I'm not the first to notice the reinvention of @wired.com from mouthpiece of tech ideology to showing everyone else how to do journalism today, but this cover is something else. The inclusion of their own hagiographic covers in the back is a nod to that shift, which is beautiful. Also…

In case you missed it, here's the latest edition of EiM's Week in Review: • Parents criticise chatbots in US Senate • Uni of Pennsylvania publishes AI hate speech paper • How platforms reacted to Charlie Kirk's death • Uta Briesewitz on her new film www.everythinginmoderation.co/charlie-kirk...

Judge Merryday has no fucks left to give for Trump's defamation complaint against the NYT: "As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint isn't a public forum for vituperation & invective—not a protected platform to rage against an adversary" storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

We didn’t talk about Charlie Kirk in last week’s podcast because so little was known when we recorded. Seven days later, there was *too* much to wade through. @mmasnick.bsky.social and I tried our best to make sense of the platform and political chaos podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

i love that someone made this video

Lol. A year ago these same people insisted that any effort to label foreign propaganda was an attack on free speech, and forced the dismantling of multiple orgs studying foreign disinformation

For media people looking for experts on alt-right online extremism I *highly* recommend: Northwestern Prof. Kathleen Belew @kathleenbelew.bsky.social history.northwestern.edu/people/facul... Andrew Marantz, New Yorker Staff Writer author of www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562022...

“The fact that this thing still exists at all is a testament to how fucked we are as a nation”

Am I currently at a conference where I delivered a keynote about, among other things, automated content moderation and at which the matter at hand is human intervention in so-called "tech" systems? I cannot.

highly recommend @benwhitelaw.bsky.social's latest ctrl-alt-speech podcast, "The Haidt of Hypocrisy", and the TES piece discussed ( www.tes.com/magazine/tea... ) podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

I wanted to call this episode ‘Jim and Jon, the Conspiracy Men’ in a nod to the famous British children’s cartoon ‘Bill and Ben’ but @mmasnick.bsky.social overruled me and tbh, that’s 100% the right decision

Honestly, feckless is criminally underused and deserves a renaissance (from FT coverage of Google anti-trust case)

This isn’t about #LUFC but might as well be. We’ve been so ruined by Bielsa that staying up in 17th and winning an FA Cup game or two won’t be enough. This season is about ‘satisficing’, preferring the best minimum case over the optimal. I’m ok with that. (Gift link) on.ft.com/3UOvsmR

The Oversight Board's latest annual report has set a new (unfortunate) record: - 2021 report: pub'd June 2022 - 2022 report: pub'd May 2023 - 2023 report: pub'd June 2024 - 2024 report: pub'd August 2025 Can only imagine the sign-off process but come on.. www.oversightboard.com/news/2024-an...

Since US press hasn't picked this up, a quick explainer regarding the "adultification" blowup that's been happening in Brazil over the last few weeks. It started with a YouTuber named Felca who posted this video (it has subtitles): 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpsC...

TikTok not wasting time between making changes to its community guidelines (14th Aug) and laying off its UK moderation team (22nd Aug). I’m sure Ofcom taking note… on.ft.com/45sSRAk

I listened back to the new episode of Ctrl Alt Speech at x2 speed because @mmasnick.bsky.social told me I’d sound smarter and I can confirm that is not the case podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

One thing I liked about #LUFC last night: Farke’s subs. Aaronson on before any Everton changes and the triple sub at 78 minutes told a story. Yes Ampadu was struggling but he knew we were in a position to win and he went for it. Shift from last year.

The law of unintended cautioned quenches

Check out this new GLAAD explainer for @techpolicypress.bsky.social to learn more about LinkedIn’s recent removal of its policy protecting transgender and nonbinary people from one of the most prevalent and extreme types of online anti-trans hate. www.techpolicy.press/linkedin-joi...

In case you missed it, there is a content moderation MOVIE, like a big budget thriller one, coming out. AND there is a novel. Here's the movie trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhOU...

“When you control the digital infrastructure that shapes how people communicate, learn, and organize, you become an attractive partner for anyone seeking political control.” - @mmasnick.bsky.social (2025)

Tried to pull together a bunch of threads of things I've been talking/thinking about lately, about how decentralized tech & democracy go hand in hand, and are necessary for fighting fascism.

Ok sure it's his platform, but if you open the X Mac app, there's now an enormous banner promoting "Grok Imagine", followed by a tweet from the guy too. It's like Russian state media but larping as an American social network. #DeadTwitter

What a week to being taking a break from writing @eimdotco.bsky.social… www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

The law of unintended cautioned quenches

Earlier this week: Ofcom send an email claiming X/Twitter has committed to age-gating as part of Online Safety Act compliance. Yesterday: X/Twitter published page about age assurance options in which it notes 'measures should be made available in the following weeks'. Missed deadline?

@caseynewton.bsky.social not holding back in a post #TrustCon2025 edition of Platformer: "For more than half a year now, I’ve waited for a single leader in the field of trust and safety to stand up and say something about this retrenchment.... I’m still waiting." www.platformer.news/trustcon-tru...

Reminder! Ben and I are going to record a few "behind the scenes" banked Ctrl-Alt-Speech shows for August and if anyone has anything they'd like us to talk about, let us know!

Question for Ctrl Alt Speech listeners: @mmasnick.bsky.social and I will be doing some pre-recorded ‘behind the scenes’ / how the-sausage-is-made type episodes over summer so we can take a few weeks off - what kind of stuff would you be interested in?

Always a pleasure to speak to @mmasnick.bsky.social about all things trust and safety, but particularly pleased to share the news about ISO/IEC 25389 with trust and safety pros the week before #TrustCon2025!

If you're not listening to Ctrl-Alt-Speech, you're missing "the most insightful takes on free speech." ctrlaltspeech.com

I wanted to call this episode "If you authenticate this, then your children will be next" before agreeing with @mmasnick.bsky.social that number of people who listen to both Ctrl-Alt-Speech and the Manic Street Preacher is, very likely, in the single digits

As more journalists are driven out of their jobs, I keep hearing this drumbeat of "it's ok -- they can start their own newsletter or publication." Some can. But becoming your own business is a huge job, and will eliminate many talented reporters from the public sphere. Here's why. (1/5)

I've noticed an influx of people here lately (wonder what caused that, eh?) so reupping my starter pack of critical tech folks go.bsky.app/VFxSES6

To be filed under ‘If something feels too good to be true, it probably is’ observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

New Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Don't Believe What This Podcast Says About Misinformation @benwhitelaw.bsky.social spend a lot of time talking about the gnarly problem of misinformation and how almost everyone is both wrong and right about it and what to do about it podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

This week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a belter thanks to @bridgettodd.bsky.social, host of the wonderful @tangoti.bsky.social pod. She shares her views on age assurance tech plus her early Reddit mod experiences in the course of our weekly news roundup. Go listen! podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

The UK weather is hot but this week's edition of EiM is 🥵

New Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast is out! This week’s round-up has digital rights lawyer @mercymutemi.bsky.social on co-host duties and we go deep on Kenyan court cases vs Meta and the structural challenges facing African content creators. Such important topics podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

From the former Secretary of State who wasn’t interested in answering the most basic questions about her legislation (and which are now coming home to roost). #OnlineSafetyAct www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

“Once again, Meta has blatantly disregarded the requirement to obtain informed user consent before collecting and combining personal information from different sources.” www.zeropartydata.es/p/localhost-...

“Once again, Meta has blatantly disregarded the requirement to obtain informed user consent before collecting and combining personal information from different sources.” www.zeropartydata.es/p/localhost-...

“This is a man who wears many different costumes,” she continued. “Now his new costume is MMA-fighting or whatever, free speech—we don’t know what the next costume is going to be, but it will be something different. “It’s whatever gets him closest to power.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Google AdSense stopped serving ads on my Lil Nas X copyright blog post due to "sexual content." Note: every image was included in the Ninth Circuit's opinion & had been published on Instagram. 🤷‍♂️ Content moderation is hard The now-demonetized blog post: blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/202...

Ever had your phone snatched in the street? It probably ended up in this tower block in southern China. Wild story. on.ft.com/3SgopSA

In which @jay.bsky.team does a deep dive on what “Freedom of speech, not reach” means in the context of Bluesky (💅🏻) — and why it isn’t just lib twitter. Sites choose their moderation rules, but if ppl are unhappy, they can start a new site or host their own. www.wired.com/story/big-in...

This is a really interesting quiz to test your ability to spot misinformation headlines (I scored 19/20: 100% on identifying the misinformation ones, marked one real one as fake.) yourmist.streamlit.app

This man deserves a proper reception on Monday. Easy to forget that he came in post Allardyce experiment, with 49ers newly in situ, and had to get rid of 15 senior players. No wonder he’s dancing now. #lufc

This man deserves a proper reception on Monday. Easy to forget that he came in post Allardyce experiment, with 49ers newly in situ, and had to get rid of 15 senior players. No wonder he’s dancing now. #lufc