Disputed decisions, an LLM for spotting foreign ops and the book Meta didn't want you to read
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.
Hello longstanding EiM readers and welcome new ones from Pinterest, the Christchurch Call, TikTok, Heat Initiative, Check First Network, X/Twitter, KokoCares and elsewhere.
Exciting news: I’m hosting another Marked as Urgent event with two other newsletter founders, the excellent Georgia Iacovou (Horrific/Terrific) and the equally stellar Mark Scott (Digital Politics). It’s in London, UK on Thursday 27th March; register here and come along to meet some other EiM readers in the flesh.
This week, we’ve seen actors in the online speech pushing back; users against platform decisions, citizens against election results (and their subsequent appeals) and moderators against poor working conditions.
That resistance has caused pockets of uncertainty and I found this week — even more than others — left me with more questions than usual. That’s reflected in this week’s Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast, where I’m back in the chair with Mike to discuss books, bad laws and BBQ.
Enough of me, here's your Week in Review — BW
Today's edition is in partnership with Checkstep, the all-in-one Trust & Safety Platform
Heading to London for the Trust & Safety Summit 2025? Don’t miss our exclusive Trust & Safety Gaming breakfast session on Thursday, March 27, where we’ll dive into the evolving landscape of safety in gaming within our amazing offices at UKIE and with partners Modulate and Thriving in Games.
We’re bringing together industry leaders for a fireside chat on measuring success in Trust & Safety: Guillaume Bouchard (Checkstep), Dr. Rachel Kowert (Discord), Matt Soeth (Thriving in Games Group, prev. Fair Play Alliance), Terry Chen (Modulate).
Following the discussion, join us for an interactive workshop on digital thriving, exploring strategies to create safer, more inclusive gaming spaces.
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
One of the Online Dispute Settlement bodies set up under the Digital Services Act has announced that more than 1500 users have appealed content decisions by Facebook, TikTok and YouTube since November last year — but said platforms need to do more to “make out-of-court dispute settlement accessible to users as required by the law.” Appeals Centre Europe, one of six registered ODS bodies, also wrote in a blogpost that, of the 140 cases about content on Facebook, 55% have overturned the original decision. TikTok and YouTube will have their first decisions — which are not binding — issued soon.
Independently minded?: ACE has previously faced questions for its funding structure so the fact that it recommended overturning more than half of the 141 complaints about Facebook content should assuage those that think it’s another part of Meta’s sprawling apparatus. At least for now. The bigger issue in my mind is getting users to know about the process; even people campaigning against artistic censorship said they “don’t know if [they] would use it due to time”.
Remember the furore around TikTok’s involvement in last year’s Romanian election result? (EiM #279) This week, Calin Georgescu — who we discussed in a recent episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech — lost his appeal and was barred from running in the rescheduled election in May. It’s a significant update to a story that will continue to run, not least because the pro-Putin candidate had been polling at 40% at the start of the month. It has led to violence in Bucharest, reaction from Elon Musk and fears of a coup in the country.
PS: The ChatGPT prompts of the UK minister responsible for the Online Safety Act have been revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. I’m mostly upset about the fact that, when Peter Kyle asked for podcast recommendations to appear on, the response didn’t include Ctrl-Alt-Speech. In future, he might want to ask it "how to easily exempt small sites from the Online Safety Act?".