Zuck Starts Throwing His Weights Around

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter (patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech) 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 U.S. Is About to Design an AI Regulator. Here’s How to Get It Right (cfr.org/articles/the-u-s-is-about-to-design-an…) (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Mark Zuckerberg Says U.S. Should Accelerate AI Development, Not Restrict It (wsj.com/tech/ai/mark-zuckerberg-says-u-s-shoul…) (WSJ)
• Want AI you can trust? Start by building the right institutions (atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/want-ai-you-can…) (Atlantic Council)
• Anthropic Says It’s Against A Ban On Open Weight Models. It Just Wants To Ban Everything That Makes Them Good (techdirt.com/2026/07/29/anthropic-says-its-aga…) (Techdirt)
• The High Stakes Behind the EU’s €890M Google DMA Fine (techpolicy.press/the-high-stakes-behind-the-eu…) (Tech Policy Press)
• Europe bears its teeth, political panic about OpenAI hack and YouTube refines partner policy (everythinginmoderation.co/european-commission-…) (Everything in Moderation)
• Trump vows new tariffs on the E.U. after Brussels fines Google $1 billion (qz.com/trump-tariffs-eu-google-fine-digital-ma…) (Qz)
And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters (patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech), they cover:
• Elon Musk’s xAI sues Minnesota over law banning ‘nudification’ technology (theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/29/xai-sue…) (The Guardian)
• The Worst Person You Know Just Filed A Good First Amendment Lawsuit Against A Very Badly Drafted Nudify App Ban (techdirt.com/2026/07/30/the-worst-person-you-k…) (Techdirt)
Our fun links this week are a replica of Scooby Doo’s Mystery-Machine (bringatrailer.com/listing/1994-gmc-vandura-g-1…) and the Saltburn cricket scandal (skysports.com/cricket/news/12040/13568186/clic…) because we need more satire right now.
If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you canget the extended episode on Patreon (patreon.com/collection/2176497?view=condensed).
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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)).