Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:
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:
“Government, Platform Communication, Jawboning, and the First Amendment)”
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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