Ben Whitelaw
@benwhitelaw
Founder and editor of everythinginmoderation.co. Co-host & writer of ctrlaltspeech.com puns. Media consultant by day. #LUFC fan by birthright.
There’s lots of reasons to listen to Ctrl-Alt-Speech this week including Zuck being compared to Stone Cold Steve Austin. But the #1 reason is @masnick.com managing to insult both Scooby Doo and my fair homeland in one breadth.
Finally get to record an episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech in actual person with @masnick.com this week. Real-life audience too (if folks show up). Lots of good stories to chew over. Episode out on Friday — and earlier for Patreon supporters.
For Patreon supporters, Niklas and I go deeper on the recent EU decision to find Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act for 'addictive design' — and what it means for US and EU relations
I’m generally a fan of @wired.com’s coverage and particularly its focus on platform power. But this critique of Atlantic writer Ian Bogost doesn’t sit well at all. Talk about playing the man not the ball.
This week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech is live on Patreon! Featuring @masnick.com on Anthropic's Fable 5 model, its approach to safety issues and the "real-time public tweaking of the knobs as to what's allowed and not allowed". Plus me Apple's T&S focus at #WWDC. Live via all other platforms later today.
One half of our Welsh brigade deep in conversation at the final whistle. Ampadu had already gone down the tunnel shaking his head. Not many smiles. But goes to show how far we’ve come this year that that performance isn’t up to scratch. Onto next year #lufc
If you think the Premier League is dramatic this year, get a load of the Trophy of Champions, the finale of traditional Camargue bull racing. And the best bit: no VAR.
Not sure how @masnick.com will take this Ctrl-Alt-Speech review but "funny in a dad joke kind of way" has been my modus operandi since the age of 12. Nice to see all the work finally paying off.
The sweet, sweet irony of a US federal judge calling the US administration ‘Orwellian’ for attempting to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk. Perfection. as.ft.com/r/cd800700-0...
Apple releasing a ‘distorted face’ emoji this week — of all weeks — is so apt
Apple rolled out UK age checks in this week’s update. Whether you think that’s good or bad, surely it merits mention in update notes? I’m in the UK and this is what I see before updating
I’m not a Pocket Casts user but I’m able to play the latest episode (albeit without being logged in). Wonder if there’s something else affecting it?
The messy relationship between the media and how companies do Trust & Safety has fascinated me since working in early 2010 newsrooms. So I enjoyed going deeper into with @masnick.com in special episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech — The (Content Moderation) Eras Tour (apologies to all Tay-Tay fans) [1/x]
My Stoop Inbox account — which I used for managing newsletters — wasn't updating. So I emailed the team and it turns out it's been closed down :( Any suggestions for apps to read/categorise/search newsletters? Is @feedly.com good for that now?
Australian adults: under 16s don't understand tech or policy and need us to protect them Zoe: hold my (ginger) beer
The Northern Line runs from High Barnet in the north to Morden in the south. Linda’s family home must’ve been somewhere on the line for her to reference it. Or it held some other significance that meant it was worth mentioning. Doesn’t narrow it down very much but it’s something.
Ok Bluesky, let’s give this a go: I found this postcard in the back of a photo frame I bought at a London thrift shop. It’s an unsent postcard from a woman called Linda to her parents. The front shows the Kremlin in Moscow and the stamp says 1984 (!). I’d love to return it to Linda - can you help?
There's something quite wonderful about X/Twitter's Head of Global Government Affairs saying the company invests "significant resources to improve the enforcement capabilities across the world” *just days after* Elon said that it doesn't "censor people"
Didn’t foresee that gen AI would so quickly form part of the way that disenfranchised and generally unimpressed audiences get back at ‘legacy media’ but here we are www.semafor.com/article/10/2...
This chart (via @jburnmurdoch.ft.com’s latest article) adds another dimension to the transatlantic tech policy wars (beyond First Amendment differentiator). Social media platforms are a bigger part of public life and the usage sustains platform lobbyists and calls for voluntary codes.
Pretty strange that the EU's new explainer on the Digital Services Act (what it is, how it's enforced, ongoing investigations) doesn't mention the one that's been going on the longest — against X/Twitter (from December 2023)
Honestly, feckless is criminally underused and deserves a renaissance (from FT coverage of Google anti-trust case)
Not saying this won’t happen but the Birmingham Mail article credits a gossip blog whose ‘exclusive’ is based on comments by a Labour MP in 2022…
Earlier this week: Ofcom send an email claiming X/Twitter has committed to age-gating as part of Online Safety Act compliance. Yesterday: X/Twitter published page about age assurance options in which it notes 'measures should be made available in the following weeks'. Missed deadline?
This man deserves a proper reception on Monday. Easy to forget that he came in post Allardyce experiment, with 49ers newly in situ, and had to get rid of 15 senior players. No wonder he’s dancing now. #lufc
"The most important thing is to create a togetherness and unity within this club again and, from today onwards, I will work on it with my staff and players and I trust our supporters will be there when we need them. I can't wait for the first game of the season” - Daniel Farke, July 2023 Job done ✅