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Ben Whitelaw

@benwhitelaw.bsky.social
5.9K followers 1.5K following 820 posts

Founder and editor of everythinginmoderation.co. Co-host & writer of ctrlaltspeech.com puns. Media consultant by day. #LUFC fan by birthright.

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Reposted by Ben Whitelaw
Katie Harbath @katieharbath.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Thanks to @benwhitelaw.bsky.social for having me on the pod this week to promote my new book Disrupting Politics! @masnick.com thanks for letting me sit in your chair for an episode.
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Internet Policy Review @policyr.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
[Brand new call for papers] Monetisation governance in the creator economy, guest-edited by Blake Hallinan, Taylor Annabell, Emilija Jokubauskaitė, & Catalina Goanta policyreview.info/events/call-...
Photo by 愚木混株 Yumusur on Unsplash. Free unsplash license. https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/un-fond-rouge-avec-une-fleche-pointillee-jaune-QDHb81lUpbY?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
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Everything in Moderation @eimdotco.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Published today: T&S Insider by @aagh.bsky.social / [Revisited] Is it time to unite T&S and AI governance? www.everythinginmoderation.co/revisited-un...
everythinginmoderation.co
[Revisited] Is it time to unite T&S and AI governance?
AI is now everywhere, but the teams managing its risks still sit apart from the people who have spent decades dealing with online harms. Eighteen months after first arguing they belong together, Alice...
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A labrador would be a solid choice for a dog PM
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keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 27/09/2026
This what Garfield Benjamin called “squeeveillance” in his excellent piece on cuteness and surveillance in Surveillance & Society from 2024: ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/su...
ojs.library.queensu.ca
Squeeveillance: Performing Cuteness to Normalise Surveillance Power | Surveillance & Society
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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 26/09/2026
Meta's platforms have repeatedly been caught running ads for deepfake "nudify" apps that let you virtually undress real people without their consent, but they won't run an a trailer for an upcoming documentary that reflects poorly on Elon Musk. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing “political” content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 26/09/2026
That last one, from Sean Davis of TheFederalist is particularly stupid. After Google *temporarily* removed TheFederalist from its ad program BECAUSE THE FEDERALIST VIOLATED GOOGLE'S RULES, he ran to the media and to Congress about how it was "CENSORSHIP"
TESTIMONY OF
THE FEDERALIST CEO AND CO-FOUNDER SEAN DAVIS
For the
UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND
TRANSPORTATION
OCTOBER 8, 2025
SHUT YOUR APP: HOW UNCLE SAM JAWBONED BIG TECH INTO SILENCING
AMERICANS
Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Cantwell, and members of the committee, thank you for
inviting me to testify on behalf of First Amendment speech and press rights and against
authoritarian censorship designed to shut down the free speech rights of American citizens.
My name is Sean Davis, and I am the CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, a conservative
digital media company focused on politics, culture, and religion. I am a Christian, a conservative,
and a political commentator and reporter. I am also the victim of illegal and unconstitutional
censorship by my government which was targeted at my publication, my publication, and me
personally.
The First Amendment affirms and protects five God-given rights: free speech, religion, press,
assembly, and petition. In my capacity as the publisher of a major national media outlet which
produces news and opinion, an infringement on or abridgement of any one of those five rights
can be cataclysmic.
Unfortunately, my publication, our writers, and I were all directly targeted for destruction by my
own government, using my tax dollars. Even worse, much of the targeting was done in secret, by
individuals and institutions who were desperate to hide their illegal and unconstitutional actions
against us. This long-running conspiracy to deprive us of our God-given First Amendment rights
is illegal, unconstitutional, and unconscionable. Sadly, many senators who sit on this committee
either refused to condemn and fight these censorship efforts, or outright supported them.
In the summer of 2020, at the behest of foreign government-connected organizations, Google
attempted to demonetize The Federalist for the apparent crime of criticizing American
government response to and media coverage of COVID-19 and the violent B…
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast @ctrlaltspeech.com · 26/09/2026
At the UN General Assembly, world leaders had a lot to say about artificial intelligence (or as Trump calls it... Super Intelligence). But what did all their statements actually amount to? @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now!
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Published today: @eimdotco.bsky.social #356 / The other AI alignment problem, Discord takes a guess and new Ofcom probe www.everythinginmoderation.co/the-uns-othe...
everythinginmoderation.co
The other AI alignment problem, Discord takes a guess and new Ofcom probe
The need-to-know developments shaping digital platforms, online speech and internet safety - edition #356
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 25/09/2026
🚨🚨🚨 Somehow Ben and I found some hopeful stories in this week's @ctrlaltspeech.com! (You are following the new @ctrlaltspeech.com account, right?).
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I really like this episode because @masnick.com cover the big stories of the week (AI regulation at UNGA and Discord age assurance) but also find reasons to be hopeful about the future of internet governance too ✨
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Spot the difference
Winnie the Pooh and EyeoreXi Jinping and Donald Trump
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Special guest on this week’s @ctrlaltspeech.com, available for Patreon supporters now and all feeds later today www.patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeec...
Mike Masnick holds a cute doggo alongside Ben Whitelaw at the end of a Ctrl Alt Speech recording
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Dave Rudden @daveruddenwrites.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My five year old has the soul of Orson Welles. We were outside school and he 'put a kiss in my pocket for later.' Extremely touched by this, I gave him two back. He dug out the second one, THEATRICALLY CRUSHED IT IN HIS FIST and said 'one is enough.'
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Juliet Shen @julietshen.online · 21/09/2026
some of the editing I've been doing for @wikipedia.org got covered by in Everything in Moderation, a newsletter by @benwhitelaw.bsky.social! There is still a lot to do, and if there's one thing wiki and atproto have taught me: WE CAN JUST DO THINGS! www.everythinginmoderation.co/trust-safety...
everythinginmoderation.co
Why T&S needs a Wikipedia-thon
Wikipedia is often the first stop for anyone trying to understand T&S and yet its coverage of the industry is woefully thin. It's time that was fixed
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast @ctrlaltspeech.com · 21/09/2026
A sneak peek at the Patreon-only segment of the latest episode! @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss the idea of "pacing the frontier" in AI, whether it will really happen, and whether it raises antitrust questions. Subscribe for extended episodes every week: patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeech
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Our discussion should inspire you to read @jburnmurdoch.ft.com’s excellent op-ed about why “digital distractions” aren’t the only reason 15-year-old’s are failing maths and reading tests as.ft.com/r/d11a577b-8...
as.ft.com
We are setting up a generation to fail at school
The disturbing global decline in test results rests on wrong-headed curriculum changes
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Shoos us away from the rot beneath the flower box" is such a wonderful turn of phrase to describe the design approach being taken by frontier labs and their CEOs right now. Thank you @eryk.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/to-make-ai-r...
techpolicy.press
To Make AI Rules, Policymakers Must Resist the Influence of ‘Radical Intentionalists’
In industry rhetoric, a radical intentionalist stance dominates any interpretation of model behavior, writes Eryk Salvaggio.
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The debate about whether DCL should've been allowed to leave #EVE has finally reached diplomatic levels
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al-fadaddy.bsky.social @al-fadaddy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Yes. It was the hat.
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If Bogle isn’t in the next England squad, call me Djed bloody Spence. Magnificent again tonight #lufc
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I can recommend a dozen people off the top of my head. And no, Adrian Chiles is not one of them
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
My plea to all publications: please get an actual internet speech/rights expert to write about the AI regulation debate rather than have your weekly columnist spout off just to fill space
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Trying (and somewhat failing) not to be an exclusively AI safety podcast.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast @ctrlaltspeech.com · 11/09/2026
Australia's newest social media policy, AI's existential risk, Marco Rubio's attacks on internet speech, and more this week on Ctrl-Alt-Speech. Episode 120: Duty of Careful What You Wish For Out now wherever you get your podcasts! podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...
podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com
Duty of Careful What You Wish For - Ctrl-Alt-Speech
Become a Ctrl-Alt-Speech supporter to get extended episodes of the podcast plus the chance to submit stories for us to cover. In this week's episode, Mike and Ben cover:Australians will be a...
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Chris Messina @chrismessina.me · 25/07/2026
Honestly, WTF #WhenCaptchasAttack
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 11/09/2026
Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It Persists
Reviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
what is this, 2019?
pangram screenshot showing 100% written by humans
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The discussion on the commercial applications of the Tigrayan language that you didn’t know you needed (Or perhaps didn’t want at all)
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast @ctrlaltspeech.com · 06/09/2026
A new study explores how and why people use chatbots for emotional support. One of the main reasons? They know the chatbot isn't human, and can't judge them. @masnick.com and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social discuss on the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, out now Listen & Subscribe at ctrlaltspeech.com
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Another reason for #lufc fans to be happy about the transfer window: Arsenal reportedly had Tarik Muharemovic on their 21-player summer wish list 👀
bbc.co.uk
Arsenal transfer news: Gunners had more than 20 players on summer shortlist
Senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel goes inside Arsenal's bid to capitalise on their Premier League title and strengthen their squad this summer.
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Not as much as it tells us about how casually some existing, mature *offline* identity vertificiton vendors keep data they don’t need
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
‘Putting a ribbon cutting ceremony on a building that’s yet to pass its safety test’ is such a good description of the ChatGPT for Teens announcement
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
£18bn might sound like a lot but not when you put it like this
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Safer, Built by Thorn @safer.io · 01/09/2026
In the latest episode of Safe Space, we bring together @yoyoel.com, @vaishnavi.bsky.social, and @benwhitelaw.bsky.social for a roundtable on how trust and safety tells its story. Listen to the full episode here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/safe-s...
linkedin.com
Safe Space, a Trust & Safety Podcast: TrustCon Roundtable
Greater transparency in trust and safety doesn’t have to begin with a whistleblower, a major media interview, or a public controversy. In this roundtable episode of Safe Space, Yoel Roth, Ben Whitelaw, and Vaishnavi J explore practical ways practitioners can share their knowledge with less risk.
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech Podcast @ctrlaltspeech.com · 01/09/2026
Meta's $18bn settlement - why making YouTube and TikTok follow suit is a weird move From the latest episode of Ctrl-Alt-Speech, "Move Fast and Settle Things". Out NOW!
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 28/08/2026
If you back CtlAltSpeech on Patreon, this was already in your feed yesterday, but in the episode that is about to come out for free backers as well... I go on a bit of a rant on our latest episode about how the Meta settlement is regulatory capture for Meta through judicial settlement...
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
That’s this week’s Ctrl-Alt-Speech sorted @masnick.com as.ft.com/r/5e7b16e8-e...
as.ft.com
Meta to pay up to $18bn to settle children’s social media harm case
Case relating to alleged failures of child protection was getting under way in California
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 18/08/2026
Sam Altman told me I was a very special boy specifically tasked with passing on his noble messages of goodwill to humanity
time.com
OpenAI Is Slowing Down Its AI Training
The company is pausing frontier training efforts and shifting resources towards safety
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
“The difficult truth is that if Arday were white, a professor facing allegations of plagiarism would probably still be in post. And if Arday were white, then a father of two would probably still be alive.“ - @stephenkb.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/3de81f85-8...
ft.com
The difficult truth about Jason Arday
From the beginning, investigations were accompanied by a cloud of excessive references to his race
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
After more arrests in Cueta, it’s a good time to check out this week’s Ctrl Alt Speech. @masnick.com and I get into whether platforms are too easy a target for politicians and the important topic of what kind of podcast sound effect we should use for Theirry Breton. www.patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeec...
patreon.com
Watermark My Words | Ctrl-Alt-Speech
Watermark My Words by Ctrl-Alt-Speech on Patreon. Join Ctrl-Alt-Speech's community for exclusive content and updates.
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HK @hkesvani.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I think it’s just worth remembering that as the media handwring to justify publicly humiliating and hounding a man to death, just two weeks ago they gave glowing eulogies to another man with a history of domestic violence and brushed off his own statements about having pedophillic impulses
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Get it while it's hot
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Toby Earle 🇺🇦 @tobyontv.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
the prosecution rests, your honour
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This DCL interview (what a likeable bloke) has thrown up ready-made alternative #LUFC Willy Gnontochant “Willy Gnonto x2 He eats spaghetti He drinks Moretti He smells f****** cracking” (See 0:50 seconds in) youtu.be/4kjpD9floKA
youtu.be
Dominic Calvert-Lewin Unpacks "Euphoria" Form With Leeds United, Leaving Everton & Measuring Success
YouTube video by Men in Blazers
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
me: this doesn't feel great anyone who has booked a pilates class in London: how do I get my hands on this www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
How a simple request for AI to book a gym class exposed a major threat
When Andrew asked his AI personal assistant to book him a spot in a gym class, he had no idea he would accidentally initiate an autonomous cyber attack.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 08/08/2026
Ben and I dug deep on a bunch of stories in this week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech...
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Ben Whitelaw @benwhitelaw.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Not been keeping up with the Gen Z protests in India? Wondering why Meta has apologised? Curious why TikTok is in hot water? @masnick.com and I have got you covered it this week’s Ctrl-Alt-Speech. www.patreon.com/CtrlAltSpeec...
patreon.com
In the Modi for Takedowns | Ctrl-Alt-Speech
In the Modi for Takedowns by Ctrl-Alt-Speech on Patreon. Join Ctrl-Alt-Speech's community for exclusive content and updates.
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
the republicans rail against efforts to address disinformation, which they claim isn't a thing, while hypocritically (1) setting up their own propaganda networks & (2) constantly attacking 'fake news'. these free speech phonies just ooze bad faith.
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Katie Harbath @katieharbath.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I wrote Disrupting Politics for many reasons, but one was that I didn't want anyone else telling my story. This book is dedicated to the people in the arena with me: trust and safety, campaigns, tech policy, doing hard work that rarely gets the nuance it deserves. open.substack.com/pub/anchorch...
open.substack.com
Why I Wrote Disrupting Politics and Why It's Not Just About Facebook
An insider's look at the decisions nobody had a playbook for and why I had to tell it myself
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