T&S vendors as infrastructure, TikTok defends AI push and when CEOs talk safety
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.
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We're taking a week off from recording Ctrl-Alt-Speech but have a special Spotlight edition which I really enjoyed recording.
Here’s your Week in Review for the last seven days — BW
Join London’s T&S community next Wednesday, 3 December, for an evening of networking, discussion, and shared learning.
Taking place from 6-9pm in Farringdon, Checkstep’s final meetup of 2025 will feature talks from Deloitte and Trustpilot, offering fresh perspectives on the challenges and opportunities shaping the trust and safety landscape.
Alongside the speaker sessions, you’ll have plenty of time to connect with peers across policy, compliance and moderation. It’s the perfect moment to celebrate a fantastic year gone - and to look ahead to what’s coming next for our growing community in 2026!
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
In a ratcheting up of the transatlantic tech policy beef (EiM #280), a senior EU official has accused the United States of “blackmail” in ongoing trade negotiations. Teresa Ribera, Europe’s antitrust chief and the Commission’s second-in-command, told Politico that the US is using economic leverage to force concessions with the Digital Markets Act and, a lesser extent, the Digital Services Act. I mentioned that there was no sign of this diplomatic tension abating (Ctrl-Alt-Speech episode 57) but this — and Meta's recent disgruntled comments — is a real sign of how fraught relations have become.
In India, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has warned Meta, YouTube and other major platforms that they must abide by societal norms or "otherwise there will be stronger regulation". His comments — in which he also emphasised the country’s “techno-legal approach” which differs from other jurisdictions — comes amid a busy few weeks; the government has recently mooted banning “obscene digital content” under its IT Rules, a move which hasn't gone down well with policy pros. The Tech Trace’s Aditi Agrawal has more details.
One of Vaishnaw’s minister, Shri Jitin Prasada, will be appearing at the India Internet Governance Forum this week so it'll be interesting to see if he reiterates that warning.