MC Weekly Update 10/23: The Enemies of Progress
Alex and Evelyn discuss the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" posted by Marc Andreessen this week and whether one can love technology and also think about risk management at the same time. Tricky! They then discuss the ongoing challenges of moderating during war, the Supreme Court's cert grant of the jawboning case out of the 5th circuit, and Threads' position on news.
Moderated Content · Evelyn Douek, Alex Stamos
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Show Notes
Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:
- Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of venture capitalism firm Andreessen Horowitz and the Netscape web browser, wrote a lengthy blog post with an ode to technology. He also manages to declare trust and safety “the enemy” in the rambling screed of more than 5,000 words. - Dan Primack/ Axios, Marc Andreessen/ Andreessen Horowitz
- Have you “properly glorified” technology today?
Moderating the War
- Meta got a headline you never want in 404 Media: “Instagram ‘Sincerely Apologizes’ For Inserting ‘Terrorist’ Into Palestinian Bio Translations.” - Samantha Cole/ 404 Media
- But don’t worry, Meta said it is “sorry” for “inappropriate Arabic translations.” - Liv McMahon, Joe Tidy/ BBC News
- The Wall Street Journal had a big story on the tensions and challenges within Meta over moderation of speech in Palestinian territories. - Sam Schechner, Jeff Horwitz, Newley Purnell/ The Wall Street Journal
- The jawboning continues: The European Commission issued formal requests for information to Meta and TikTok about how the social media companies are removing illegal content and curbing disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war to comply with the Digital Services Act. - Kelvin Chan/ Associated Press, Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Bart H. Meijer/ Reuters, Natasha Lomas/ TechCrunch, Emma Roth/ The Verge
- Dozens of civil society organizations sent a letter to European Commissioner Thierry Breton alleging a misunderstanding of key components of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in letters sent to major social media companies about how they are handing information related to the Israel-Hamas war. - Clothilde Goujard/ Politico Pro
Legal Corner
- Speaking of jawboning, the Supreme Court will hear a jawboning case out of the Fifth Circuit which ruled that a broad swath of the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in their engagement with social media platforms. - Lawrence Hurley/ NBC News, Julia Shapero/ The Hill, Adam Liptake/ The New York Times, Supreme Court (.pdf)
- Go deeper with our previous discussions on this case with University of Chicago Law professor Genevieve Lakier:
- Threads is still working out what it wants to be and says suppression of search terms on controversial news topics. - Sarah Perez/ TechCrunch
Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.
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.
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