Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast

In the Patreon-only segment of the latest episode, recent revelations about child safety on TikTok led to a conversation between @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social about whether media reporting is effective in pressuring platforms to change their ways. Here's a sneak peek!

Just before recording this week, Rhode Island announced a lawsuit against Meta over its failure to protect users from scam ads. Since the lawsuit was based in part on @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social's reporting, it was a stroke of luck that he was joining @benwhitelaw.bsky.social as this week's guest host!

An @nbcnews.com analysis looked at the YouTube histories of 11 kids to find out what they were watching during school hours. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of them weren't exactly focused on educational material. @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode.

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for lying about the use of data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Where will the money go? @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and guest host @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

Cliffhangers aren't free speech? In the extended episode for Patreon subscribers, @masnick.com broke down the worrying First Amendment implications of the appeals court ruling on Florida's social media age-gating law. Here's a sneak peek:

News of a drone strike taking out Russian misinformation bots was met with cheers, but there was just one problem: it was misinformation. What does this ironic incident say about how falsehoods spread online? @masnick.com and @mmccue.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

Reddit says it's killing off RSS feeds due to bot traffic. Publishers in the UK want web scraping to be illegal. The AI era presents real challenges for the open web, but that doesn't mean it can't be preserved. @masnick.com and @mmccue.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

According to an investigation in @forbes.com, TikTok has changed its policies and allowed flagrant scam ads to proliferate. Were they just juicing the revenue before their forced sale, knowing soon it wouldn't be their problem? @masnick.com and @mmccue.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode.

In this week's Patreon-only segment of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social looked at who was behind the US disruption of a Lithuanian conference about disinformation that dared to discuss whether America would interfere in foreign information ecosystems. Here's a sneak peek!

The downfall of the "Forkiverse" Mastodon instance at the hands of Russian trolls is a reminder that starting an online community is a lot of fun, but maintaining one is hard work. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

The messy launch of Sega's official Sonic Discord is a lesson about one of the biggest challenges of managing online communities: no matter what the rules say, some people will always try to test the limits. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech

An investigation by @prospectmagazine.co.uk uncovered a network of TikTok accounts directing people to markets for CSAM, and the method they used illustrates just how hard it is for big platforms to police such activity. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on this week's episode:

In the Patreon-only segment of the latest episode, @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and @katieharbath.bsky.social discussed mass resignations at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, which led to a broader conversation about the role of advisory/oversight boards in general. Here's a sneak peek!

We now have a date for implementation of the UK's social media ban, and we also have hints of a new approach that looks more like Europe's tiered ban. @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and guest host @katieharbath.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

As elections begin in Brazil, the government is trying to tackle AI deepfakes and chatbots. Is this a preview of upcoming elections in the US and around the world? @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and guest host @katieharbath.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

Trump and a group of CEOs have signed a new AI accord, but as always the devil is in the details. For now, the most interesting part might be Zuck's role in making it happen. @benwhitelaw.bsky.social and guest host @katieharbath.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

A sneak peek at the Patreon-only segment of the latest episode! @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss the troubled rollout of Discord's new age assurance systems. Subscribe for extended episodes every week: patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says the company will not be abiding by the requirements Meta agreed to in its recent child safety settlement. So what will Meta's next move be? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

At the UN General Assembly, world leaders had a lot to say about artificial intelligence (or as Trump calls it... Super Intelligence). But what did all their statements actually amount to? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

A subreddit devoted to crafts has banned all posts related to Harry Potter, and the careful way they reached that decision provides an excellent case study in online community governance. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

A sneak peek at the Patreon-only segment of the latest episode! @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss the idea of "pacing the frontier" in AI, whether it will really happen, and whether it raises antitrust questions. Subscribe for extended episodes every week: patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech

Falling scores in an educational benchmark test have been chalked up to "digital distraction", but does such a simple answer really tell the whole story? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

Europe's KIDS Act creates a graduated social media ban for kids, with younger ages getting limited access before the training wheels come off. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

Apparently a lot of people didn't know that there are humans reviewing ChatGPT conversations, so the news came as more of a surprise than it should have. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

In a sneak peek of the Patreon-only segment of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss the Trump government's use of a terrorist designation to shut down a foreign website by targeting the domain registrar. Subscribe to hear the full discussion: patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech

Australia is pushing a new "duty of care" policy to hold internet companies responsible for harms that befall their users. But applying such rules to speech works very differently than for most products. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech.

The Trump administration and Marco Rubio's state department are threatening internet researcher Imran Ahmed with deportation, and a court just said he can't fight back... yet. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

Some of the same people who get mad at social media companies for not taking risks seriously are mocking AI companies for taking risks TOO seriously. The ideal balance may be somewhere in the middle. @masnick.com & @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!

A sneak peek at the extended edition of the latest Ctrl-Alt-Speech episode, available only to our supporters on Patreon. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss the failures of AI tools in lesser-used languages. Subscribe now to get extended episodes every week: patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech

A new study explores how and why people use chatbots for emotional support. One of the main reasons? They know the chatbot isn't human, and can't judge them. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now Listen & Subscribe at ctrlaltspeech.com

Hackers got easy access to over 150 million drivers licenses and sold them on the dark web. What does this tell us about the risks of age verification laws? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now Listen and Subscribe at ctrlaltspeech.com

The latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "License to Spill", is out now! Listen and subscribe at ctrlaltspeech.com or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

ChatGPT's new teen mode aims to make students really learn a subject instead of just using it to cheat. Will it work? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "License to Spill" Listen and Subscribe at ctrlaltspeech.com

Meta's $18bn settlement - the equivalent of having to buy a new boiler. From the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "Move Fast and Settle Things". Out NOW!

Could teens sue over Meta's $18bn settlement? @masnick.com thinks so. From the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "Move Fast and Settle Things". Out NOW!

Meta's $18bn settlement - why making YouTube and TikTok follow suit is a weird move From the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "Move Fast and Settle Things". Out NOW!