Select HeadlinesBloomberg: Facebook False News in US Election Reached More Conservatives, Study SaysMeta: Groundbreaking Studies Could Help Answer the Thorniest Questions About Social Media and DemocracyNature: Tweaking Facebook feeds is no easy fix for polarization, studies findNBC News: Facebook opened its doors to researchers. What they found paints a complicated picture of social media and echo chambers.Platformer: How Facebook does (and doesn’t) shape our political viewsThe Atlantic: So Maybe Facebook Didn't Ruin PoliticsThe New York Times: Facebook’s Algorithm Is ‘Influential’ but Doesn’t Necessarily Change Beliefs, Researchers SayThe Wall Street Journal: Does Facebook Polarize Users? Meta Disagrees With Partners Over Research ConclusionsThe Washington Post: Changing Facebook's algorithm won't fix polarization, new study finds(Evelyn’s) Sports CornerAussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! The Matildas are through to the round of 16 with a drubbing of Canada this morning. The Calf that Holds the Hopes of the Nation appears to be recovering. - Dan Colasimone/ ABC News (Australia)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:ActivityPub Hub A new Stanford Internet Observatory report by David Thiel and Renée DiResta found a significant issue with child abuse content in the largest decentralized social media communities that make up the Fediverse. They argue that current online safety tools must be adapted for decentralized social networks. - Cristiano Lima/ The Washington PostMeta’s Threads announced future support for ActivityPub, the technical protocol that powers the Fediverse, but Alex doesn’t think that will ever happen. - Casey Newton/ PlatformerInstagram’s Adam Mosseri and his Threads communications team insist it’s coming. - @threadsappSo what kind of trust and safety and legal headaches might this create? Alex has plenty of ideas.One consequence might be another boon for the booming trust and safety as a service industry. - Tim Bernard/ Tech Policy PressThat is, so long as “decentralized” doesn't become a synonym for “we don't need to invest in trust and safety.” Speaking of which, Bluesky finally responded to its failure to block usernames with racial slurs after weeks of controversy and radio silence. - Jay Graber/ BlueskyX Corner?!If you drink enough of the kool aid, eventually you spill a steady stream of corporate buzzwords when you find out your company was renamed to “X” overnight by your CTO. - @lindayaccShockingly, the company formerly known as Twitter continues to have “negative cash flow” and “heavy debt” as ad revenue drops 50%. - Amanda Macias, Lora Kolodny/ CNBC, Jahnavi Nidumolu, Krystal Hu/ ReutersMeanwhile, the “CEO” is trying to convince advertisers to come back while Bloomberg published an investigation into reports that hateful and harmful content has increased on Twitter since Elon Musk’s acquisition last year, including SIO findings that known CSAM was appearing on the site. - Aisha Counts, Eari Nakano/ Bloomberg NewsThe reporting clearly got under the skin of Twitter’s leadership team with a lengthy response from Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino with a whole bunch of unverifiable buzzwords about how the article was wrong. - @lindayaccCase in Point: “99.99% of Tweet impressions are healthy. And we’re achieving this while defending our users’ right to free speech.”The problem is that nothing is verifiable anymore since all the access to data for researchers has been cut off.TikTok CornerThe Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University brought a challenge on behalf a group of independent researchers and journalists, the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, challenging a Texas state government ban on accessing TikTok, arguing the law violates First Amendment rights by inhibiting academic freedom to research and teach about the popular social app at public universities. - Melissa Mahtani/ CNN, Sapna Maheshwari/ The New York Times, Talal Ansari/ The Wall Street Journal, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post, Knight First Amendment InstituteThe flashy rollout of the European Union’s Digital Services Act continues. Last week, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and his team carried out a so-called “stress test” at TikTok’s Dublin offices and gave them a failing grade, but an “A” for agreeing to public humiliation. - Alex Barinka/ Bloomberg NewsAlex's Cyber Doom and Gloom CornerAlex is among those saying a recently discovered Microsoft vulnerability exploited in a Chinese espionage campaign to access the unclassified emails of top administration officials is even worse than you think and not getting enough attention. - Shir Tamari/ Wiz, Sumathi Bala/ CNBC, Julian Barnes/ The New York Times, Jonathan Greig/ The Record by Recorded FutureSports CornerEvelyn has an Aussie sports update and asks everyone to say a prayer for Chelsea and national team striker Sam Kerr's calf. - Naaman Zhou/ New YorkerJoin 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:Threads v. TwitterInstagram’s Twitter competitor Threads is the fastest downloaded app, boasting more than 100 million users within five days despite pretty basic features. - Jay Peters, Jon Porter/ The VergeInstagram head Adam Mosseri said Threads will be a place for sports and entertainment over politics and news. We say good luck with that! - Rohan Goswami/ CNBC, Jay Peters/ The Verge, @mosseriMusk is taking it well... tweeting that the showdown against Zuckerberg should be a literal measurement of manhood and threatening to sue Meta. - Matt Novak/ Forbes, Rohan Goswami/ CNBCBut don’t worry, Elon, you still have a fan in the Taliban. - @AnasHaqqani313The content moderation challenges will only get more difficult for Threads, especially on a decentralized protocol. - @alexstamosDespite the early success, Threads can’t take flight over Twitter in the EU yet due to uncertainty with forthcoming competition regulations under the Digital Markets Act. - Jillian Deutsch, Stephanie Bodoni/ Bloomberg News, Makena Kelly/ The VergeThe European Union officially signed off on a new data-transfer deal with the United States. Now, we have to wait and see if it will once again falter under a legal challenge. - Adam Satariano, Monika Pronczuk, David McCabe/ The New York Times, European CommissionThere was frankly frightening rhetoric in the EU threatening to cut off social media platforms during unrest from French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. These are disappointing statements and flippancy about the importance of free expression. - Laura Kayali, Alexandre Léchenet/ Politico, Clothilde Goujard, Nicolas Camut/ PoliticoA U.S. Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit upheld FOSTA against a First Amendment challenge. - Gustavo Turner/ XBIZJoin 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! 

On July 4, a district court issued an injunction prohibiting large swathes of the government from communicating with platforms about content moderation in almost any way. Evelyn sits down with Genevieve Lakier, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, to talk about the opinion, the issue of government "jawboning" of platforms, and how the First Amendment has, should and shouldn't think about this problem.