This Episode has Masculine Energy

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by guest host Renee DiResta, associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. They cover:
• The new free speech crisis hiding in plain sight (msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-elon-mus…) (MSNBC)
• ‘Free Speech’ Warrior RFK Jr. Has Been Trying To Censor a Blogger for Years (whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/free-speec…) (Who What Why)
• In motion to dismiss, chatbot platform Character AI claims it is protected by the First Amendment (techcrunch.com/2025/01/24/in-motion-to-dismiss…) (TechCrunch)
• Trump Signs Agreement Calling for Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Suit (wsj.com/us-news/law/trump-signs-agreement-call…) (WSJ)
• Meta’s Free-Speech Shift Made It Clear to Advertisers: ‘Brand Safety’ Is Out of Vogue (wsj.com/business/media/meta-brand-safety-conte…) (WSJ)
• X refuses to remove stabbing video watched by Southport killer (ft.com/content/3c8923f3-9e30-4fdd-927c-d69754e…) (Financial Times)
This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.
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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)).