Going to the Ballot Bot

Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week’s episode, Ben is joined by Katie Harbath, Meta’s former director of public policy for global elections and now founder of technology policy firm Anchor Change. She is also the author of Disrupting Politics, out on Tuesday. Together they discuss: TSE (Brazil Election Commission) clarifies rules on deepfakes in the 2026 elections (O Diário do Paraná) AI tools keep recommending candidates, monitoring finds (Tribuna Livre Brasil) On Eve of Brazil Elections, Meta Content Moderation Decisions Raise Questions (Tech Policy Press) Deepfakes, foreign-run accounts and unauthorised ads, new research exposes Meta's Brazil election ad machine (Ekō) Social media ban for under-16s to come into effect next March, Culture Secretary confirms (LBC) Trump says top tech firms have signed accord to 'self-police' AI development (NPR) And in the extended episode for Patreon supporters, they cover: Meta-Led Anti-Terrorism Group Faces Mass Resignation of Expert Advisers (WIRED) Meta to report child abuse material directly to Indian authorities (BBC) Some NPR podcasts started getting mysterious comments on Spotify (Instagram) Content Moderation Knowledge Sharing Shouldn't Be A Backdoor To Cross-Platform Censorship (Techdirt) J.M. Berger on resigning from GIFCT’s Independent Advisory Committee (Bluesky) Mark: A journey to the heart of history’s largest nonterritorial empire (Colossus) Our fun links this week include legal-walls.net for all your legal graffiti questions and, courtesy of Katmai National Park in Alaska, Fat Bear Week. If you’re already a Patreon supporter, you can get the extended episode on Patreon. Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky. 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).