Meta's teen defaults go global, under-16 ban begins and why takedowns don't always work
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.
At school, if you wanted to get good test scores, you'd get a friend to mark your test for you or, if you were particularly cunning, mark it yourself. While both approaches can deliver results, no-one wins in the long run.
Today's newsletter has a whiff of that. Governments are citing evidence to justify social media bans, platforms validating their own safety features and AI companies setting a course that no-one asked for. Prove your solution works, win the argument, hope everyone moves on.
Talking of scrutiny, welcome to new subscribers joining EiM from Germany, Pakistan, Singapore, Italy, the US, India, the Netherlands, Morocco and elsewhere. EiM is a globally focused newsletter with a global audience. Share your feedback about today's edition or send me stories you think I've missed or that merit inclusion.
Here's your Week in Review — BW
Everything in Moderation* remains independent, reader-supported and relentlessly focused on the issues shaping online speech, platform governance and Trust & Safety. Here's how you can support that work:
💡 Become an EiM member and get unlimited access to the EiM archive, including the entire back catalogue of Alice Hunsberger's T&S Insider.
📎 Recommend organisational access so your whole team can benefit from ongoing access to all parts of EiM!
💸 Leave a tip whenever an edition teaches you something new, saves you time or gives you a useful link to share.
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Malaysia became the fourth country globally and the second in southeast Asia (EiM #334) to implement an under-16s social media ban, as measures began rolling out on Monday (June 1). The ban affects platforms with more than 8 million Malaysian users — including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube — with users having a month to download their data. CNA has previously reported that a host of other countries in the region, including Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand, are likely to follow suit with a ban.
Money mismatch: Non-compliant platforms could face sanctions of RM10m ($2.5m), far less than the ceiling imposed by EU and UK regulators. For context, YouTube — one of the companies affected by the new law — made an average of $126m A DAY from global ad sales in the last three months of 2026. The fine is basically a rounding error.
One story that I missed during last week’s UK heatwave: Temu has been hit with a largest fine to date under the Digital Services Act for failing to check its service for illegal products. The €200m fine — which makes the €120m hit that Elon took look modest — is below the 6% annual global revenue, or €2.8bn, that it could have been enforced. Temu has three months to address the issues identified by the European Commission. Politico has the write-up.