NEW The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim By me. Enjoy. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-letter...

Come for @leighb.bsky.social’s stellar episode title, stay for @mmasnick.bsky.social being ribbed about not yet reaching 200k Bluesky following #GetMiketo200k

“There’s a risk that today’s AI revolution will end up with the same old incentives and the same old outcomes. As AI locks into the same extractive patterns as the web giants, we can’t afford to ignore what that will mean for our future.” - @parmy.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Your Week in Review just dropped: 🇩🇰 Denmark scraps its "chat control" plans — for now 🇦🇺 Oz adds platforms to social media ban 🌍 New Integrity Institute CEO ...and more! Plus posts of note from @alixdunn.com, @rude1.blacksky.team and Suba Vasudevan. www.everythinginmoderation.co/france-shein...

New Ctrl-Alt-Speech: New Blocks On The Kids (And yes, this may be my favorite title of an episode ever). podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis... @benwhitelaw.bsky.social & I talk about Australia blocking kids from more social apps (Reddit?!?) and how kids always find a way around blocks...

There's something quite wonderful about X/Twitter's Head of Global Government Affairs saying the company invests "significant resources to improve the enforcement capabilities across the world” *just days after* Elon said that it doesn't "censor people"

Chatbots your thing? This week’s edition of Week in Review is full of 'em: • Under 18s face Character.ai chatbots lockdown • OpenAI's transparency drive • Better platform data access for researchers • Former safety researcher speaks out 🔗 www.everythinginmoderation.co/characterai-...

Despite being one of the most milquetoast posters on the platform I'm on hundreds of moderation lists and blocked by nearly 5000 people. Not once has this impacted my life in any way whatsoever.

The safety policies of generative AI companies — and the subsequent threat of regulation — has been in the headlines for a while. This week, two companies facing big legal cases — OpenAI and Character.ai — set out to define the narrative, albeit in very different ways. 1/4

Didn’t foresee that gen AI would so quickly form part of the way that disenfranchised and generally unimpressed audiences get back at ‘legacy media’ but here we are www.semafor.com/article/10/2...

If only OpenAI could have foreseen the entirely predictable hazards of irresponsibly releasing this tech. I guess the estate of every dead person will have to individually request a special dispensation to no longer have disgusting videos made by OpenAI’s tools.

It's Ctrl-Alt-Speech recording day and @mmasnick.bsky.social is back in the proverbial chair. What stories are you reading? What should we pick apart? And crucially, which website/app user prompt should we use to start today's episode?

Everything is content moderation (via friend of mine)

This chart (via @jburnmurdoch.ft.com’s latest article) adds another dimension to the transatlantic tech policy wars (beyond First Amendment differentiator). Social media platforms are a bigger part of public life and the usage sustains platform lobbyists and calls for voluntary codes.

Everything is content moderation.

New Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Moderating is Such Sweet Sorrow with guest host @dwillner.bsky.social who is entirely responsible for bringing up Shakespeare as part of this discussion. (@benwhitelaw.bsky.social will be back next week!) podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

No welcome from Tom Anderson?... I don't know about this

Some exciting news: this morning we launched a collaboration with @icrc.org: our Trust & Safety: Armed Conflict game. trust-and-safety-game.icrc.org

Pretty strange that the EU's new explainer on the Digital Services Act (what it is, how it's enforced, ongoing investigations) doesn't mention the one that's been going on the longest — against X/Twitter (from December 2023)

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!