MC "Weekly" Update 9/6: We will not be silenced!

Moderated Content

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

• OpenAI published a blog promoting how the company’s most powerful large language model, GPT-4, is being used to update platform policy and enforce content moderation rules faster and more consistently than human reviewers. - Priya Anand/ Bloomberg News, Reed Albergotti/ Semafor, Simon Hurtz/ The Verge, Lilian Weng, Vik Goel, Andrea Vallone/ OpenAI
  • Did they forget a section on the importance of human review? Not quite, but you have to actually read the blog to see that this is experimental and focused on updating platform policies and then assisting human experts with policy enforcement.
  • Alex has been testing GPT-4-based moderation tools in the classroom with his students and surprised Evelyn with his optimism. - Casey Newton/ Platformer
• Meanwhile, the company is failing to enforce its own policy against using ChatGPT to create materials that target specific voting demographics. Everything is a content moderation issue, and the policy you have is the policy you actually enforce. - Cat Zakrzewski/ The Washington Post
  
• Apple is back in the news again under pressure from a new child safety advocacy campaign pushing the company to do more to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM) after the company scrapped plans to scan user content for CSAM. - Tripp Mickle/ The New York Times, Lily Hay Newman/ Wired
• Meta announced it took down the largest Chinese influence operation, known as “Spamouflage,” saying the campaign was fairly basic and ineffective despite operating across thousands of accounts across more than 50 apps. - Sheera Frenkel/ The New York Times, Sarah E. Needleman/ The Wall Street Journal

X-Twitter Corner

• Musk is threatening to sue the ADL, but that doesn’t actually mean he is going to sue the ADL. It’s yet another humiliating example of Musk undercutting the authority of X “CEO” Linda Yaccarino. - Sebastian Tong/ Bloomberg News, Jordan Valinsky/ CNN

Happy DSA Day!

• The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force for the largest online platforms and search engines on August 25. - Théophane Hartmann/ Euractiv, Chris Velazco/ The Washington Post
  • Companies released blog posts about how oh-so-seriously they are taking their obligations with a mix of actually positive steps and completely performative measures. - Nick Clegg/ Meta
  • Meanwhile, the European Commission released a “Case Study” on risk assessment under the DSA for Russian disinformation, and boy-oh-boy do we have thoughts. It's a scary document that seems to validate concerns from those who worry the DSA will be used to repress speech. - European Commission
• Meta decided not to follow the Oversight Board’s recommendation to suspend former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s account. The decision raises questions about what the multi-month Board case achieved and how Meta views the purpose of the Board when it disregards its expert input in high-profile cases like this. - Meta Transparency Center

• Casey Newton has an in-depth report on why the notorious Kiwi Farms website is still up and what content moderation looks like at the infrastructure layer. - Casey Newton/ Platformer

Legal Corner

• Another U.S. Supreme Court content moderation showdown seems inevitable as the Biden administration filed an opinion encouraging the Court to take up the NetChoice cases challenging Florida and Texas laws that would restrict moderation action on political content and accounts. - Rebecca Klar/ The Hill, Makena Kelly/ The Verge, Cat Zakrzewski/ The Washington Post
  • The solicitor general’s brief stated the obvious by arguing there is a circuit split, the questions in the cases are important, and all parties want the review.
• A federal judge in Texas ruled a state law requiring age verification for adult websites is unconstitutional, blocking enforcement due to a “chilling effect” in a state where sodomy is illegal. - Ashley Belanger/ Ars Technica, Adi Robertson/ The Verge
  • The Texas Office of the Attorney General is expected to appeal the decision in the case brought by the Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry trade association.
• A federal judge in Arkansas ruled that a law requiring age verification and parental consent to create an account on social media websites is likely unconstitutional, granting NetChoice’s request to block the law from taking effect on September 1. - Andrew Demillo/ Associated Press, Rebecca Kern/ Politico
  • Evelyn is not quite sure what to make of these two pretty decent opinions that faithfully applied precedent, but it will definitely be a big year in First Amendment law for the internet and we will be here to cover all of it!

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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