Europe bears its teeth, political panic about OpenAI hack and YouTube refines partner policy
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 paid members like you.
I’m writing this on the train from Heathrow after getting minimal sleep on the flight from San Francisco. But it was all worth it to meet so many EiM readers in person at TrustCon and to experience the amazing support we had at the live recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech. Go and have a listen wherever you get your podcasts (Spotify, Apple Podcasts).
We had a lot of stories to choose from on the podcast but there’s been several significant regulatory stories since we recorded on Wednesday. One of them — another platform breach announcement from the European Commission — landed just as I was about to hit send. It’s all gearing up for another almighty transatlantic clash over whose speech ideals should govern the internet.
Big thanks to new free subscribers from SatorLabs, Cloudflare, Discord, Roost, Zefr and the Siegel Family Endownment and a handful of new paying members. It’s very easy to do if you haven’t already.
Welcome to your Week in Review and thanks for reading — BW
The trust layer needs a redesign.
At TrustCon 2026, the looming pressure points were hard to miss: AI agents acting with more autonomy, synthetic content testing verification systems, physical AI moving risk beyond the screen, and governance models straining to keep pace.
PwC’s Trust and Safety Outlook 2026 builds on those conversations — and on PwC’s two-part Ctrl-Alt-Speech discussion with Dan Hays — to examine what needs to change next.
The annual Trust & Safety Outlook makes the case that trust and safety can no longer sit downstream as a reactive operating function. It needs to move earlier into product design, governance, operations, and accountability as AI reshapes how digital, physical, and institutional trust are built.
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Google was yesterday found in breach of the Digital Markets Act and handed an €890m fine for preferencing its own services on Google Search and steering consumers via its Play Store. It has instructed the search giant to treat third-party services in a “fair and non-discriminatory manner” and said Google had already started testing changes.
If you ask me (which I realise you didn’t), I’d say that Google doesn’t seem likely to appeal; it’s not mentioned in its short statement from its president of global affairs and the fine pales in comparison with its $400bn in annual revenue.
Broader backdrop: We’re ramping up for the latest round in the ding dong between US and EU officials over the bloc’s speech laws. According to Politco, a joint declaration draft has been circulated by the US administration ahead of September’s UN General Assembly that asks countries to commit to recognise that disinformation, misinformation or hate speech that doesn’t incite violance hinders “freedom of expression”. Sarah Rogers (EiM #335) is involved, as you may not be suprised to learn.
The European Commission has quickly followed up its finding that Meta breached of the Digital Services Act (EiM #344) by fining AliExpress a record €550 million for failing to assess and mitigate risks relating to the sale of illegal, unsafe or counterfeit products on its platform. It surpasses the fine handed out to Temu in June for similar violations (EiM #338)