Backdoors and Backsteps

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben are joined by a group of students from the Media Law and Policy class at the American University School of Communication. Together they cover:U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users’ encrypted accounts (Washington Post)US lawmakers respond to the UK’s Apple encryption backdoor request (Engadget)UK: Encryption order threatens global privacy rights (Human Rights Watch)Analysis: AI Summit emphasizes innovation and competition over trust and safety (DFR Lab)An overdue idea for making the internet safer just got the funding it needs (Platformer)Google-backed public interest AI partnership launches with $400M+ for open ecosystem building (Techcrunch)Britain dances to JD Vance’s tune as it renames AI institute (Politico) Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)–M.P. v. Meta (Eric Goldman)TikTok Opts to Not Take Section 230 Immunity Fight to the US Supreme Court (Law.com)Shopify says risk of fraud, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye West store takedown (The Logic)This episode is brought to you with financial support from the Future of Online Trust & Safety Fund.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) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation).