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Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:Twitter CornerTwitter continues to break its product, this time by limiting how many tweets people can see and requiring people to log in to view anything. Advertisers must be thrilled! - Aisha Counts/ Bloomberg News, Ashley Capoot/ CNBC, Ramishah Maruf/ CNN, Amanda Silberling/ TechCrunch, Tamia Fowlkes, Julian Mark/ The Washington PostLinda Yaccarino, the “CEO,” belatedly weighed in on day four of the debacle with an “explanation” that makes… absolutely no sense. - @lindayaccMeanwhile, Linda is desperately trying to reassure advertisers Twitter is a grownup platform by rejoining the Tech Coalition, an industry membership organization for collaboration to address online child sexual exploitation and abuse. - Alexa Corse/ The Wall Street JournalA group of academics and researchers sent an open letter opposing the EU’s proposed Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse. Alex supports strong end-to-end encryption, but has some thoughts on what they get wrong.Apropos of nothing, Meta is launching its Twitter competitor, Threads, on July 6. - Salvador Rodriguez/ The Wall Street JournalMeta’s Oversight Board overturned a decision to leave up a video in which Cambodian Prime Minister ​​Hun Sen calls for violence against his political opponents, calling on Meta to suspend his Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months in light of his use of social media to incite violence and the history of violence and repression in the country. - Regine Cabato and Rebecca Tan/ The Washington Post, Oversight BoardPrime Minister Sen responded by quitting Facebook to join TikTok and Telegram. We’re sure he’ll be very respectful and not at all incite-y on his new accounts while he threatens to ban Facebook in the country. - Joel Guinto/ BBC NewsLegal CornerTikTok finally admitted to funding the legal challenge of Montana’s app ban brought by creators in the state… after the creators told The New York Times who was funding them. - Sapna Maheshwari/ The New York TimesTech industry association NetChoice filed yet another lawsuit against state social media regulations, challenging an Arkansas law requiring age verification for social media users and parental consent for those under 18. - Rebecca Kern/ Politico Pro, Krista Chavez/ NetChoiceIn India, a court dismissed a case brought by Twitter last July challenging government orders to block certain accounts and posts and fined the company the equivalent of $61,000 for its failure to comply with the orders. - Sankalp Phartiyal/ Bloomberg News, Manish Singh/ TechCrunchTwitter’s legal challenge against government orders to block certain accounts and posts under recent regulatory updates to the country’s IT rules and fined the company the equivalent of $61,000. - Sankalp Phartiyal/ Bloomberg News, Manish Singh/ TechCrunchIt's a bleak decision that does not give any credence to any of Twitter’s arguments, fully credits all of the government’s arguments, and does not show any concern for freedom of expression. - Vasudev Devadasan/ Indian Constitutional Law and PhilosophyWhile Twitter could appeal, the challenge was filed in the pre-Musk era, so Evelyn is not holding her breath.What is more American than sports and eating? Don’t ask Evelyn, as Alex stumps her with an Australian twist on American trivia. - Bianca Hrovat/ Sydney Morning Herald, Inga Neilsen/ 9NewsJoin 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:A new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory and Thorn, a nonprofit working to counter online child sexual exploitation, examines the problem of increasingly realistic images generated with freely available tools to create sexual abuse material. - Issie Lapowsky/ The New York Times, @det@hachyderm.ioThe mutiny in Russia unfolded in real time on Telegram with unreliable information spreading as few other sources of news or information were available from the country. - Jon Allsop/ Columbia Journalism Review, Matt Binder/ Mashable, Ben Smith/ Semafor, Joseph Menn, Mary Ilyushina, Shera Avi-Yonah/ The Washington PostTwitter CornerElon Musk has clearly been focused on top priorities with a late night tweet declaring the terms “cis” and “cisgender” are  “slurs” that can result in suspensions. - Sawdah Bhaimiya/ Insider, Sarah Fortinsky/ The HillMeanwhile, Musk met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said Tesla will be in India “as soon as humanly possible.” - Hyunjoo Jin, Shivangi Acharya/ ReutersIn the ongoing back and forth between Twitter and the EU, the company said it would comply with the Digital Service Act which goes into force in late August. Twitter was the first company to do a voluntary compliance “stress test” (whatever that means) at its San Francisco headquarters during EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s Silicon Valley tour last week. - Kelvin Chan/ Associated Press, Brian Fung/ CNN, Clothilde Goujard, Gian Volpicelli/ Politico, Lisa O'Carroll/ The Guardian, Alexa Corse, Sam Schechner/ The Wall Street Journal, Cat Zakrzewski/ The Washington PostAustralia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, issued a legal notice requiring Twitter to provide information about what it is doing to address reports of an increase in hate speech since Elon Musk acquired the company and laid off most staff. - Josh Taylor/ Australian Associated Press, Ina Fried/ Axios, Byron Kaye/ Reuters, Frances Vinall/ The Washington Post, Julie Inman Grant/ Tech Policy PressYouTube showed up Spotify by removing a video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for spreading vaccine misinformation in conversation with podcast host Jordan Peterson. - David Ingram, Ben Goggin/ NBC NewsIt turns out that big social media companies may have the upper hand over users as Reddit removed moderators on popular subreddits who didn’t comply with a warning about continuing protests over the company’s decision to charge for API access. - Matt Binder/ Mashable, Jay Peters/ The VergeAfter giving Vietnamese a platform to share posts about police abuse, government corruption, and debunk government propaganda, Facebook is now complying with the authoritarian country’s demands to censor political dissent with an internal list of ruling party officials who cannot be criticized. - Rebecca Tan/ The Washington PostLegal CornerThe Supreme Court issued its decision in Counterman without acknowledging the very real harm that can be done by online stalkers, even when they don't explicitly threaten their victims. - Jan Wolfe, Jess Bravin/ The Wall Street Journal, @ma_franksThe majority opinion held that prosecutors must show that a person was reckless when they sent threatening messages, and not merely that the messages were objectively threateningJustice Sotomayor's concurrence got it right in saying that this was a case about stalking, not threats, but we'll have to wait and see whether lower courts pay attention, or whether they assume that the majority opinion means online stalking is protected by the First Amendment, as long as the stalker doesn't say anything threatening.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:Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said Elon Musk’s drastic layoffs, cost saving, and price raising measures were an inspiration for him as some of the most active users of his site went on strike, taking some of the largest subreddit forums private in protest against the changes. - David Ingram/ NBC NewsHuffman is trying to force changes against the will of his user base by claiming he represents the “will of the people,” and comparing subreddits moderators, who the company does not pay, to a “landed gentry” that got there first and will pass communities down to their descendants.Twitter CornerLinda Yaccarino published her first memo since starting as CEO, writing that “Twitter is on a mission to become the world’s most accurate real-time information source and a global town square for communication. We’re on the precipice of making history—and that’s not an empty promise. That’s OUR reality.” The emphasis is hers, and this is all a bit… self-refuting. - Alex Heath/ The VergeWhile Linda was writing her memo, Musk was writing tweets about wanting a modern day Roman dictator. How is that for brand safety? - @elonmuskMeanwhile, former CEO Jack Dorsey confirms what we all knew: India threatened to shut down Twitter in the country unless it restricted accounts that were critical of the Modi administration. - Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Aditya Kalra, Kanishka Singh/ ReutersIn response, a government official said Twitter repeatedly violated Indian law during Dorsey’s tenure, but that the company had been in compliance since June 2022, which coincidentally seems to align with Musk’s takeover bid for the company announced in April 2022 and completed in October.Spotify continues to let Joe Rogan promote guests who spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines. Spotify and Rogan signed an exclusivity deal in 2020 that is worth more than $100 million. - Wes Davis/ The VergeMeta announced that its “Covid-19 misinformation rules will no longer be in effect globally” and outlined further changes to roll back its policies in published responses to the Oversight Board’s recommendations on updating the rules. - Cristiano Lima/ The Washington Post, Nick Clegg/ MetaThe announcement came right at the deadline for responding to the Oversight Board’s recommendations and the Board took so long in delivering a decision that the World Health Organization lifted the declaration of a global emergency two weeks later, rendering many of the recommendations moot.In other news, the Oversight Board also released its 2022 annual report in which it said that it received nearly 1.3 million appeals and… published 12 decisions. So not only do the cases take forever, but there are very few of them! - Oversight BoardLegal CornerTexas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that would ban kids under 18 from joining many social media sites without parental content. Kudos to The Verge for covering this! - Makena Kelly/ The VergeA Louisiana bill that would similarly require parental consent for users under 18 received a lot more press as it was the foundation for copycat state legislation. - Lauren Feiner/ CNBC, Natasha Singer/ The New York TimesBut the Texas bill has a bunch of other provisions focused on protecting minors from “harmful content.” Tech trade group NetChoice said the law “violates the First Amendment many times over,” so it’s probably just a matter of time until another new social media law faces another tech industry lawsuit.The “Florida Digital Bill of Rights” was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). - Rebecca Kern/ Politico Pro, Cristiano Lima/ The Washington Post, Office of Governor Ron DeSantisSB 262 includes some basic consumer rights, such as the right to know the information companies have collected about an individual, the right to correct and delete certain information, and the right to limit some data disclosures. However, the measures only apply to the largest tech companies.In addressing the most pressing problems for online privacy, the bill also prohibits government officials in the state from making requests for social media companies to remove content, and requires search engines to disclose whether search results are influenced by “political partisanship or political ideology.” 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 are joined by Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) Research Manager Renée DiResta and Chief Technologist David Thiel to discuss a new report on a months-long investigation into the distribution of illicit sexual content by minors online.Large Networks of Minors Appear to be Selling Illicit Sexual Content OnlineThe Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) published a report last week with findings from a months-long investigation into the distribution of illicit sexual content by minors online. The SIO research team identified a large network of accounts claiming to be minors, likely teenagers, who are producing, marketing and selling their own explicit content on social media.A tip from The Wall Street Journal informed the investigation with a list of common terms and hashtags indicating the sale of “self-generated child sexual abuse material” (SG-CSAM). SIO identified a network of more than 500 accounts advertising SG-CSAM with tens of thousands of likely buyers.With only public data, this research uncovered and helped resolve basic safety failings with Instagram’s reporting system for accounts with expected child exploitation, and Twitter’s system for automatically detecting and removing known CSAM. Most of the work to address CSAM has focused on adult offenders who create the majority of content. These findings highlight the need for new countermeasures developed by industry, law enforcement and policymakers to address sextortion and the sale of illicit content that minors create themselves.Front-Page Wall Street Journal CoverageA Wall Street Journal article first covered Twitter’s lapse in safety measures to prevent known CSAM from appearing on the site and the importance of researcher access to study public social media data to identify and help address issues. - Alexa Corse/ The Wall Street JournalInstagram was the focus of a larger Wall Street Journal investigation, based in part on SIO’s research findings. The app is currently the most significant platform for these CSAM networks, connecting young sellers with buyers with recommendation features, searching for hashtags, and direct messaging. - Jeff Horwitz, Katherine Blunt/ The Wall Street JournalBipartisan Concern and Calls for Social Media Regulation The investigation sparked outrage across the aisle in the U.S. and grabbed the attention of the European Commission as the European Union prepares to enforce the Digital Services Act for the largest online platforms later this summer.Thierry Breton, the top EU official for trade and industry regulation, announced that he will meet with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg later this month at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters to discuss the report and demand the company takes action.In Congress, House Energy and Commerce Democrats and GOP Senators were most outspoken about taking action to address the concerning findings.Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested a hearing on the findings during a Senate Judiciary markup session.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) @SenTomCotton: “Social media isn’t safe for kids. At a minimum, we should require age verification and parental consent.”Sen. Rick Scott (@SenRickScott): “Every parent should read this story. Social media is NOT SAFE for our kids. What is described here is disgusting and needs to be shut down now!”House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats released statements that they were “appalled” and “disgusted” by the role Instagram plays in connecting minors with buyers for abuse content. - Office of Congressman Frank Pallone, Office of Congresswoman Jan SchakowskyRep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck): “How do we expect Big Tech companies like @Meta to regulate themselves when they allow vast networks of pedophiles to operate freely? #pedogramRep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna): “Instead of meddling in elections, it would be cool if Mark Zuckerburg spent a few Zuckerbucks on cleaning up the Pedogram network.”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:Stanford Internet Observatory research discovered serious failings with Twitter’s detection and removal systems for child abuse content. - Alexa Corse/ The Wall Street Journal, @stanfordioTwitter CornerIn another welcome gift on Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino’s first day, leaked documents show Twitter’s ad revenue is down nearly 60% from last year. - Ryan Mac, Tiffany Hsu/ The New York TimesFour Democratic senators sent a letter to Elon Musk and Yaccarino inquiring if there are still enough people at Twitter to comply with the company’s FTC data privacy agreements. - Brian Fung/ CNNTwitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, and head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, resigned after Musk reversed their decision to limit the reach of a Daily Wire documentary. - Kylie Robison/ Fortune, Sheila Dang/ Reuters, Alexa Corse/ The Wall Street Journal, Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin, Alexa Corse/ The Wall Street JournalTwitter planned to limit the visibility of the documentary for misgendering, but Elon Musk overturned the decision and issued an apology to Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing saying the content is allowed and blaming his staff for a “mistake.” - Todd Spangler/ Variety, @elonmuskTwitter is demanding researchers delete data acquired through academic data access agreements within 30 days after the contracts expire unless they pay a new rate of at least $42,000 per month — a near exponential increase — for an enterprise API that provides less access. - Chris Stokel-Walker/ i newspaperLet’s hope Linda is feeling good about DSA compliance which will start in August for Twitter.Twitter dropped out of the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation. - Kelvin Chan/ Associated Press, Ewa Krukowska/ Bloomberg News, Justin Hendrix/ Tech Policy Press, Natasha Lomas/ TechCrunch, @GlobalAffairsThe European Commission will conduct a voluntary content moderation compliance test with Twitter for the forthcoming Digital Services Act regulations during a visit to Twitter headquarters in San Francisco later this month. - Sam Schechner/ The Wall Street JournalMeanwhile, YouTube announced it will stop enforcing its 2020 election misinformation policy. Good thing there’s no big events coming up in the next year where the amount and importance of such claims is likely to increase! - Sara Fischer/ Axios, YouTubeInstagram lifted its account suspension for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday, saying it was a mistake not to reinstate him after he launched a presidential campaign in April. - Cristiano Lima/ The Washington PostKennedy’s account was previously suspended for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about vaccines and COVID-19. His nonprofit, the Children’s Health Defense, is still suspended from the platform.  TikTok has been sharing user data on an internal messaging tool that is accessible to ByteDance employees in China. - Sapna Maheshwari and Ryan Mac/ The New York TimesThe surgeon general released a report on the effect social media has on young people, noting benefits, but warning about specific harms and calling for action by social media companies, policymakers, researchers, children, and parents and guardians. - Casey Newton/ Platformer, Taylor Hatmaker/ TechCrunch, Matt Richtel, Catherine Pearson, Michael Levenson/ The New York Times, Department of Health and Human Services, Vivek Murthy/ The Washington Post (commentary)Conservative groups are hoping to take advantage of a legislative response to child safety concerns to remove pro-LGBTQ and similar content on social issues and sexual health and identity. - Mike Masnick/ TechdirtJoin 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!

Alex and Evelyn discuss the Supreme Court decisions in Gonzalez and Taamneh; Montana passing its state-wide TikTok ban and the immediate legal challenge filed against it; Meta's $1.3 billion dollar fine under the GDPR; OpenAI's charm offensive; and just another Monday at Twitter.

Play the sad trombone 5 times for this week's Twitter Corner: Musk censors political content at the behest of the Turkish Government in the final days of a close and historically important election; Linda Yaccarino is announced as the new CEO; Tucker Carlson announces he's going to stream his new show to Twitter; the platform announces not-so-encrypted messaging; and continues its ad hominem content moderation practices. Also: Singapore, Pakistan, Russia all crack down on internet freedom, and the European Court of Human Rights releases a wild ruling holding politicians responsible for third-party comments on their Facebook pages.

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:Pornhub and other pornography websites owned by MindGeek are blocking access for users in Utah with a video message protesting an age verification law that went into effect this past week. - Brian Fung/ CNN, Jonathan Edwards/ The Washington Post, Samantha Cole/ Vice NewsIn completely unrelated news, VPN downloads spiked dramatically in Utah. - Cristiano Lima/ The Washington PostThe adult entertainment industry followed up by filing a lawsuit against the state challenging the law on First Amendment grounds. - Ben Winslow/ Fox 13 News, Free Speech CoalitionTwitter CornerGraphic videos from a mass shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas went viral on Twitter without a warning screen or similar labeling. The glaring issue suggests Musk's staffing cuts have left the platform ill-equipped to deal with difficult, real-time content moderation problems that arise in these kinds of crises. - Benjamin Mullin/ The New York Times, Aimee Picchi/ CBS NewsMeanwhile, Musk is focusing on the real issues, like whether NPR is going to start tweeting again. - Bobby Allyn/ NPRBut at least our benevolent leader will allow some verified public announcement and emergency services free API access. - Sareen Habeshian/ Axios, Jon Fingas/ Engadget, Ivan Mehta/ TechCrunch, @TwitterDevMeta released its quarterly adversarial threat report, highlighting the takedown of a pro-China influence campaign with a network of accounts posing as news organizations and a think tank. - Donie O'Sullivan, Sean Lyngaas/ CNN, Ben Nimmo, Nathaniel Gleicher/ MetaLegal CornerThe Ninth Circuit threw out a jawboning case brought by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others against Elizabeth Warren for a letter she sent Amazon criticizing the online marketplace for recommending their vaccine denial book. - Bob Egelko/ San Francisco Chronicle, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (.pdf)There is a big show-down going on in Brazil over a “fake news” bill that the government is trying to ram through, suggesting a worrying level of appetite on both sides of the aisle in Brazil to crack down on internet freedom. - Anthony Boadle/ ReutersDecentralized Twitter alternative Bluesky is not allowing heads of state at the moment… that’s one way to deal with a content moderation challenge! - Kylie Robison/ FortuneJoin 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:Twitter CornerAs we predicted, Musk is complying with more government take-down orders than Twitter used to. - Russell Brandom/ Rest of World Don't expect more reporting though, Twitter has stopped sharing takedown orders with Lumen, which is how this data was compiled. - @lumendatabaseIt’s okay though, we have… this? What is this? Is this supposed to be a transparency report? - TwitterMeanwhile, Twitter is one of 19 online services designated as a very large online platform (VLOP) or very large online search engine (VLOSE) under the EU’s pending Digital Services Act. Those companies will have to comply with the regulation earlier than smaller platforms and have the most burdensome requirements. - Sam Schechner, Kim Mackrael/ The Wall Street JournalMore: The other companies on the list are pretty much what you’d expect, except something called Zalando (we’ll save you a VLOP visit, it’s an online fashion retail company) — good for it!Looks like someone in Montana finally talked to a First Amendment lawyer. The state’s recently passed TikTok ban is being held up as the governor seeks amendments to make it broader. If this is an attempt to make it less constitutionally suspect, it isn't a very effective one. - Meghan Bobrowsky/ The Wall Street JournalIn another disappointing moral panic, the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act was introduced with bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate. The bill would ban kids under 13 from using social media, implement age verification for all users, require parental consent for kids 13-17, and ban recommendation algorithms for minors. - Lauren Feiner/ CNBC, Brian Fung/ CNN, Justin Hendrix/ Tech Policy Press, Morgan Sung/ TechCrunch, Matt Laslo/ WiredThe decentralized Twitter-alternative Bluesky took off over the past week. The fast-growing social network is still in beta mode and not yet ready for the many trust and safety challenges that lie ahead — it didn’t even have a blocking function until Friday. - Jay Peters/ The VergeSports CornerAlex is holding his head up high after a historic season came to an end for his beloved Sacramento Kings. - Alex Kramers/ Sacramento KingsJoin 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:Stanford Internet Observatory Research Scholar Riana Pfefferkorn joins the show to discuss the latest developments in child safety policy on Capitol Hill. The EARN IT Act and STOP CSAM Act were officially introduced with civil liberties and online privacy advocates raising concerns. - Joe Mullin/ Electronic Frontier Foundation, Sophia Cope, Andrew Crocker, Mario Trujillo/ Electronic Frontier FoundationThe EARN IT Act would remove websites' immunity from civil lawsuits and state criminal charges stemming from child sex abuse material (CSAM) on their services, and create a commission to develop best practices for addressing child sexual exploitation online. - Lawrence Bonk/ Engadget, Mike Masnick/ Techdirt, Senate Committee on the JudiciarySenate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the STOP CSAM Act which would expand child sexual abuse reporting laws for social media companies, require annual reports on efforts to protect children online, and specify that platforms are liable to civil lawsuits for the storage or distribution of CSAM. - Senate Committee on the JudiciaryIn a new Lawfare piece, Riana warns that mandated transparency reporting could do more harm than good if bad actors are able to exploit the disclosures, and she compares and contrasts several online safety bills' approaches to this dilemma.The Department of Justice brought charges against 40 members of  the Chinese national police for deploying a troll farm using “fake social media accounts to harass and intimidate PRC dissidents, and attempting to get the dissidents’ accounts removed from a platform operated by a “U.S. telecommunications company.” - Department of Justice Twitter CornerProfessor Alexandra Roberts weighs in on whether Twitter could face legal liability for shoving blue check marks on people who don't want it. - ​​@lexlanhamTwitter quietly removed a line with explicit protections for transgender users in its hateful content policy. - Jess Weatherbed, Emma Roth/ The Verge, GLAADTwitter removed all “government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labeling for public news broadcasters, state media organizations, and affiliated journalists. - Jahnavi Nidumolu/ Reuters, Sara Fischer/ Axios, Nick Robertson/ The Hill, Michael Levenson/ The New York TimesMeanwhile, Facebook laid off most of its information problems team. - Anusuya Lahiri/ BenzingaThe Oversight Board, the quasi-independent entity funded by Meta to guide its content moderation decisions and policy, released an advisory report on Thursday calling for continued enforcement, but a reassessment of the types of claims Meta should remove under its current COVID-19 misinformation policies. The opinion took nine months to come down, but was the equivalent of a shruggie emoji in terms of how much concrete guidance it gave Meta. - Oversight BoardLegal CornerBreaking News: The Supreme Court continues to use Evelyn's course syllabus as their docket guide and granted cert in two cases about when and whether government actors can block critics on social media. - Jay Peters/ The VergeJoin 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!