The TickTock on TikTok

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:
• Application Of Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act To TikTok (whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ap…) (The White House)
• Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship (whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/re…) (The White House)
America Is No Longer the Home of the Free Internet (theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/internet…) (The Atlantic)
• Good morning, America: Why India banned TikTok 5 years back (indiatoday.in/india/story/tiktok-banned-in-ame…) (India Today)
• Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says (reuters.com/technology/facebook-x-youtube-do-m…) (Reuters)
• Commission welcomes the integration of the revised Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online into the Digital Services Act (ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/…) (European Commission)
• Bluesky 2024 Moderation Report (bsky.social/about/blog/01-17-2025-moderation-2…) (Bluesky)
• Bluesky's 2024 moderation report shows how quickly harmful content grew as new users flocked in (engadget.com/social-media/blueskys-2024-modera…) (Engadget)
• The Technological Poison Pill: How ATProtocol Encourages Competition, Resists Evil Billionaires, Lock-In & Enshittification (techdirt.com/2025/01/21/the-technological-pois…) (Techdirt)
• We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky (technologyreview.com/2025/01/17/1110063/we-nee…) (MIT Technology Review)
If you’re in London on Thursday 30th January, join Ben, Mark Scott (Digital Politics) and Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) for an evening of tech policy, discussion and drinks. Register your interest. (docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScA8OWCTDYMko…)
This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.
Follow us on Instagram (instagram.com/ctrlaltspeech), YouTube (youtube.com/@CtrlAltSpeech), and Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/ctrlaltspeech.com).
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 (techdirt.com)) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation (everythinginmoderation.co)).