EU faces DSA enforcement blow, Grok tests regulators and news comments are back
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.
Hello to lots of new subscribers coming via New_ Public and Nieman Lab, where I wrote (at some length) about a topic that's close to my heart (see Products section of today's newsletter).
EiM is read by a wonderfully mixed bunch and the influx of new subscribers reflects that; welcome to folks from Discord, the University of Edinburgh, DuckDuckGo, Resolver, WSJ, Süddeutsche Zeitung, JP/Politikens Hus, Logora, and the University of California. Let's keep it that way.
That mix matters, because this year EiM is focused on three things: fostering connections across disciplines, raising voices that don’t always get heard, and working together on the hard questions. Alice and I have even written it down — which means there’s no going back.
If you like your internet safety and online speech round-ups in podcast form and with an American lilt, check out Ctrl-Alt-Speech, which I co-host every week with Mike Masnick (founder of Techdirt and originator of the Streisand effect, no less). This week is a heady mix of Elon Musk and Sir Keir Starmer. Don't let that put you off, though; check it out on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Here's what you need to know this week — BW
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Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Donald Trump this week cast sought to cast another blow to the Digital Services Act, this time via another means: the Polish president. Karol Nawrocki vetoed national legislation that would implement the DSA, calling it “administrative censorship” and referring to George Orwell’s 1984 in the process. Politico points out that the comments strongly echo the US’s previous statement on the DSA made back in July last year. Poland has courted US security for many years and increasingly so since the Russia-Ukraine war.
Out in the Pole-d: Poland is one of just a handful of countries that haven't passed national legislation enforcing the DSA and was referred to the European Court of Justice for its troubles in May last year. It means there is no Digital Service Co-ordinators, no trusted flaggers in the country and no way for citizens to make use of online dispute settlement bodies. Might others follow suit to appease Mr Trump?