Techdirt

Abolishing Section 230 Would Abolish Wikipedia

April 16, 2024 20:19 - 43 minutes - 40 MB

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a hearing all about Section 230, in which they didn't even attempt to find a witness pointing out its benefits. Among the many organizations that could have provided that vital perspective is the Wikimedia Foundation (as seen in three excellent posts on Medium), and this week we're joined by Rebecca MacKinnon, Wikimedia's VP of Global Advocacy and long-time open internet defender, to talk about why the hearing was bad and Section 230 is v...

Democratic Design For Online Spaces

April 09, 2024 20:20 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MB

One very important thing to understand in the conversation about online speech is that there are many different kinds of online communities, big and small, and they all have their own needs when it comes to rules and governance. This fact is a key element of a new book, Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life by media studies professor Nathan Schneider, and this week Nathan joins the podcast to talk about how democracy does (and doesn't) manifest in online communities.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: The Most Moderated Word on Meta (Teaser)

April 04, 2024 18:28 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MB

Check out Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike Masnick's brand new podcast with Ben Whitelaw, creator of the Everything in Moderation newsletter. In this teaser excerpt from last week's episode, Mike and Ben discuss the recent decision from the Oversight Board that reveals the single most moderated word on Meta's social media sites. Listen to the whole episode covering all the week's biggest news in online speech - and get ready for this week's episode, releasing tomorrow - by visiting ctrlaltspeech.com o...

How Important Will The Murthy Case Be?

April 03, 2024 20:25 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MB

We've written a lot about the Murthy case at the Supreme Court, and especially how poor of a job the states did in making their argument. Now, as we await the ruling, there are a lot of questions about what it will look like and how consequential it will be. This week, we're joined by law professor Kate Klonick to discuss what happened, what's likely to come next, and what kind of impact it will have.

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Elon Musk & Stonetoss (Teaser)

March 28, 2024 21:22 - 9 minutes - 9.06 MB

Check out Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike Masnick's brand new podcast with Ben Whitelaw, creator of the Everything in Moderation newsletter. In this teaser excerpt from last week's episode, Mike and Ben discuss the latest curious and contradictory content moderation decisions by Elon Musk, and a recent article about the risks and challenges associated with how different countries approach internet regulation. Listen to the whole episode covering all the week's biggest news in online speech - and get ...

Cognitive Liberty Is The End Goal Of Decentralization

March 26, 2024 20:16 - 1 hour - 58.6 MB

Last year in September, we released a cross-post episode of Mike's appearance on the DWeb Decoded podcast with Danny O'Brien. If you listened to that episode, you know that Mike and Danny go way back, and Danny played an important role in the founding of Techdirt. This week, we've got the inverse counterpart to that episode, with Danny joining Mike here on the Techdirt podcast for a discussion about decentralization and "cognitive liberty" (and a bunch of other topics).

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: The TikTok Ban (Teaser)

March 18, 2024 18:30 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MB

Check out Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike Masnick's brand new podcast with Ben Whitelaw, creator of the Everything in Moderation newsletter. In this teaser excerpt from the debut episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike and Ben discuss the US bill that aims to ban TikTok, or at least force ByteDance to divest from it. Listen to the whole episode, covering all the week's biggest news in online speech, by visiting ctrlaltspeech.com or subscribing to Ctrl-Alt-Speech on your podcast platform of choice! Apple Po...

Gaming Like It's 1928!

March 13, 2024 19:05 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MB

As is tradition, now that we've announced the winners of our latest public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1928, it's time for a special episode of the podcast taking a closer look at them. Just like in past years, Mike is joined by myself and our game design partner Randy Lubin to discuss our thoughts on the winners in all six categories, and a bunch of other great games that didn't quite make the cut.

Checking In On Bluesky With Jay Graber

March 05, 2024 21:18 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MB

Anyone who follows Techdirt knows we're very interested in the progress of Bluesky, the decentralized social network that embraces our concept of protocols over platforms. Bluesky recently ended its invite-only beta and opened its doors to the public, so it seems like a great time for a check-in, and who better to check in with than Bluesky CEO Jay Graber? Jay joins us on this week's episode for a discussion about Bluesky's progress and what the future holds.

KOSA Isn't Just Wrong About The Internet, It's Wrong About Child Safety

February 21, 2024 21:17 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MB

In our coverage of the problems with KOSA and other legislative pushes to "protect the children" online, we usually (for obvious reasons) come at the subject from the technology side, and look at all the ways these laws misunderstand the internet. But that's not their only flaw: these proposals also tend to lack any real understanding of child safety. Maureen Flatley is someone who has been vocal from the other side, having covered child safety issues for about as long as we've covered tech, ...

How To Actually Help Kids Online

February 13, 2024 21:19 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MB

As we've written about repeatedly, efforts to protect kids online and improve their mental health at the moment all seem to be focused on taking social media away from them, even though all the evidence suggests this would be harmful, not helpful. Today, we're joined by Rob Morris, who aims to take a different approach with his online mental health service Koko, for a discussion about how the real way to help kids is to meet them where they're at.

Is the Internet Killing Culture? (No. Don’t Be Stupid.)

February 06, 2024 21:18 - 1 hour - 56.9 MB

A couple weeks ago, we released the 2024 edition of our Sky Is Rising report about the state of the entertainment industries. Last week, Mike and I joined Corbin Barthold on Techfreedom's Tech Policy Podcast for a discussion about the report and, more broadly, the state of culture in the internet era and the conversations that surround it. You can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode of the Techdirt Podcast.

The Data Transfer Initiative After One Year

February 01, 2024 21:10 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MB

Back in April, we were joined on the podcast by Chris Riley, the Executive Director of the new nonprofit Data Transfer Initiative that aimed to promote data portability and empower users to transfer their data from one service to another. Today, the Initiative has released its first annual report, and Chris is back on the podcast for a discussion all about how things are going, and what's on deck for 2024. Data Transfer Initiative Annual Report 2023 (PDF): https://dtinit.org/assets/DTI-Annua...

Protocols, Not Platforms

January 25, 2024 20:21 - 1 hour - 57.5 MB

We've got a nice fresh live recording for you today! Just yesterday, Mike was at the Knight Foundation's INFORMED Conference to participate in a panel discussion with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, moderated by former Twitter Trust & Safety head Yoel Roth. The subject was decentralized and federated social media, especially its implications for content moderation, and you can listen to the whole panel here on this week's episode.

Beeper And The Power Of Protocols

January 17, 2024 20:12 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MB

Last month, we wrote about Apple's nonsensical attack on Beeper, a universal messaging app that exemplifies many of the things we talk about here on Techdirt, like adversarial interoperability and the value of embracing open protocols over walled platforms. This week, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky joins us on the podcast to talk about the app, the fight with Apple, and the power of protocols.

Could A Design Code Help Social Media Serve Society Better?

January 09, 2024 21:09 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MB

We're back from the holidays, and it's time for a new episode of the Techdirt Podcast! This week, we're joined by Ravi Iyer, Research Director for the USC Marshall School's Neely Center and Managing Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute, to discuss a proposed "design code" that aims to make social media better serve society. Mike isn't entirely convinced by the approach, leading to a long discussion about all its ins and outs.

Content Moderation Games

December 19, 2023 20:46 - 1 hour - 68 MB

Many of you might know Andrew "K'Tetch" Norton as a Techdirt commenter, or from his work at TorrentFreak or for the Pirate Party, and some of you might know that he also runs his own podcast, Tetch Talk. Recently, Andrew asked Mike and I to join him on the podcast for a discussion about our content moderation games Moderator Mayhem and Trust & Safety Tycoon, and today we're posting a mirror of the full discussion for our last podcast of the year. See you in 2024!

Could Engineer Licensing Make AI Safer?

December 13, 2023 21:17 - 57 minutes - 79.3 MB

There's plenty of discussion right now about what approach, regulatory or otherwise, could rein in the potential harms of AI systems. This week, we're joined by professor and researcher Chinmayi Sharma to discuss her brand new article that offers an interesting idea: professionalizing the AI field with engineer licensing and a malpractice standard. Read the article: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/setting-a-higher-bar-professionalizing-ai-engineering

Decentralizing Innovation

December 05, 2023 21:17 - 1 hour - 55.6 MB

We've got another cross-post episode this week! Recently, Mike joined the debut episode of the new Dot Social podcast from Flipboard CEO Mike McCue for a discussion about decentralized social media and the open social web, and the ways in which they are poised to spur widespread innovation. You can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode.

AI Is Going To Change More Than You Realize

November 28, 2023 21:11 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MB

The world of generative AI has been changing rapidly, and that's not something that's going to stop any time soon. Today, we're joined on the podcast by Jonathan Ross, founder and CEO of Groq (no, not Elon Musk's new bot called Grok) — a company working on a new technology stack that drastically speeds up performance of AI models — to talk about all things AI, and the many ways it's going to change in the coming months and years.

Trust & Safety In Wartime

October 31, 2023 20:17 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MB

As you hopefully know, we recently launched (and then released a podcast about) our new game, Trust & Safety Tycoon, which we created in association with the Atlantic Council's Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web. This week, we've got two people from the Atlantic Council joining us on the podcast: Democracy & Tech Initiative Director Rose Jackson and DRFLab Senior Fellow and Managing Editor Andy Carvin. In the wake of current events in Israel, the conversation turned to a look at the uniq...

Your Face Belongs To Us, With Kashmir Hill

October 24, 2023 20:18 - 48 minutes - 44 MB

We've written plenty about facial recognition here on Techdirt, and especially the infamous Clearview AI. Now, journalist Kashmir Hill, who wrote the original New York Times story that told the story about the company's inception, has written a new book all about the subject: Your Face Belongs To Us. This week, she joins us on the podcast to discuss the whole story of Clearview AI, the rise of facial recognition, and the impact on privacy. Your Face Belongs To Us: https://www.penguinrandomho...

Trust & Safety Tycoon

October 20, 2023 19:56 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MB

As you hopefully know by now, earlier this week we launched our new game, Trust & Safety Tycoon. It's a free, browser-based game (playable on desktop or mobile, though we recommend desktop for the best experience) that puts you in the shoes of the head of trust and safety at a rapidly growing social media platform, where you must face all the difficult decisions that entails. As we did for our past games Moderator Mayhem and Startup Trail, Mike, myself, and our game design partner Randy Lubin...

Open Sourcing The Trust & Safety Toolkit

September 26, 2023 20:21 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MB

The trust and safety conversation tends to focus on the huge platforms, and the millions of smaller websites (some still quite big!) get ignored. But those websites have trust and safety needs too, and they use a lot of different tools to meet them. Most of these tools are proprietary, but there's a growing push to build more open source tooling for the purpose, which was discussed by Derek Slater in a recent Atlantic Council report. This week, Derek joins us on the podcast to talk about the ...

Liability, Speech & Marketplaces

September 19, 2023 20:17 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MB

We've got a slightly unusual (at first glace) crosspost episode for you this week! Recently, Mike joined Dave Cooper, CEO and Founder of brand protection agency IPSecure, on the company's Owning The Buy Box podcast. As you probably know, we're pretty skeptical of brand protection companies here at Techdirt, but Dave has a history of heeding our criticisms and being thoughtful about policy and court rulings, enabling an interesting and insightful discussion about a recent legal decision and th...

Link Taxes Are (Still) Bad

September 12, 2023 20:02 - 57 minutes - 52.6 MB

Earlier this year, we had an episode looking at Canada's proposed social media link tax and the many ways it would be terrible. Since then, that link tax has become law (though not yet come into effect), and unsurprisingly proven that the dire predictions were correct. Also since then, the Cato Institute's Paul Matzko published an excellent paper on link taxes in general, and Paul joins us on this week's episode to discuss the many reasons that a link tax won't save the newspaper industry. R...

Thinking About Decentralization

September 05, 2023 18:57 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MB

We've got a another cross-post episode for you this week, on a subject near and dear to our hearts: protocols over platforms, and restoring decentralization online. Mike recently joined Danny O'Brien on the DWeb Decoded podcast to talk all about these topics, as well as tell a little story about Danny's role in the founding of Techdirt, and you can listen to the whole conversation here on this week's episode.

Social Media & Mental Health

August 29, 2023 19:54 - 1 hour - 62.7 MB

Social media isn't the first phenomenon to spark a moral panic about its impact on people's (and especially young people's) mental health, and it surely won't be the last — but for now, it's the star of the show. A lot of people will gladly latch on to, and casually misrepresent, any research that might strengthen their belief in social media's harms. But that doesn't mean there are no harms: it's just that good research needs to account for the complexity of the subject and social media's my...

Gigi Sohn On Community Broadband

August 15, 2023 20:08 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MB

If you didn't know who Gigi Sohn was before her stalled-out FCC nomination and the ridiculous smear campaign that came with it, you surely do by now. And if you read Techdirt, you know she's one of the most experienced and passionate experts around when it comes to broadband. This week, she returns to the podcast after quite some time to discuss her new role at the American Association for Public Broadband and the fight for more community-owned broadband in the US.

The YouTube Effect, With Alex Winter

August 09, 2023 20:20 - 57 minutes - 53.1 MB

As you may recall, we weren't fans of The Social Dilemma, the documentary manipulated people with misinformation in the course of complaining about that exact practice. But now there's a much better and more interesting documentary in the space, and one that's worth your time: The YouTube Effect by Alex Winter. It takes a deep dive into the good and the bad of YouTube, and grapples with the fact that it has helped radicalize a lot of people. This week, Alex joins Mike (who still contests some...

Can Interoperability Be Mandated?

August 01, 2023 20:11 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MB

We've long believed in the power of online platform interoperability and the power it gives to users to curate their own experiences. One of the prime examples of this is Block Party, created by Tracy Chou, which has had to suspend its operations following ExTwitter's API changes. Tracy joined us on the podcast once before to discuss Block Party, and now she's back to talk about her new service, Privacy Party, as well as the broader topic of platform interoperability and whether it could be ...

Red Team Blues, Part Two (With Cory Doctorow)

July 25, 2023 19:34 - 1 hour - 58.5 MB

Okay, now we're getting back to the plan. Two weeks ago we featured an excerpt from the audiobook of Red Team Blues, Cory Doctorow's new (and excellent) novel, and promised that we'd soon be joined by Cory himself. And now, we deliver! Listen to this week's episode for a long and far-reaching conversation between Mike and Cory about the book and it's themes and subjects, plus plenty of interesting tangents. Red Team Blues: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/redteamblues

Social Media In Chaos

July 18, 2023 19:21 - 1 hour - 66.3 MB

Last week, we promised an upcoming episode featuring a conversation with Cory Doctorow — and that conversation has been recorded and is arriving next week! But we decided to take a brief intermission this week, since things in the social media landscape are changing so quickly. Mike recently appeared on The Neoliberal Podcast with Jeremiah Johnson to talk about the ongoing nonsense at Twitter, the dawn of Meta's Threads, the situation at Reddit, and all the other chaos engulfing the world of ...

Red Team Blues, Part One

July 11, 2023 19:07 - 23 minutes - 21.1 MB

If you're a Techdirt reader, you're surely familiar with Cory Doctorow: we've written about him often, he's appeared on the podcast several times and, of course, he's a prolific science fiction author whose books brilliantly engage with many of the subjects we cover. Next week, if all goes according to plan, Cory will be joining us on the podcast once again to talk about his latest novel, Red Team Blues — so if you haven't read it yet, now's the time! And today we've got a special podcast fea...

FutureCast

June 27, 2023 19:01 - 43 minutes - 39.7 MB

Recently, we announced our latest game project: FutureCast, created in partnership with the United Nations' Global Pulse group. It's a highly adaptable strategic forecasting tool that aims to explore "pathways of change" for different future scenarios by bringing together groups of stakeholders for a fun, insight-generating exercise. This week, we're joined by Minke Meijnders and Tiina Neuvonen from UN Global Pulse, as well as our game design partner Randy Lubin from Leveraged Play, to discus...

The Reddit Meltdown

June 22, 2023 19:21 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MB

If you're a Techdirt reader, a Reddit user, or both, then you probably know all about the chaos engulfing the site as users and moderators of popular subreddits protest CEO Steve Huffman's recent changes to the site's API. This week, we're joined by Jay Peters from The Verge to talk about the situation, the protests, and Huffman's disastrous responses.

Decentralizing Content Moderation

June 13, 2023 20:11 - 57 minutes - 52.6 MB

When talking about content moderation, it's easy to focus entirely on centralized platforms. But now, with the rise of more federated and decentralized systems like ActivityPub and Bluesky (and many others), it's becoming more and more important to talk about how content moderation works in a decentralized space. This week we're joined by Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust & Safety at Twitter and now a Tech Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley, to discuss the new and different content moderation cha...

Moderator Mayhem!

June 06, 2023 20:09 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MB

Play Moderator Mayhem: https://moderatormayhem.engine.is/ Last month, in partnership with Engine, we launched our new browser game that puts you in the shoes of a frontline content moderation worker at a growing online platform: Moderator Mayhem. If you haven't tried it yet, you can play it in your browser on mobile or desktop. The response to the game has been great, and this week Mike is joined on the podcast by myself, our game design partner Randy Lubin of Leveraged Play, and Engine exec...

Utah's War On Porn

May 09, 2023 20:23 - 20 minutes - 19 MB

We've been swamped with some big projects lately, and that put a bit of a dent in our podcast schedule. We've got a whole bunch of fresh new episodes lined up to record, so you can expect lots of original content soon — but to tide you over until then, this week we've got a cross-post of Mike's recent segment on The New Abnormal podcast, where he and host Andy Levy discuss Pornhub cutting off Utah in response to its age verification law, and some of the other "protect the children" efforts in...

Save The Children (From State Social Media Laws)

April 18, 2023 20:09 - 1 hour - 55.1 MB

We've featured lots of coverage of the frankly insane deluge of "protect the children" type social media laws popping up in several states, and recently Mike was a guest on TechFreedom's Tech Policy Podcast, hosted by Corbin K. Barthold. You can listen to the whole conversation right here on this week's episode of the Techdirt Podcast.

The Data Transfer Initiative

April 11, 2023 20:22 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MB

Data portability is an important front in the war for an open internet. A few years ago, it seemed like some major movement was coming, with the joint announcement of the Data Transfer Project from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter — but recently, news of any progress was running thin. That is, until now: the project has morphed into the nonprofit Data Transfer Initiative, with a real team led by new Executive Director (and returning podcast guest) Chris Riley, who joins us on this wee...

Link Taxes Are Bad, Canada Edition

April 04, 2023 20:23 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MB

Legacy media operations really, really want tech companies that send them traffic to pay them as well. From Rupert Murdoch's link tax in Australia to the very bad JCPA in America, these requirements are nonsensical and run directly counter to the core functioning of the internet. Currently, one of the biggest pushes for such a law is happening in Canada with the government's Bill C-18 — and it's certainly no exception. Nobody has been following C-18 closer than law professor and researcher Mi...

Sci-Fi & Silicon Valley

March 28, 2023 19:51 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MB

Science fiction has always served as a source of inspiration for real technological progress. Sometimes that's great, but other times it enables abuse or leads people to make terrible assumptions that result in harmful decisions. This week we're joined by the hosts of the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct, authors Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders, who recently began tackling this very subject, to discuss the relationship between Silicon Valley and science fiction. Our Opinions Are Corre...

Why Is Congress So Wrong About Section 230?

March 15, 2023 20:15 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MB

Misunderstandings (honest or otherwise) about Section 230 abound — across the political spectrum and, of course, in Congress. Each side believes weakening or eliminating the law will achieve its own distinct goals, and both sides are wrong. Following the most recent (but far from the first) very frustrating congressional hearing about Section 230, this week we're joined by TechFreedom's Free Speech Counsel Ari Cohn for a discussion about why and how congress constantly gets Section 230 so wrong.

Gaming Like It's 1927

March 07, 2023 21:15 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MB

Last week, we announced the winners of the fifth annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1927! We strongly encourage everyone to go check out all the submissions, but as in past years, I sat down with Mike and our game design partner Randy Lubin for an episode of the podcast all about the winning games in all six categories, as well as some of our favorite entries that didn't quite make the cut. Read about the winners: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/02/28/announcing-the-winners-of-the...

The Supreme Court Takes On 230

March 01, 2023 21:06 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MB

After all these years, the Supreme Court is finally weighing in on Section 230 in the Gonzalez and Taamneh cases, and the outcome could have a very significant impact. Our organization, the Copia Institute, filed an amicus brief in the case, as did many other parties. This week, we're joined by Jess Miers from the Chamber of Progress and lawyer Cathy Gellis (who wrote our amicus brief), both of whom attended the Gonzalez hearing in person, to discuss the status of both cases and what they cou...

The DoNotPay Story, With Kathryn Tewson

February 21, 2023 20:18 - 1 hour - 66.7 MB

If you've been reading Techdirt recently, you probably know all about supposed "AI Lawyer" service DoNotPay and the tireless investigation of the company undertaken by Kathryn Tewson, who has written a couple of Techdirt posts about the saga. This week, Kathryn joins us on the podcast for a long and entertaining discussion about the entire story (so far).

Congress v. Twitter

February 14, 2023 21:09 - 1 hour - 80.3 MB

We've got a double-header of cross-post episodes for you this week! Recently, Mike joined two different podcasts to discuss Congress's response to the Twitter Files and the dumpster fire of a hearing held by the House Oversight Committee: The New Abnormal podcast from the Daily Beast, and The Sunday Show podcast from Tech Policy Press. You can listen to both conversations back-to-back right here in today's extra-long episode.

Margaret Sullivan On The Future Of Media

January 25, 2023 21:17 - 46 minutes - 43 MB

For a brief and interesting time, the New York Times employed a Public Editor to serve as a liaison with its readers. One of the most interesting of these was the fifth, Margaret Sullivan, who would go on to become a media columnist with the Washington Post and then, as of today, a weekly columnist for The Guardian. She also recently published a book, Newsroom Confidential, full of insight drawn from her years of journalism and media experience. This week, Margaret joins us on the podcast to ...

In Defense Of The Global, Open Internet

January 10, 2023 20:58 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MB

There have long been attacks on the global, open nature of the internet. Traditionally these came from authoritarian regimes looking to wall off portions of the internet and exert greater control of them, but lately we've also been seeing growing threats from democratic countries in the form of problematic laws and regulations. Recently, we wrote about an article by Global Network Initiative executive director Jason Pielemeier and Annenberg Public Policy Center research fellow Chris Riley tha...

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