DSA turns three, age verification breach at Discord and another EiM book recommendation
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.
From the enforcement headaches of regulators to new data on child exploitation and a sharp look at Community Notes, there’s plenty to unpack in this week's EiM.
If you're looking to go deeper on the Digital Services Act — which turned three this week — I thoroughly recommend this week's Ctrl-Alt-Speech podcast, where I was joined by Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe. He's at the coal-face of the Act and knows a thing or two about compliance.
If you’re thinking about how to drive change inside your own organisation, there’s a course below that might just help. And don't forget to change your newsletter settings if two emails a week is too much.
Here's everything in moderation from the last seven days — BW
The Systems Change for Tech & Society Leaders course — run by Untangled's Charley Johnson — helps professionals working in and around tech navigate complex change with confidence.
Past attendees include executives, researchers, and policy leads from across the trust and safety world. And their testimonials say it all.
Two new cohorts begin in October and November — and applications are open now. Submit your details to learn more. (And full disclosure: EiM earns a small referral fee for every reader who signs up.)
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
It’s three years since the Digital Services Act (DSA) was passed — which I describe as ‘the anniversary of being exclusive’ in this week’s podcast — but how is the EU’s legislation going? AlgorithmWatch offers a sobering assessment: while the legislation provides a valuable framework, real-world implementation of data access and risk assessment lags far behind where it could be. The piece points out a number of things I’ve touched on in EiM: enforcement is patchy and there’s a need for stronger oversight bodies, particularly Digital Service Co-ordinators.
For the first time, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has issued data mid way through a year following a “staggering” rise in online harm reports. The numbers for 2025 are almost double that of 2024, despite only having data through June this year. The big driver of the increase is generative artificial intelligence (GAI) which includes using a child’s face to blackmail them. With recent launches of AI social platforms, including one that has been likened to giving deepfakes “a publicist and a distribution deal”, these numbers are sadly only increase.