The pitfalls of a Meta-built Community Notes, Germany prepares and AI safety report
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.
I had the pleasure of hanging out with a bunch of EiM subscribers last night at the first Marked as Urgent event and boy was it fun. Thanks to everyone that made it to Newspeak House in London to talk tech policy and content moderation trends in 2025. We're planning another in March — subscribe to our event series to be alerted.
One of the attendees described the current moment in speech policy as a 'Meta dead zone', which resonated with me (this newsletter is proof). The implication was that everyone — regulators, politicians, child safety advocates etc — want to proverbially nail it to wall.
But what happens if or when that happens? Shouldn't the internet — and the conversation about how we regulate it or build it anew — be about more than just Meta (to use a phrase from Maria Farrell)? Comment under today's edition or drop me a line — ben@everythinginmoderation.co — if you have thoughts.
Here's everything in moderation from the last seven days — BW
Today's edition is in partnership with Checkstep, in partnership with Sightengine, AI Moderation Experts
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Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Remember how Temu, the low-cost Chinese commerce platform that has Amazon worried, was designated a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act earlier this year. It seems that the marketplace is getting ahead of the EU’s reporting requirements by “significantly expanding its quality assurance program” by partnering with testing and compliance companies in France and Germany. Article 30 of the DSA requires that marketplaces must have specific information on file about sellers.
On the topic of VLOPs looking good in front of the European Commission, I noted that seven of the largest platforms took part in a roundtable with the German Digital Services Co-ordinator in Berlin ahead of the upcoming federal elections. There's not much of a readout (if you attended, drop me a line) but I suspect there's a fear of a repeat of the Romania election, which will be rerun in mid May. Tech Policy Press had a good piece on why the DSA cannot be a guarantor of completely fair and free elections.