When The Chips Are Down

In this week’s episode, Ben is joined by Dex Hunter-Torricke, founder of the Center for Tomorrow and former head of communications and marketing at Google Deepmind. Prior to that, he also worked at The Oversight Board, SpaceX and Facebook. Together they discuss:Paris Call for AI safety and security (Élysée)AI firms sign Macron’s Paris Call, but safety group says it lacks teeth (The Next Web)OpenAI, Anthropic face new oversight as New York’s AI safety law takes effect (TechCrunch)Australia to mandate AI breach reporting, create regulator after OpenAI breach (Reuters)Exclusive: Former Meta and OpenAI Contractor Sama Liquidates, Citing Lawsuits (TIME)SpaceX Starship Flight 15 could be a major step toward full rocket reusability and cheaper missions (ABC News)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:Why a new report on Anthropic automating AI development is alarming researchers (The Verge)Independent Assessment of AI R&D Acceleration at Anthropic in October 2026 (METR)The AI Safety Debate Has Lost the Plot. We Asked 10 Experts What the Real Nightmares Are (Wired)Our fun links this week include a crowdsourced collection of UK bin photos and Jensen Huang memes. If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

In this special bonus episode for our Patreon supporters, Mike and Ben share their reactions to The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s much anticipated (but it seems not much loved) followup to his acclaimed 2010 movie The Social Network. This free teaser covers the beginning of their conversation, but there’s much more in the full episode. Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter on Patreon to hear the whole thing, and to get extended episodes of the regular podcast every Thursday.Also be sure to check out our recent regular episode with guest co-host Jeff Horwitz, whose reporting on the Facebook Files was a driving force of the story, where he shares some of his own reactions to the movie and being portrayed by Jeremy Allen White.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:Lula’s Win Signals Fight to Regulate Social Media Will Escalate in Brazil (TechPolicy.Press)Meta Employees Denounce Interference in Brazilian Elections (Panamerican Dispatch)Google’s AI Chatbot Refuses to Answer Question of Who Won 2020 Presidential Election (Mediaite)AI-driven disinformation running rampant on social media before US midterms, experts warn (The Guardian)Never Mind The Deepfakes, Chatbots Have To Deal With Election Lies Being Free, While Truth Is Paywalled (Techdirt)French Government Calls Emergency Meetings With Platforms Over Protests (Wired)Farewell, France (Quad9)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:Ofcom’s Fix For An Online Safety Act That Isn’t Working: More Online Safety Act (Techdirt)How age checks at age 16 can work to underpin UK’s social media ban (Ofcom)Our fun links this week include Krillion (much harder than it looks) and Dial Flipper for discovering new podcasts.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover.In this week’s episode, Ben is joined by Jeff Horwitz, an investigative reporter for Thomson Reuters and author of Broken Code, which expands on the award-winning series ‘The Facebook Files’ and partly inspired The Social Reckoning. Together they discuss:Rhode Island sues Meta over alleged tolerance for scam advertising (Reuters)Meta ordered to pay $25bn to New Mexico in Cambridge Analytica data-privacy case (The Guardian)Joel Kaplan leaves Meta (Platformer)Hooked on YouTube (NBC News)Anthropic gives third-party auditors 'employee-like access' in AI industry first (ZDNET)A moderator’s death exposes an industry-wide crisis (Uni Global Union)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:TikTok staff raised child safety alarms. Court records show executives failed to act (NPR)Our fun links this week include an archive/newsletter of the most visited Wikipedia page from the prior day and puppies doing their best to navigate through mazes.If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week’s episode, Mike is joined by Mike McCue, founder and CEO of Flipboard, and a long term Silicon Valley exec and entrepreneur. Together, they discuss:Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots (TechCrunch)Publishers call on Andy Burnham to crack down on AI stealth bots (The Times)Drone Strikes Didn’t Take Out a Russian Bot Farm, But We Were Primed to Believe It (Mother Jones)TikTok Quietly Gutted Its Advertising Rules. Scams Have Exploded Ever Since (Forbes)Trump Vowed to Wall Off TikTok From China. Did He? (Politico)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:Florida wins key ruling allowing it to enforce a law that targets social media use by kids (AP)Eleventh Circuit Says Cliffhangers Are ‘Features,’ Not Speech, As It Greenlights Florida’s Social Media Age Gate (Techdirt)Our fun links this week include Steve Job’s prescient 1983 speech and TinyLittleOffice which is an office suite where documents are stored in the URL themselves.If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:The Official Sonic Discord Server’s Launch Went About As Poorly As You’d Expect (Kotaku)Vladimir Putin's Forkiverse (Search Engine)They trade child sex abuse material. They find each other on TikTok (Prospect)Meta rolls out new AI tools to detect ads that secretly lead to child sexual abuse material (TechCrunch)TikTok gave teens, children placebo safety feature in experiment, New York alleges (Reuters)DNS Resolver Quad9 Rejects French Piracy Blocks, Weighs Exit as beIN Seeks Up to €580K a Day (TorrentFreak)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request (The Guardian)EEAS runs scared of US 'disinformation' debate (Rapporteur)Canada drops sponsorship of conference that cites U.S. as foreign-interference actor (The Globe and Mail)Our fun links this week include the Job Trail game and Mike Tomlin’s Minecraft City.If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week’s episode, Ben is joined by Katie Harbath, Meta’s former director of public policy for global elections and now founder of technology policy firm Anchor Change. She is also the author of Disrupting Politics, out on Tuesday. Together they discuss:TSE (Brazil Election Commission) clarifies rules on deepfakes in the 2026 elections (O Diário do Paraná)AI tools keep recommending candidates, monitoring finds (Tribuna Livre Brasil)On Eve of Brazil Elections, Meta Content Moderation Decisions Raise Questions (Tech Policy Press)Deepfakes, foreign-run accounts and unauthorised ads, new research exposes Meta's Brazil election ad machine (Ekō)Social media ban for under-16s to come into effect next March, Culture Secretary confirms (LBC)Trump says top tech firms have signed accord to 'self-police' AI development (NPR)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:Meta-Led Anti-Terrorism Group Faces Mass Resignation of Expert Advisers (WIRED)Meta to report child abuse material directly to Indian authorities (BBC)Some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify (Instagram)Content Moderation Knowledge Sharing Shouldn't Be A Backdoor To Cross-Platform Censorship (Techdirt)J.M. Berger on resigning from GIFCT’s Independent Advisory Committee (Bluesky)Mark: A journey to the heart of history’s largest nonterritorial empire (Colossus)Our fun links this week include legal-walls.net for all your legal graffiti questions and, courtesy of Katmai National Park in Alaska, Fat Bear Week. If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:Trump dismisses concerns about AI risks at UN, says he won't rein it in (PBS News)A.I. Gone Rogue? Trump Proposes Not New Rules but an ‘A.I. Force.’ (New York Times) 22 countries back call to keep AI ‘under human control’ (POLITICO)If AI is going to destroy humanity, Scott Bessent says hyperscalers, not government, must take the fall: ‘We cannot absolve you of responsibility’ (Fortune)Meet the algorithm you can actually control and understand (New_Public)YouTube’s Custom Feeds Give You More Control Over the Algorithm (Wired) YouTube CEO dismisses the idea of joining Meta’s multistate child safety settlement (CNN)Harry Potter Survey Results & Final Decision (Reddit)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:Safer for Teens, Same Discord for Adults (Discord)Age Assurance on Discord: Vendors, Methods and Your Data (Discord) How Discord Estimates Age Without Collecting Your Identity (Discord) Ofcom launches investigation into Pornhub’s age checks (Ofcom)Aylo Defends Apple Age Assurance in Response to Ofcom Investigation (Aylo) Discord's age verification era is upon us, despite community backlash (TechCrunch)Angry reaction to Discord’s age assurance (X/Twitter)Our fun links this week include Jev, the super fast new AI classifier, and Persodex, the context layer for your Contacts (PS. hit Ben up if you’re in New York in mid-October).Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:What is in the EU's planned KIDS Act? (Reuters)Proposal for EU KIDS Act - 'EU Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy' (EU Commission)France makes new attempt to ban social media for children under age 15 (Le Monde)Reading scores plummet as ‘digital distraction’ harms students (FT)We are setting up a generation to fail at school (FT)TikTok rejects Meta ads pushing rivals to join child safety settlement (Search Engine Land)Inside ‘Project Lily’: The Humans Reading Your ChatGPT Chats (404 Media)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:We Must Pace the Frontier (Dario Amodei)OpenAI Wants to Know if an AI Industry Slowdown Would Even Be Legal (Wired)Trump goes scorched earth on AI warnings, raging about data center opposition and regulation (CNBC)The AI policy window is open. We need to act. (OpenAI)Our fun links this week include a “Welcome to the Internet” presentation for a 13-year-old and God’s Eye View, a slightly terrifying bit of open source software to explore the world.If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:Australians will be able to switch off social media algorithms under planned legislation (BBC News)Australia’s social media ban has an enforcement problem. These new laws aim to fix it (The Conversation)The Netherlands forced Meta to let users ditch algorithmic feeds. Here’s what happened (The Conversation)What We Know About Prosocial Feed-Ranking Algorithms (Prosocial Design Network)Anthropic researcher quits over AI labs ‘gambling with our lives’ (Financial Times)AI Agents Are Not Going “Rogue,” But Recent Developments Lead Increasingly-Concerned Researchers To Call For AI Slow Down (Techdirt)“We will not be silenced”: Imran Ahmed responds to court ruling (Center for Countering Digital Hate)And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover:USA: Terrorism designation has global consequences for open internet and free expression (Article 19)Rubio Uses Terrorism Law To Ban Secure Email Service (Reason)Our fun links this week include the multi-view website browser and the internet roadtrip. If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon.Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky.Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).