Techdirt

As we've been thinking and writing about the intersection of democracy and technology, especially burgeoning AI technology, we always come back to the core issues of user control and user freedom. Recently, Chris Riley of the Data Transfer Initiative wrote an excellent piece for Tech Policy Press about the need for data portability in personal AI tools. This week, he joins the podcast to discuss w...

One of the most troubling things about this era in American history is the number of institutions that have caved to Trump's bullying and given him what he wants, especially when it comes to media organizations. The folks over at the non-profit Free Press have done a lot of research and put together the new Media Capitulation Index, which aims to track and dissect this distressing phenomenon. This...

We've got a bunch of brand new episodes of the Techdirt podcast coming over the next few weeks, but first we've got one special cross-post from our other podcast made in partnership with Ben Whitelaw from Everything in Moderation: Ctrl-Alt-Speech. As we take a little break from that podcast for the month of August, we're posting a few special episodes, starting with this conversation about how it...

We've got one more cross-post episode for you this week! A few weeks ago, Mike joined host Aaron Ross Powell on the ReImagining Liberty podcast for a discussion that digs into the the philosophy and principles underlying the push for internet decentralization and protocols over platforms, and why this shift is both desirable and, in the long term, likely. You can listen to the whole conversation h...

This week, we've got a cross-post episode of Mike's appearance on Kevin Williamson's How The World Works podcast. Kevin conducted a wide-ranging interview that covers some of the earliest days of Techdirt, the blog's evolution, and many of the important topics we cover today — and you can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode.

In a world awash with misinformation and disinformation, those who spread and benefit from the chaos have worked hard to brand fact-checking and counterspeech as a form of censorship — and it's a worryingly effective tactic. But there's one type of counterspeech that is very hard to evade: mockery and satire. One person who knows that very well is Ben Collins, CEO of Global Tetrahedron, which purc...

Way, way back during the SOPA/PIPA fight, a very important part of the resistance against the bills was coming from infrastructure operators who explained how they were technically incoherent and dangerous. One prominent group was the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, co-founded by Christian Dawson. Today, with legislative amnesia setting in and new requirements for infrastructure-level site bloc...

We've got a cross-post episode for you this week, courtesy of the Tech Policy Podcast by TechFreedom, hosted by Corbin Barthold. Both TechFreedom and The Copia Institute submitted comments on the FTC's inquiry into social media censorship, Corbin invited Mike and TechFreedom's Santana Boulton for a discussion all about what's going on. You can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's e...

In something of a followup to our last episode about Elon Musk's playbook, today we're digging deeper into the comparison between Washington and Silicon Valley and what it tells us about DOGE. Johns Hopkins International Affairs professor Henry Farrell has been looking specifically at the concept of "blitzscaling", and this week he joins us on the podcast to talk about how Elon Musk and DOGE are b...

We've written a lot about how understanding the playbook Elon Musk used at Twitter is key to understanding his current playbook with DOGE. The people who literally wrote the book on said playbook are New York Times journalists Ryan Mac and Kate Conger (the latter of whom joined the podcast last year to discuss the book), and this week they both join us to dig deeper into the ways Musk is reusing h...

Though the original promise of the internet has been twisted and distorted, today we're seeing more and more people working to restore decentralization and user power online. One such person who sees the problem better than most is Flipboard founder and former Twitter board member (among many other things) Mike McCue, whose new application Surf is a kind of browser for the open social web. Mike jo...

We probably don't need to tell you that the current tariff situation is causing complete chaos in global supply chains, in large part due to the uncertainty — for all we know, the exact rules will have changed since this episode was recorded just yesterday. But we wanted to get some insight into the impact on small businesses, so this week we're joined by Jesse Vincent, co-founder of Keyboardio (m...

It's hard to create a law about children online without first identifying who the children are. We've written a lot about the problems that arise with mandated age verification, and a new paper by Eric Goldman, The "Segregate-and-Suppress" Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online, digs into why the entire popular approach to such laws is paradoxical and broken. This week, Eric joins us on the po...

Many people don't think of reproductive health and reproductive rights as tech issues, but they very much are — moreso than ever in a post-Dobbs America. The internet is vital to communication and spreading information around reproductive health care, while abortion drugs are changing the very nature of what reproductive rights protect. This week we're joined by Elisa Wells and Amy Merrill, two of...

If you're a Techdirt reader, you're probably familiar with Senator Ron Wyden. In January, he released his new book It Takes Chutzpah, offering up a call for political boldness that feels even more relevant with every day that passes. This week, Senator Wyden joins Mike on the podcast to talk about the book and the political moment we find ourselves in.

In the digital age, attention is a resource — but if we can have a little slice of yours, we've got a great conversation about that very subject for you to listen to. This week, Mike is joined by journalist Chris Hayes to discuss his new book, The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, and examine just what's going on in the attention economy and where it might he...

We recently announced the launch of Otherwise Objectionable, a brand new documentary podcast hosted by Mike in partnership with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, covering the history — and the vital importance — of Section 230. This week, we're featuring the entire debut episode right here on the Techdirt Podcast. Check it out, and subscribe to Otherwise Objectionable in your podcast app of ch...

At long last, we've got a fresh new original episode for you! This week, Mike is joined by David Enrich, business investigations editor for the New York Times, to discuss his new book Murder The Truth, all about the abuse of defamation laws to silence journalists and discourage critical reporting of the rich and powerful.

We're finally getting back into the rhythm of things, and in fact right at this very moment Mike is recording a brand new original episode for next week on the podcast — but this week, we've got a cross-post and a special extra treat. Mike recently once again joined Andy Levy on The New Abnormal podcast to discuss what Elon Musk is up to in the federal government, and how those of us who closely f...

We've got another cross-post episode this week! Recently, Mike appeared on The Dynamist podcast from the Foundation for American Innovation for the second entry in a four-part series about copyright and artificial intelligence. He's joined by Alex Winter and Tim Hwang, and host Evan Swarztrauber, for a discussion about how artists, creators, and tech companies are navigating the rapidly changing A...

We've written about the many signs that Trump FCC pick Brendan Carr is eager to be America's top censor. Recently, Mike once again joined Andy Levy on The New Abnormal podcast for a discussion about how much of a threat Carr represents to free speech and the First Amendment, and you can listen to the whole segment here on this week's episode.

Last week, we launched the crowdfunding campaign for One Billion Users, our new card game where players compete to build the biggest and best social media network. As is tradition when we launch a new game, myself and our game design partner Randy Lubin joined Mike on an episode of the podcast to talk all about the game and why you should help us release it by backing the Kickstarter. One Billion...

We've got another cross-post for you this week, and this time it's also a live panel recording. Recently, Mike joined a panel at Boston University Questrom School of Business which was recorded for WBUR's Is Business Broken? podcast, alongside professors Marshall Van Alstyne and Nadine Strossen, and moderated by host Curt Nickisch. The discussion is all about Section 230 specifically and the regul...

It's been a few weeks, but we're back! Although the podcast schedule is still going to be sporadic for a little while longer (Mike explains further in the intro) we've got a couple cross-post episodes lined up, starting with today's. Recently, Mike joined Ed Zitron on his Better Offline podcast for a far-reaching interview about (among other things) the history of Techdirt, the future of Bluesky,...

Though the current popular narrative about social media seems to be that it is harmful and has little or no redeeming value, the truth (which a lot of people know) is that it also has a lot of value, and the potential to be even better. A recent research report from New_Public finds some ideas on how to pursue that potential by looking at a niche, local social media site that moves a lot slower th...