MC 3/29: It's the Best of Times, It's the Worst of Times, in Platform Transparency
Alex and Evelyn talk about X's lawsuit against CCDH for writing about hate speech on X being thrown out this week, and online rumors about Kate Middelton and the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse, and what they say about the health of our online information ecosystem. Then Brandon Silverman, cofounder and former CEO of CrowdTangle, joins to talk about the state of platform transparency tools in the wake of Meta's announcement that it is going to be shutting the tool down.
Moderated Content · Evelyn Douek, Alex Stamos, Brandon Silverman
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
SHOW NOTES
Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:
- X this week had its lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate thrown out by a Californian district court. It’s a good and important win for free speech. - Emma Roth / The Verge
- A Kremlin-linked group was spreading divisive stories about Kate Middleton as online rumors swirled about her whereabouts. Why? - Mark Lander and Adam Satariano / The New York Times
- In the aftermath of the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, the destruction of X as a platform for useful information about breaking news was all too clear. - A.W. Ohlheiser / Vox
- Meta is shutting down its transparency tool, CrowdTangle. Brandon Silverman joins to talk about the tool and what this means for the future of platform transparency. - Vittoria Elliott / Wired
- Brandon’s substack is Some Good Trouble
- A group of civil society organizations and researchers wrote an open letter objecting to Meta’s decision - Mozilla
- GW’s tracker of Platform Transparency Tools & The Brussels Effect
Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on your favorite social media platform that doesn’t start with “X.”
Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.
Like what you heard? Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!