Who else uses Persona and vendor risks

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork, a podcast that makes sense of the rapidly changing world of tech. Together, they discuss:

• After a deadly raid, an AI power struggle erupts at the Pentagon (Washington Post)
• Following: Anthropic vs. The Pentagon (Platformer)
• Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge (TIME)
• Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web (The Rage)
• Discord is delaying its global age verification rollout (The Verge)
• Reddit fined £14m by UK data watchdog over age verification checks (BBC News)
• How to evaluate Trust & Safety vendors (Everything in Moderation*)
• Regulate platforms, not children – Commissioner urges caution over social media bans (Commissioner for Human Rights)
• MPs reject total ban, want data housed locally (The Star)
• Exclusive: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere (Reuters)

Play along with Ctrl-Alt-Speech’s 2026 Bingo Card and get in touch if you win!

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast from Techdirt and Everything in Moderation. Send us your feedback at podcast@ctrlaltspeech.com and sponsorship enquiries to sponsorship@ctrlaltspeech.com. Thanks for listening.