MC Weekly Update 2/27: APIns and APOuts

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

• Meta released its latest quarterly adversarial threat report, outlining influence operations it took down that were linked to Russia, Serbia, Cuba, and Bolivia. - Ben Nimmo, Nathaniel Gleicher/ Meta, Renée DiResta/ @noUpside, Alex Stamos/ @alexstamos
  • More: Alex and Evelyn are among those warning that the Q4 2022 report might mark the last time Meta and Twitter collaborated on addressing influence operations and resisting government data requests. Twitter failed to release its own quarterly report on government requests for data and observed influence operations. - Adam Rawnsley/ Rolling Stone
• TikTok announced a research API, opening an application to academics at nonprofit universities. The application and API details have received criticism for restrictions that would fail to meet academic research standards or return limited data with potentially misleading findings. - Aisha Malik/ TechCrunch, Mia Sato/ The Verge, Joe Bak-Coleman/ Tech Policy Press, Emma Lurie, Dan Bateyko, Frances Schroeder/ Stanford Internet Observatory
• Twitter Corner
  • Twitter delayed changes to API access again (and again), with plans now pushed to some point in “the next few weeks.” But don’t worry, the delays and lack of information about the new deadline or pricing are just due to “an immense amount of enthusiasm for the upcoming changes with Twitter API.” - Ivan Mehta/ TechCrunch,  Lauren Leffer/ Gizmodo, Heidi Ledford/ Nature, Chris Stokel-Walker/ Wired
  • Elon Musk ordered changes to prioritize his tweets in all user timelines following the Super Bowl when the Twitter CEO’s (since deleted) tweet had lower engagement than President Joe Biden’s. - Casey Newton/ Platformer, Faiz Siddiqui, Jeremy Merrill/ The Washington Post
  • First it was the Taliban. Now it’s the Russians buying blue check marks which boost content and give a veneer of authority on Twitter. We’re shocked! - Joseph Menn/ The Washington Post  
  • Twitter will soon only provide SMS-based login authentication, or 2FA, for paid subscribers. While 2FA is the weakest form of multifactor authentication, it is also the most commonly used and significantly more secure than only using a password. - @ZoeSchiffer, Sean Hollister/ The Verge, Lily Hay Newman/ Wired
• Meta is introducing verification with a blue check mark displayed and higher visibility for posts. Déjà vu? - Emma Roth/ The Verge
• Facebook and Instagram are the first platforms to participate in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s “Take It Down” tool for people to submit non-consensual intimate photos or videos recorded of them when they were underage to be hashed and removed by participating platforms. - Antigone Davis/ Meta, Ginger Adams Otis/ The Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Levine/ Forbes
• The European Commission and the EU’s diplomatic service banned TikTok on staff devices and personal devices with work-related apps, citing security concerns. - Emily Rauhala, Beatriz Ríos/ The Washington Post, Monika Pronczuk/ The New York Times, Stuart Lau, Laurens Cerulus/ Politico
• Companies including TikTok, Twitter, Meta, Pinterest, and Snapchat have confirmed they are VLOPs under the DSA and will need to comply with the strictest rules later this year. - Clothilde Goujard/ Politico
• Susan Wojcicki announced she’s stepping down as YouTube CEO in a massive blow to Evelyn’s “Wojcicki to the Hill” campaign. - Peter Kafka/ Vox
• A New York court blocked a state law requiring social media platforms to post policies on “hateful conduct.” - Eugene Volokh/ Reason
• Moderated Content Supreme Court correspondent (and director of Stanford’s Program of Platform Regulation) Daphne Keller was in the courtroom for oral arguments in the Gonzalez and Taamneh cases. If you haven’t already, tune in for those episodes:
  • Tech Law SCOTUS Superbowl First Half: Gonzalez
  • Tech Law SCOTUS Superbowl Second Half: Taamneh

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

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