Operating system safety, Twitch's expiring strikes and incentives to collaborate
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.
This week is all about systems; warning strike systems, operating systems and even incentive systems. All have a part to play in the safety of internet users and all are being rethought, some faster than others.
Welcome to new subscribers from Alandar, Global Network Initiative, ActiveFence, Google, Cloudflare, the Oversight Board and, erm, a global supplier of meat products. Like I always say: Content moderation is everywhere you look and everywhere you look is content moderation.
I'm recording the Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast later today without my trusty co-host but with a brilliantly experienced stand-in. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to find out who'll be joining me and to be among the first to hear about new weekly episodes.
Here's your round-up for this week — BW
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
After weeks of defiance, X/Twitter has finally complied with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court (EiM #260), paying fines, and appointing legal representation in the country. According to the New York Times, lost advertising revenue from one of its largest markets and the messy involvement of Starlink seem to have forced Elon Musk to change his mind. The u-turn marks a significant dent the owner’s self-publicised stand for free speech against state regulations. Incidentally, there was only a cryptic mention of the news on his X/Twitter account. Although he did find time to dunk on Ireland’s dropping of its planned hate speech laws. Pot, kettle etc
How about this for a nuanced policy judgement? The Oversight Board has ruled that a post calling Russians and Americans “criminals” was wrongly removed because it "targeted a state or its policies rather than a group of people". The Board has recommended that Meta amend its Hate Speech policy and address how it enforces posts similar to this. Either way, I wouldn’t like to be the moderator trying to make this call on the fly.