Techdirt

The concept of "enshittification" has helped illuminate why companies and their products so often get worse over time, but the causes of this process are complex and multifaceted. In his new book Incorruptible, author Eric Ries presents a related but contrasting take on how good companies go bad, and how to build companies that resist the process. This week, Eric joins the podcast to talk all abou...

Recently, Mike joined Dave Hansen, Mark Graham and Kendra Albert on a panel for the Future Knowledge podcast, a joint production of the Internet Archive and the Authors Alliance. The discussion covers a wide variety of questions related to keeping the web (and especially the historical record of the web) alive amidst the upheaval caused by AI technology, and you can listen to the whole thing here...

As we work our way towards a better future for the internet, the most encouraging and exciting part is the people out there building towards that future. Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler is one such person, and his new company Metalabel has some extremely interesting projects in the works, including the Dark Forest Operating System. This week, Yancey joins the podcast to talk all about his pro...

We've written at length about the dangers of the recent court rulings in California and New Mexico that say social media companies can be held responsible for certain uses of their platforms via product design liability. Recently, Mike joined FIRE's So to Speak podcast hosted by Nico Perrino to discuss the rulings and the concerns they raise, and you can listen to the whole conversation here on th...

In the conversation about online speech, most of the attention tends to fall on the big social media platforms, while other intermediaries get overlooked — especially payment processors and other financial intermediaries. But that very thing is the focus of a new book coming out next week, Rainey Reitman's Transaction Denied. With launch events coming up on April 7th in Berkeley and April 9th in S...

Last month, Mike participated in the Cato Institute's Section 230 at 30 event to mark the 30th anniversary of the passage of Section 230. The event featured a series of fireside chats and panels that went deep on the past, present, and future of the all-important law, and you can watch videos of all of them on Cato's website — but for this week's episode of the podcast, we've got the audio of Mike...

There's a notion that pops up in the comments here on Techdirt that Mike and our writer Karl Bode are deeply opposed in their opinions on AI and engaged in an epic ongoing debate. Alas, the truth is a little less spectacular: while they might have some differences of opinion here and there, they actually agree on most things, and would both prefer to hear (and have) more thoughtful and nuanced dis...

The Vision For The Decentralized Internet by Techdirt

Two weeks ago, we ran a bit of an AMA experiment, with a call on Bluesky for fans of Techdirt to ask Mike any questions they might have. We got lots of great responses and now, as promised, Mike is delivering the answers on this week's episode of the podcast!

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has been paying a lot more attention to the internet than it ever has before, and the cases keep on coming. This is already having a big impact on how the internet functions, and it doesn't look likely to stop any time soon. Given all that, this week our own Cathy Gellis joins the podcast for a discussion all about the past, present, and future of SCOTUS an...

On a recent episode of our other podcast, Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike was joined by guest host Konstantinos Komaitis for a far-reaching discussion about online speech. One point that was briefly raised in that discussion was the question of whether AI tools are good or bad for user agency, and since Mike and Konstantinos didn't entirely agree, it seemed like a good question to unpack in more detail — an...

Last month, we dedicated an episode of the podcast to discussing our recently announced project to push for a better internet, The Resonant Computing Manifesto. This week, we've got a cross-post episode that serves as a followup to that discussion. Mike recently joined Charlie Warzel's Galaxy Brain podcast along with manifesto organizer Alex Komoroske and contributor Zoe Weinberg to discuss the id...

The relationship between journalism and AI has been off to an antagonistic start, with multiple court cases underway and plenty of discourse about what should happen next. There are various proposed approaches to setting up a better interplay between the two, but one person with an especially unique idea is Professor Jeff Jarvis, who joins the podcast this week to discuss the concept of an API for...

Earlier today, we joined in announcing the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call for restoring a culture of technology that empowers users and enriches their lives. The manifesto was created by a group led by Alex Komoroske, and today Alex joins the podcast for a deeper dive into what "resonant computing" means and what a better future might look like. The Resonant Computing Manifesto: https://reso...

Three years ago, Mike Brock joined us on the podcast to discuss a decentralized web project, and more recently we've published several cross-posts from his Substack about the horrifying goings-on in American politics and media. Today, Mike joins the podcast once again for a far-ranging conversation about the state of democracy and what recent elections can tell us about how to save it from fascism...

For two decades, the landscape of social media has been constantly changing, and the discourse about "free speech" has been changing alongside it. This week, we've got a bit of an open-ended discussion with TechFreedom's Corbin Barthold, host of the Tech Policy Podcast, about social media's history and future, and the question of what people really want out of it.

It was nearly 400 episodes ago when Catherine Bracy joined the podcast for a two part discussion to talk about Silicon Valley culture and what investors are willing to fund. Now, more than a decade later, Catherine has released a new book, World Eaters: How Venture Capital Is Cannibalizing The Economy, which takes even closer look at the basic incentives of venture capital today. So this week, Cat...

As you know, we talk a lot about decentralization and protocols over platforms. When it comes to decentralized social media in particular, one person who has been working on it since the earliest days is developer Rabble, who was around at the very beginning of what would become Twitter and has worked on many decentralized social media efforts, and recently proposed a new Social Media Bill of Righ...

Techdirt recently passed its 28th anniversary as an independent online media outlet. Once, it looked like such outlets might take over, but then most were scooped up by traditional media or grew into more traditional companies themselves. But now we're seeing a new generation emerge, especially via newsletters on platforms like Substack, and one such journalist is Marisa Kabas, creator of The Hand...

We've written a lot about how AI can empower users when employed the right way, but how this is difficult when a few giant tech firms control the technology. One company that is trying to move in a different direction is DuckDuckGo with its Duck.ai offering. This week, DuckDuckGo founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg joins the podcast for a deeper dive into what the company is doing in the AI space.

Last year, Renée DiResta joined us on an episode of the podcast to talk about her book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, all about the people who have crafted a massive fictional narrative about the state of social media and government's involvement in content moderation. Now that Jim Jordan is celebrating Google's recent letter about the Biden administration and spreading...

Last week, we published three separate posts that looked at the FTC's recent settlement with Aylo, the parent company of multiple adult websites including, most famously, Pornhub. Those posts, written by Stanford HAI policy fellow Riana Pfefferkorn, examined the legally complicated but very important issues that arise from the settlement forcing Aylo to scan for CSAM. This week, Riana joins us on...

In what feels like something of a throwback to much earlier days of Techdirt, the Supreme Court is getting into the weeds of the DMCA. Cox v. Sony is a case centered around questions of repeat infringers and intermediary liability, and we've submitted an amicus brief from the Copia Institute, written by Cathy Gellis. This week, Cathy joins the podcast to discuss the Supreme Court's opportunity to...

We've got a cross-post episode this week, with Mike's recent appearance on the Computer Says Maybe podcast hosted by Alix Dunn. The discussion starts out looking at decentralization and Bluesky, then goes way beyond that into the early days of the internet and the concept of the Eternal September. You can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode.

The goal of Bluesky and the ATProtocol, and of the push for protocols over platforms in general, has always been to see more people building their own communities in a modular fashion. One of the most interesting projects demonstrating this potential is Blacksky, created by Rudy Fraser, which started as a custom feed within Bluesky but has grown into something much bigger. Today, Rudy joins the po...