Zuck and Cover

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:
• Here's why Meta ended fact-checking, according to experts (abcnews.go.com/US/why-did-meta-remove-fact-che…) (ABC News)
• Meta Follows Elon Musk’s Lead, Moves Staffers to Billionaire-Friendly Texas (wired.com/story/meta-elon-musks-lead-trust-saf…) (Wired)
• Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” (theintercept.com/2025/01/09/facebook-instagram…) (The Intercept)
• Trust & Safety is how platforms put values into action (everythinginmoderation.co/trust-safety-values-…) (T&S Insider from Everything in Moderation)
• Nadler Releases Democratic Staff Report on Republicans' Deluded Theory to Undermine Free Speech (democrats-judiciary.house.gov/news/documentsin…) (House Committee on the Judiciary)
• EU vows to 'energetically' pursue X probe under Digital rulebook (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-08/eu-vows…) (Bloomberg)
• Twitter Briefly Blocked The NY Post, Elon Cried Foul. Now He’s Doing Far Worse (techdirt.com/2025/01/06/twitter-briefly-blocke…) (Techdirt)
• The Great Decentralization (noemamag.com/the-great-decentralization) (Noema Mag)
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.
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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)).