Ctrl-Alt-Speech

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover: ‘It’s not like we knowingly have bad ads’: Meta on ad fraud, teen safety, and why AI will not replace agencies (The Media Leader) Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India (BBC) Meta Now Lets Anyon...

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Cori Crider, executive director of the Future of Technology Institute , an independent non-profit focusing on technology that serves the public. She pre...

In a special bonus episode for our Patreon supporters, Mike and Ben discuss some of their favorite must-read books about online speech, platform power, and content moderation. This free teaser covers their first two picks: It’s Complicated by Danah Boyd and Behind the Screen by Sarah T. Roberts.  To hear the full episode with all six books, become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter on Patreon . Ctrl-Alt...

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Jen Weedon, a T&S veteran of Meta and Niantic. She is currently consulting and teaching at Columbia school of International and Public Affairs. Toge...

In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover: Tech bosses threatened with prison if they fail to protect children (The Times) Apple and Google given three months to ban nude images on children's devices (BBC News) Keir Starmer’s social media ban for under-16s could backfire, experts warn (OpenDemocracy) Apple previews new child safety features (Apple) Apple's WWDC keynote was very dif...

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover: New 13+ Content Settings for Teen Accounts Expanding Globally on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger (Meta) Meta Expands Safety Features for Teenagers (New York Times) Hackers Used Meta’s AI Support Bot to Seize Instagram Acc...

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech  supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover: The Boring Internet (Terry Godier) Orkney Library & Archive (Bluesky) Silicon Valley takes its AI pitch to the pope (Politico) Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah's remarks on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnif...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by civil liberties lawyer Jennifer Granick. Together they discuss: Kickstarter rolls back its mature content policy after outcry (Engadget) Apple gives update on the App Store and its key protections (9to5 Mac) Thoughts on the £1,000,000 SaSu Fine (Preston Byrne) Pushing back from...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by First Amendment lawyer Ari Cohn. Together they discuss: Pennsylvania sues AI chatbot as state lawmakers wrestle with stricter regulations (Pennsylvania Capital-Star) Children are drawing moustaches on their faces to fool online age checks - and it's working (Euronews) The...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Jess Miers, law professor at University of Akron School of Law. Together, they discuss: AI Chatbots: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) OpenAI’s Sam Altman apologizes to Canadian community after failing to flag mass shooter’s conversations with its AI chatbot (CNN) OpenAI...

In this special episode, Mike and Ben reflect on 100 episodes of the podcast, followed by an important announcement: we’re launching a Patreon and making some changes to Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Starting on May 28th , Patreon members will get early access to extended weekly episodes with in-depth coverage of an extra major story. The free episodes will continue here on this feed, just slightly shorter and...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: The Darkest Web (BBC) Federal agencies skirt Trump’s Anthropic ban to test its advanced AI model (Politico) Anthropic Opposes the Extreme AI Liability Bill That OpenAI Backed (Wired) Europe should regulate Big Tech instead of banning kids from social media, Estonia says...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Fadzai Madzingira, a digital policy expert with a decade of experience at Meta, Salesforce, Ofcom and currently Twitch, where she leads the policy, outreach and education teams. Together, they discuss: Exclusive: Meta has discussed ending funding to the Oversight Board (Platform...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: It's official: Australia's teen social media ban isn't working, yet (Crikey) Social Media Minimum Age - Compliance update (eSafety Commision) Blunder from Down Under (Ctrl-Alt-Speech) April 3 could create a dangerous gap in child safety across Europe (Tho...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: How London become a T&S hub (Everything in Moderation)  Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For (Techdirt) Supreme Court Sides With Internet Provider in Copyright Fight Over Pirated Musi...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story (Times of Israel) Maybe Turning War Into a Casino Was a Bad Idea? (The Atlantic) French music streamer Deezer battles deluge of AI fraud (Financial Times) I hacked...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Grammarly turned me into an AI editor against my will and I hate it (Platformer) Grammarly has disabled its tool offering generative-AI feedback credited to real writers (Engadget) Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature (Wired) Wh...

In a special episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Ben and Mike discuss (with apologies to Tay-Tay) the three eras of content moderation in the media and what comes next.  Their conversation builds on Ben’s essay in the soon-to-be-published Trust, Safety, and the Internet We Share Multistakeholder Insights, a new book looking at the evolution of the Trust & Safety industry and how platform policies deci...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork , a podcast that makes sense of the rapidly changing world of tech. Together, they discuss: After a deadly raid, an AI power struggle erupts at the Pentagon (Washington Post) Following: Anthropic vs. The Pen...

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Dr Blake Hallinan, Professor of Platform Studies in the Department of Media & Journalism Studies at Aarhus University. Together, they discuss: On Section 230’s 30th Birthday, A Look Back At Why It’s Such A Good Law And Why Messing With It Would Be Bad (Techdirt) An 18-Millio...

In this special bonus for Ctrl-Alt-Speech listeners, we're cross-posting an episode from the Future Around And Find Out  podcast hosted by Dan Blumberg with guest Kwaku Aning. This week Dan and Kwaku dig into:  The uncanny valley that is AI agents and Moltbook—the "Reddit" that agents built for themselves to complain about humans, create a religion, and behave in ways that freak hum...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: House Judiciary Releases EU X Fine Details (House Judiciary X Account) New Report Exposes European Commission Decade-Long Campaign to Censor American Speech (House Judiciary Committee) X offices raided in France as UK opens fresh investigation into Grok (BBC) Hey Gavin...

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 writ...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: My year with a flip phone (Financial Times) Claude’s Constitution (Anthropic) From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026 (Youtube) BBC to show programmes on YouTube in landmark deal (Financial Times) Rand Paul: I’ve changed my mind — Google and YouTube can’t be trus...

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk's Grok chatbot (Reuters) Musk’s xAI limits Grok’s ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash (CNBC) X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t (...