Johanna speaks with Evelyn Douek, assistant Professor at Stanford Law School (and former corporate lawyer in Australia), about the public and private regulation of speech online. The pair discusses:

• the private and public regulation of speech online

• why 'everything is content moderation' and what it might mean to take a systems thinking approach

• the importance of platform transparency

• the history, significance, and politics of Section 230

• institutional competence and the role of courts

• the state of trust and safety

• the value of a functioning parliament and the differences between Australia and the U.S. in making tech policy

At 21:11, Johanna refers to the Foreign Interference Committee. For clarification, this reference was made in relation to the Big Tech Inquiry of the Senate Economics References Committee, chaired by Senator Bragg (colloquially referred to as the social media foreign interference committee). This is not to be confused with the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media, chaired by Senator Paterson.

Relevant Links:

Evelyn Douek: https://www.evelyndouek.com/

Moderated Content podcast: https://law.stanford.edu/directory/evelyn-douek/moderated-content/

Content Moderation as Systems Thinking, by Evelyn Douek, Harvard Law Review: https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-136/content-moderation-as-systems-thinking/

Casey Newton’s Platformer newsletter: https://www.platformer.news/

The Washington Post’s technology newsletter: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-202-newsletters/the-technology-202/

Rest of World: https://restofworld.org/

Follow:

Evelyn Douek on Twitter: @evelyndouek

Stanford Law School on Twitter: @StanfordLaw

Stanford Law School on LinkedIn: Stanford Law School (SLS)