Rioting and online regulation, a taxonomy for GenAI misuse and Harry & Meghan's support group

Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your in-depth guide to the policies, products, platforms and people shaping the future of online speech and the internet. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.

There are two major stories in town this week and both involve setting fire to something, one literally and the other figuratively. Read on for more about X/Twitter' anti-trust suit and the ongoing UK riots and send me your thoughts about how you think both will play out: ben@everythinginmoderation.co.

Finally, I received a nice bit of news this week: EiM won an award at the Publisher Newsletter Awards 2024! It's been a long road since starting sending the first edition in 2018 and milestones like this prove how far the newsletter — and the T&S industry — have come in that time. Thanks to all of you for subscribing, supporting and reading each week. Onwards and upwards!

Here's your weekly dispatch of content moderation and online speech news — BW

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Policies

New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation

Mike and I touched on it in last week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast but the role of social media in the recent UK riots has continued to be common thread in media coverage throughout the week. In some corners, the events have even led to calls for earlier enforcement of the Online Safety Act.

Here’s a day-by-day rundown of the key stories and talking points: 

• The UK home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed on Monday that social media platforms' failure to act quickly “put rocket boosters” under false narratives that led to riots, reported the Financial Times.
• Death threats to the Cooper and CEO of Hope Not Hate have been posted in Telegram groups, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which also found guides to arson and building bombs.
• Channel 4 spoke to disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones about Elon Musk’s retweeting of mis- and disinformation accounts and his goading of Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister.
• On Wednesday, UK regulator Ofcom shared an open letter with online service provides calling for “video-sharing platforms to ensure their systems and processes are effective” and calling for platforms to “act now” rather than wait for the new safety duties under Online Safety Act.
• Analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that views on far-right activist Tommy Robinson’s X/Twitter posts has surged since the beginning of the riots, despite being on a Cypriot sun lounger.
• Those involved in the riots have been in court this week, including one who could today be the first person jailed for inciting racial hatred during the riots via social media.
• This morning (Friday), a Cabinet minister told Sky News said the new government is “ready to make changes if necessary” to the Online Safety Act with the potential return of “legal but harmful provisions”.