
Ctrl-Alt-Speech
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly news podcast co-created by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation’s Ben Whitelaw. Each episode looks at the latest news in online speech, covering issues regarding trust & safety, content moderation, regulation, court rulings, new services & technology, and more.The podcast regularly features expert guests with experience in the trust & safety/online speech worlds, discussing the ins and outs of the news that week and what it may mean for the industry. Each episode takes a deep dive into one or two key stories, and includes a quicker roundup of other important news. It's a must-listen for trust & safety professionals, and anyone interested in issues surrounding online speech.If your company or organization is interested in sponsoring Ctrl-Alt-Speech and joining us for a sponsored interview, visit ctrlaltspeech.com for more information.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is produced with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, a fiscally-sponsored multi-donor fund at Global Impact that supports charitable activities to build a more robust, capable, and inclusive Trust and Safety ecosystem and field.
Latest episodes

Jun 28, 2024 • 56min
A Lack of (Under)Standing
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Supreme Court Sees Through The Nonsense, Rejects Lower Courts’ Rulings Regarding Social Media Moderation (Techdirt)How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety, States Say (New York Times)New Features to Help Protect Our Community (Snap)Trends in Financial Sextortion (Thorn/NCMEC)Teens lean on AI for mental health support (Mercury News)I Paid $365.63 to Replace 404 Media With AI (404 Media)Companies see backlog in DSA transparency database (Euronews)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.

Jun 21, 2024 • 53min
This Podcast May be Hazardous to Moral Panics
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms (New York Times)The Surgeon General Is Wrong. Social Media Doesn’t Need Warning Labels (The Daily Beast)Anthropic calls for AI red teaming to be standardized (Fortune)How small claims court became Meta's customer service hotline (Engadget)Pornhub to block five more states over age verification laws (The Verge)New York Outlaws 'Addictive' Social Media Feeds For Teen Users (PC Mag)Meta Oversight Board’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt: ‘Not all AI-generated content is harmful’ (Financial Times)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.

Jun 14, 2024 • 49min
Moderating Politics & Politicizing Moderation
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Meta says it won’t support suit against major child safety law (Washington Post)Obstacles to Autonomy: Post-Roe Removal of Abortion Information Online (Amnesty International)Abortion Groups Say Tech Companies Suppress Posts and Accounts (NY Times)The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantled (Platformer)How Politics Broke Content Moderation (Columbia Journalism Review)Propagandists are using AI too—and companies need to be open about it (MIT Tech Review)The rise and fall of Koo, India’s once-thriving Twitter alternative (Rest of World)An Anonymous-Messaging App Upended This High School (WSJ)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.

Jun 7, 2024 • 53min
The Internet is (Still) for Porn, with Yoel Roth
Former head of trust & safety at Twitter, Yoel Roth, discusses adult content rules, EU regulations, and misinformation impacts on Twitter. Topics include Facebook's content challenges, Israel's influence campaigns, Twitch's safety council termination, and balancing user input on platform safety.

May 31, 2024 • 53min
Won't Someone Please Think of the Adults?
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:EU Explores Whether Telegram Falls Under Strict New Content Law (Bloomberg)Too Small to Police, Too Big to Ignore: Telegram Is the App Dividing Europe (Bloomberg) NIST Reports First Results From Age Estimation Software Evaluation (NIST) Supersharers of fake news on Twitter (Science) Digital town square? Nextdoor's offline contexts and online discourse (JQD:DM) The first social media babies are adults now. Some are pushing for laws to protect kids from their parents’ oversharing (CNN) TikTok offered an extraordinary deal. The U.S. government took a pass. (Washington Post) Q&A: Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator On 100 Days of the DSA (Tech Policy Press)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.

May 24, 2024 • 58min
Deepfake It Till You Make It
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:Meta and Coinbase link up with Match to fight pig-butchering, romance scams (Fortune)Indian Voters Are Being Bombarded With Millions of Deepfakes. Political Candidates Approve (Wired)Meta says AI-generated election content is not happening at a “systemic level” (MIT Technology Review)How Bluesky is thinking about spam (Bluesky)French TikTok block in overseas territory sets ‘dangerous precedent,’ critics warn (Politico)How a Chinese Influence Operation Is Targeting Pro-Trump Communities Online (Lawfare)X CEO Linda Yaccarino accuses Australia of ‘overreach’ after judge lifts ban on stabbing video (CNBC)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund, and by our sponsor TaskUs, a leading company in the trust and safety field providing a range of platform integrity and digital safety solutions. In our Bonus Chat at the end of the episode, TaskUs SVP of Global Offerings Phil Tomlinson tells us about his time at the Trust and Safety Professional Association summit in Dublin, his key takeaways from the event, and the trust and safety lessons learned from well-designed conference lanyards. 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.

May 17, 2024 • 48min
Do You Really Want the Government in Your DMs?
This podcast covers the EU investigation into major tech companies for child safety concerns, a new center in Singapore to fight online scams, Indian journalists using YouTube to dodge censorship, a controversial cheerleading video, and the implications of Singapore's proposed online safety laws. Government involvement in online identity, trust and safety tools, and the future of online discussions are also discussed.

May 10, 2024 • 51min
Between a Rock and a Hard Policy
Topics include Stack Overflow banning users for rebellion, taming toxic algorithms for child protection, extremist militias on Facebook, TikTok suing US government, Swiss broadcasters leaving Twitter, and TikTok's legal battle with AG.

May 3, 2024 • 1h 4min
This One Weird Trick to Save the Open Internet
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Alex Feerst, former General Counsel and head of trust & safety at Medium, and co-founder of the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership. Together they cover:Was There A Trojan Horse Hidden In Section 230 All Along That Could Enable Adversarial Interoperability? (Techdirt)EU Commission opens formal proceedings against Facebook and Instagram under the Digital Services Act (European Commission)OnlyFans Investigated over its duties to protect under-18s from restricted materials (Ofcom)Canadian banks need to do more to stop abusive e-transfers, survivors say (CBC)TikTok And Meta Aren’t Labeling State Propaganda About The War In Gaza (Forbes)How we fought bad apps and bad actors in 2023 (Google security blog)Meta’s oversight body prepares to lay off workers (Washington Post)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.

Apr 26, 2024 • 55min
The Bell Tolls for TikTok
In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System (Stanford Internet Observatory)TikTok faces EU Commission’s second probe, potential suspension of reward program (Euronews)Meta Expands Its Mixed Reality Beyond the Quest Headsets (CNet)The biggest AI companies agree to crack down on child abuse images (Thorn)Wattpad has a community problem, so it’s killing DMs (The Verge)Discord CEO Jason Citron makes the case for a smaller, more private internet (The Verge)Stanford Internet Observatory’s CyberTipline Report (Stanford Law School) This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund. 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.
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