MC Weekly Update 5/1: Flops and VLOPs

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

Twitter Corner

• As we predicted, Musk is complying with more government take-down orders than Twitter used to. - Russell Brandom/ Rest of World 
• Don't expect more reporting though, Twitter has stopped sharing takedown orders with Lumen, which is how this data was compiled. - @lumendatabase
• It’s okay though, we have… this? What is this? Is this supposed to be a transparency report? - Twitter
• Meanwhile, Twitter is one of 19 online services designated as a very large online platform (VLOP) or very large online search engine (VLOSE) under the EU’s pending Digital Services Act. Those companies will have to comply with the regulation earlier than smaller platforms and have the most burdensome requirements. - Sam Schechner, Kim Mackrael/ The Wall Street Journal
  • More: The other companies on the list are pretty much what you’d expect, except something called Zalando (we’ll save you a VLOP visit, it’s an online fashion retail company) — good for it!
• Looks like someone in Montana finally talked to a First Amendment lawyer. The state’s recently passed TikTok ban is being held up as the governor seeks amendments to make it broader. If this is an attempt to make it less constitutionally suspect, it isn't a very effective one. - Meghan Bobrowsky/ The Wall Street Journal
• In another disappointing moral panic, the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act was introduced with bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate. The bill would ban kids under 13 from using social media, implement age verification for all users, require parental consent for kids 13-17, and ban recommendation algorithms for minors. - Lauren Feiner/ CNBC, Brian Fung/ CNN, Justin Hendrix/ Tech Policy Press, Morgan Sung/ TechCrunch, Matt Laslo/ Wired
• The decentralized Twitter-alternative Bluesky took off over the past week. The fast-growing social network is still in beta mode and not yet ready for the many trust and safety challenges that lie ahead — it didn’t even have a blocking function until Friday. - Jay Peters/ The Verge

Sports Corner

• Alex is holding his head up high after a historic season came to an end for his beloved Sacramento Kings. - Alex Kramers/ Sacramento Kings

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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