Ben Lennett

@benlennett.bsky.social

Managing Editor for Tech Policy Press. Opinions are my own.

Tim Bernard is reading a selection of the Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) systemic risk assessments released in late November 2024 in compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). This first installment considers Facebook and Instagram reports:

Reading the Systemic Risk Assessments for Major Speech Platforms: Notes and Observations | TechPolicy.Press

Tim Bernard is reading a selection of the Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) systemic risk assessments released in late November 2024.

buff.ly

Earlier this year, the European Union enacted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). Dunstan Allison-Hope & Jason Pielemeier unpack how the CS3D applies to tech companies, including the downstream impacts arising from their operations. www.techpolicy.press/the-most-imp...

The Most Important Piece of Tech Regulation You’ve Never Heard Of | TechPolicy.Press

Dunstan Allison-Hope & Jason Pielemeier explain how Europe's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) applies to tech.

techpolicy.press

The media startup we need is a legal defense fund for independent journalists. New publications and cooperatives are great and critical but unless there is strong legal protection from what is to come, they will not survive.

The newly minted Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI) is an essential building block, writes CIGI’s Matthew da Mota. But questions remain about how it will prioritize safety risks engage in policy and governance work.

Initial Takeaways from the Canadian AI Safety Institute Launch | TechPolicy.Press

Questions remain about whether the Institute will prioritize the most significant safety risks, writes CIGI's Matthew da Mota.

techpolicy.press

Content moderation is a power platforms exercise with consequence at moments of collective vulnerability, such as during elections. Assuming that platforms act for the betterment of all is, at this point, one assumption too many, write Sandra González-Bailón and David Lazer.

The Need to Make Content Moderation Transparent | TechPolicy.Press

Sandra González-Bailón and David Lazer, contemplating results of a recent study on election misinformation, say Big Tech's power must be checked.

techpolicy.press

Article 40 of the Digital Services Act should make it possible for researchers to get access to coveted unaggregated, non-public platform data, writes Luca Belli. How does the draft delegated act suggest it will work? www.techpolicy.press/data-sharing...

Data Sharing and the Delegated Act of Europe's DSA | TechPolicy.Press

Researchers will have a chance to get meaningful data of the most precious kind: unaggregated, non-public platform data, writes Luca Belli.

techpolicy.press

The EU's Digital Services Act aims to boost accountability and transparency for some of the world’s largest tech companies. Mark Scott writes that those ambitions are getting their first test with the publication of risk assessments and audits. How can these documents be improved going forward?

5 Things to Know about the Digital Services Act’s First Risk Assessments and Audits | TechPolicy.Press

Mark Scott says going forward there are ways to improve these lengthy, often unwieldy documents.

techpolicy.press

A new lawsuit against Character.AI says an AI companion suggested a child should kill his parents. We are just at the beginning of widespread access to companion AI, but soon, if we fail to take action, such events will not be isolated cases, writes Susie Alegre. www.techpolicy.press/against-the-...

Against the Corporate Capture of Human Connection | TechPolicy.Press

Susie Alegre is the author of “Human Rights, Robot Wrongs: Being Human in the Age of AI," published by Atlantic Books in September 2024.

techpolicy.press

New: Texas AG Ken Paxton has subpoenaed 404 Media for confidential reporting about an internal Google privacy incident database we published in June. If Paxton wants the database, he can get it directly from Google. Our lawyers have formally objected to the subpoena: www.404media.co/404-media-ob...

404 Media Objects to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Subpoena to Access Our Reporting

404 Media's reporting on an internal Google privacy violation database has been subpoenaed by the State of Texas. We are fighting it.

404media.co

Stephen Wyber sets out 12 questions raised in the written answers and hearings for 9 different members of the European Commission, including those pertinent to tech policy and broader concerns over AI, competition, intellectual property. www.techpolicy.press/learnings-fr...

Learnings from the Hearings: 12 Questions from the Hearings of European Commissioners-Designate | TechPolicy.Press

Stephen Wyber sets out 12 questions raised in the written answers and hearings for 9 different potential members of the Commission.

techpolicy.press

New research shows that social media users share information they know to be false, motivated to signal political loyalty. What does this mean for the effectiveness of fact-checking initiatives? Prithvi Iyer considers the findings.

Researchers Consider the Relationship Between Misinformation, Outrage, and the Sharing of Content on Social Media | TechPolicy.Press

New research shows that social media users share information they know to be false, motivated to signal political loyalty. Prithvi Iyer considers the findings.

buff.ly

This article about How South African (primarily white) men are changing the course of American democracy lives rent free in my mind... So much of politics are local but we can‘t ignore how history & global politics influence our reality. Some tidbits + www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024...

How SA men are changing the course of American democracy

What do figures like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Joel Pollak and Patrick Soon-Shiong have in common? They are public figures of considerable power and influence in the US – who all spent some...

dailymaverick.co.za

Elon Musk became the first tech baron to transition to politics because he was the first major platform owner who paid less attention to the difficulties of speech governance than to the opportunities this unique sort of power can bring to those who dare to wield it freely, writes João C. Magalhães.

Musk Reinvented Platform Power. We Should Take Heed | TechPolicy.Press

João C. Magalhães says the creation of X and Musk’s radicalization exposed an unprecedented–but potentially replicable–politicization of platform power.

techpolicy.press