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PODCAST

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

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

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All Episodes

53:46

Have Yourself a Very Meta Christmas

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/12/18

In the last Ctrl-Alt-Speech of the year, Mike and Ben round up the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation with the following stories: Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content | Global development (The Guardian)Facebook is testing a link-posting limit for professional accounts and pages (Techcrunch)Meta adopts new age-check system to meet global child safety laws (FT)Russian ban on Roblox gaming platform sparks rare protest (...

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63:52

Censors & Sensibility

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/12/11

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Resonant Computing Manifesto Support Techdirt’s Uncompromising Coverage, Get Our First Commemorative Coin (Techdirt)US Ambassador Slams EU Tech Rules as Musk’s X Hit With Fine (Bloomberg)Why the X fine is causing so much transatlantic drama (Politico)Tech workers face new H1-B scrutiny as Trump targets ‘censorship’ (Washington Post)H1-B visa advice (LinkedIn - Alic...

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46:23

Stuck in the Middleware with Youth

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/12/04

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Vaishnavi J, former head of youth policy at Meta and founder and principal of Vyanams Strategies, a product advisory firm that helps companies, civil society, and governments build safer age appropriate experiences. Prior to founding Vys, she led video policy at Twitter, built its safety team in APAC and was Google's child safety polciy lead in APAC. Together Ben and Vaishn...

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34:08

Spotlight: Building Better CSAM Detection with...

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/11/25

In this sponsored Spotlight episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, host Ben Whitelaw speaks with George Vlasto, head of the Trust & Safety division at Resolver, as the organisation marks its 20th anniversary. Their conversation looks back at two decades of Resolver’s work supporting platforms and safeguarding online communities, and explores how that legacy has shaped its newest innovations. Ben and George dig into Resolver’s unique approach to scaling the detection of Child Sexual Abuse Material (C...

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53:01

You Can't Antitrust Anyone These Days

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/11/21

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Meta wins FTC antitrust trial over Instagram, WhatsApp deals (CNBC)Commission eyes further simplification of tech rules after DSA review (Euractiv)Inside Europe's 'Jekyll and Hyde' tech strategy (Digital Policy)NetChoice sues Virginia to block its one-hour social media limit for kids (The Verge)Tech Giants Sue California Over Social Media Access Law (2) (Bloomberg Law)T...

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56:40

Deviation from the Teen

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/11/13

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Kenji Yoshino, who has the excellent title of Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Kenji is also a member of the Oversight Board. Together Ben and Kenji discuss: ‘Andrew Tate is dead’: inside the minds of 16-year-olds (The Observer)Introdu...

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59:47

New Blocks On The Kids

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/11/06

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now (New Yorker)Introducing Safe for Work? — all about T&S jobs (Everything in Moderation*)Kids Turn Podcast Comments Into Secret Chat Rooms, Because Of Course They Do (Techdirt)Reddit and Kick added to child social media ban (ABC News)X boss explains why ‘horrific’ video viewed by Axel Rudakubana wasn’t removed (The Independent)Southp...

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53:06

Chat Bot Your Tongue?

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/10/30

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Character.AI is banning minors from AI character chats (Financial Times)Strengthening ChatGPT’s responses in sensitive conversations (OpenAI)Senators propose banning teens from using AI chatbots (The Verge)EU accuses Meta, TikTok of breaching digital rules (Politico) Meta and TikTok are obstructing researchers’ access to data, European Commission rules (Science.org...

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62:08

A Tale of Two Internets

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/10/23

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference (New York Times)AI-Generated Content a Triple Threat for Reddit Moderators (Cornell Tech)Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors (404 Media)As social media age restrictions spread, is the internet entering its Victorian era? (The Conversation)Winning with misinformation: Ne...

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53:35

Rated R for Ridiculous

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/10/16

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Sam Altman says OpenAI isn’t ‘moral police of the world’ after erotica ChatGPT post blows up (CNBC)Where are all the women on Sora 2? This could be a nightmare for OpenAI. (Business Insider)Musk’s AI Is Being Used to Make Hardcore Porn: ‘Grok Is Learning Genitalia Really Fast!’ (Rolling Stone)Instagram Will Limit Content for Teenagers Based on PG-13 Ratings (NY Times)UK...

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49:35

With Great Platforms Come Great Responsibility

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/10/09

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe and former Director at the Oversight Board. Together they discuss: Appeals Centre Europe Transparency Report (ACE)Most people want platforms (not governments) to be responsible for moderating content (Reuters Institute) Happy Birthday, Digital Services Act! – Time for a Reality Check (Algorithm Watch)Proof-of-age ID leaked in...

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54:49

Moderating is Such Sweet Sorrow

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/10/01

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Dave Willner, founder of Zentropi, and long-time trust & safety expert who worked at Facebook, AirBnB, and OpenAI in Trust & Safety roles. Together they discuss: Masnick's Impossibility Theorem: Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well (Techdirt)UK makes new attempt to access Apple cloud data (Financial Times)Imgur pulls out of UK after data regulator w...

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52:21

From 'Free Speech' To 'Flag This'

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/09/18

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: How platforms are responding to the Charlie Kirk shooting (The Verge)Bluesky Issues Warning to Any Users Celebrating Charlie Kirk Assassination (Newsweek)Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Death (Wired)Charlie Kirk Was Shot and Killed in a Post-Content-Moderation World (Wired)Has Britain Gone Too Far With Its Digital Contr...

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53:35

It's a Banned, Banned, Banned, Banned World

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/09/11

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Nepal to block some social media including Facebook (Reuters)Why Nepal Banned 26 Social Media Platforms And What It Means (Medianama)A parliament in flames, a leader toppled. Nepal’s Gen-Z protesters ask: What comes next? (CNN)When Trolls Take On Tyrants: 4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over Extraterritorial Censorship (Techdirt)Wikipedia is resilient because it's borin...

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52:22

The Haidt of Hypocrisy

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/09/04

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Jordan escalates global tech argument, with Farage's help (Politico) Farage’s rules for free speech: talk about anything but your lunch (The Times)Is Jonathan Haidt right about smartphones? (TES)My mom and Dr. DeepSeek (Rest of World)AI 'deadbots' are persuasive — and researchers say they're primed for monetization (NPR)OpenAI co-founder calls for AI labs to safety...

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50:21

You Asked, We Answered

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/08/21

This is the second of our special episodes for the month of August. Last time, we talked a bit about the past and future of Ctrl-Alt-Speech; this time, Mike and Ben answer some questions from our listeners, and also share a few of the latest reviews. We're taking one more week off after this, then we'll be back in the first week of September with a return to our regular weekly news roundups! Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your fe...

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37:06

What's Next for Ctrl-Alt-Speech

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/08/07

We're taking a little break from our regular weekly news roundups this month, but we've got a couple special episodes lined up in the mean time, starting with a conversation all about the past and future of Ctrl-Alt-Speech. This week, Mike and Ben talk about how the podcast got started, how we create the episodes, our philosophy about sponsorship, and what we need to make Ctrl-Alt-Speech sustainable in the long run. We hope you enjoy it! Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdir...

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69:13

Live at TrustCon 2025

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/07/24

Our second annual live at TrustCon recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Ben was unable to make the trip halfway around the world, but Mike was joined by trust & safety influencer Alice Hunsberger from Musubi and Ashken Kazaryan, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. They cover: As millions adopt Grok to fact-check, misinformation abounds (Al Jazeera)Analysis Of Grok’s Epstein Comments Show How This AI Chatbot Is Learning (Forbes)People With Body Dysmorphia ...

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62:24

The UK Wants Us To Ask Your Age Before You Listen

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/07/17

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise (404 Media)Hugging Face Is Hosting 5,000 Nonconsensual AI Models of Real People (404 Media)Ofcom head says age checks are ‘really big moment’ for children’s online safety (The Guardian)New online safety rules not 'the end of the conversation', says minister (BBC)Commission’s guidelines for online chi...

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47:32

Move Fast and Mistake Things

Ctrl-Alt-Speech ·

2025/07/10

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover: Jack Cable calls out Cluely over bogus DMCA (X)The cofounder of the viral AI 'cheating' startup Cluely says he only hires people for 2 jobs (Business Insider)Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really) (Techdirt)Instagram wrongly accuses some users of breaching child sex abuse rules (BBC)Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot praises...

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