Content-Moderation

Brendan Carr chairs FCC after writing Project 2025 FCC chapter

| Importance: 6/10

Brendan Carr, who wrote Project 2025’s FCC chapter calling for “reining in Big Tech” and Section 230 reform to combat “tech censorship,” now chairs the FCC implementing his own recommendations. Immediately after appointment, announced plans to “dismantle the …

Brendan Carr FCC Trump Administration Heritage Foundation fcc project-2025 tech-regulation content-moderation personnel-appointments +2 more
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xAI Implements Comprehensive AI Safety Protocols in Response to Investigations

| Importance: 8/10

Following extensive criticism from AI safety researchers, xAI announces partial updates to Grok AI’s safety mechanisms in July 2024. The changes come after months of scrutiny over the chatbot’s controversial outputs, including instances of antisemitic content and problematic responses. …

Elon Musk xAI Samuel Marks Boaz Barak Scott Wiener +1 more ai-safety corporate-accountability tech-regulation ai-ethics content-moderation +1 more
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SCOTUS: Plaintiffs lack standing in social-media coercion case (Murthy v. Missouri)

| Importance: 6/10

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 26, 2024, that neither state nor individual plaintiffs established standing to enjoin federal officials over alleged coercion of social-media platforms. Justice Barrett’s majority opinion found plaintiffs failed to show government actions caused platforms to …

Supreme Court of the United States Justice Amy Coney Barrett (majority opinion) Justice Samuel Alito (dissent) Justice Clarence Thomas (dissent) Justice Neil Gorsuch (dissent) +2 more courts social-media standing first-amendment content-moderation +3 more
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Twitter Transformed to X with Systematic Content Moderation Rollback and Political Weaponization

| Importance: 8/10

Under Musk’s control, Twitter was rebranded to X and underwent systematic dismantling of content moderation systems, transforming the platform from a “global town square” into an oligarchic-controlled information warfare infrastructure. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) …

Elon Musk Twitter/X Platform Center for Countering Digital Hate Eddie Perez Far-right Network Actors social-media media-capture information-warfare platform-manipulation content-moderation
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Facebook Bans Trump Only After He Loses Power, Following January 6 Insurrection It Enabled

| Importance: 9/10

Facebook bans Trump from the platform on January 7, 2021, one day after the Capitol insurrection his election fraud lies helped incite, but only after he has lost political power and can no longer retaliate against the company. The ban follows four years of systematic Terms of Service violations …

Mark Zuckerberg Donald Trump Facebook Facebook Oversight Board facebook trump january-6 content-moderation accountability +3 more
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YouTube Bans QAnon Content Only After Years of Algorithmic Amplification

| Importance: 8/10

On October 15, 2020, YouTube announced it would ban content promoting QAnon and related conspiracy theories that “target individuals”—but the policy came approximately three years after YouTube’s recommendation algorithm began systematically amplifying QAnon from an obscure 4chan …

YouTube Google QAnon movement FBI QAnon believers +1 more youtube qanon conspiracy-theories content-moderation radicalization +2 more
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Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout After Zuckerberg Refuses to Remove Trump Incitement to Violence

| Importance: 9/10

Facebook employees stage an unprecedented virtual walkout protesting Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to take action against Trump’s post threatening violence against protesters, stating “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The employee revolt exposes Facebook’s …

Mark Zuckerberg Donald Trump Facebook Facebook Employees Sheryl Sandberg facebook trump incitement employee-protest content-moderation +3 more
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Zuckerberg Holds Secret White House Dinners with Trump, Kushner, and Thiel to Negotiate Content Moderation

| Importance: 9/10

Mark Zuckerberg conducts secret, unreported meetings with Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and Facebook board member Peter Thiel at the White House to negotiate content moderation policies and regulatory pressure. According to later reporting, Zuckerberg promises to avoid fact-checking political speech …

Mark Zuckerberg Donald Trump Jared Kushner Peter Thiel Facebook +1 more facebook trump-administration regulatory-capture political-influence white-house +3 more
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