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‘Social media should be built on protocols, not platforms,’ says Mastodon’s CEO | Equity Podcast

Last week, Meta announced changes to its content moderation policy, including the removal of third-party fact-checking across its apps in favor of a crowdsourced community notes feature, similar to X. Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, to explore what these changes mean for users and how decentralized social…

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Last week, Meta announced changes to its content moderation policy, including the removal of third-party fact-checking across its apps in favor of a crowdsourced community notes feature, similar to X.

Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, to explore what these changes mean for users and how decentralized social media platforms like Mastodon could offer a viable alternative to mainstream giants like Meta.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• Mastodon’s decision to transition to a non-profit in Europe
• The challenges of implementing interoperability with platforms like TikTok — which is set to “go dark” in the US over the weekend — and the importance of user choice.
• Which other decentralized platforms we should keep an eye on. (Hint: Pixelfed is in the mix.)

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team.

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Science & Technology

Startup Battlefield: Health Tech & Life Sciences Pitches | Disrupt 2026

Founders from around the world pitch expert judges and compete for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. Each team gets six minutes to pitch and six minutes of Q&A with judges Dr. V. Agrawal (ODDBIRD VC), Andrew Brackin (Gradient), Nell Daly (Revenge Capital), James Joaquin (Obvious Ventures), and Miloni Madan Presler (IVP). This cohort’s competitors…

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October 14, 2026

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Founders from around the world pitch expert judges and compete for the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. Each team gets six minutes to pitch and six minutes of Q&A with judges Dr. V. Agrawal (ODDBIRD VC), Andrew Brackin (Gradient), Nell Daly (Revenge Capital), James Joaquin (Obvious Ventures), and Miloni Madan Presler (IVP).

This cohort’s competitors include…

Mosqitter: Detecting and preventing mosquito-borne disease spread with real-time disease intelligence platforms that turn sensor networks into early warning systems for national health agencies.

Hiyd AI: Delivering proactive health insights by combining sleep, movement, and nutrition data through an ultra-slim, discreet wearable tracker and AI app.

TimeTeller GmbH: Measuring people’s biological clocks to determine optimal treatment timing through molecular diagnostics and AI, improving efficacy and reducing side effects.

NTangible: Helping coaches and front offices make smarter recruiting decisions by quantifying how athletes perform under pressure with a validated cognitive score.

Intero Biosystems: Accelerating drug development by producing miniature human organs that enable pharma companies to identify safer, more effective medications while reducing clinical trial costs.

#TechCrunchDisrupt2026

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Flock CEO Garrett Langley on Public Backlash, Surveillance Expansion | Disrupt 2026

Flock Safety sits at the intersection of an increasingly intense debate around the spread of surviellance technology, AI, and who’s using all of that information and to what ends. Founder and CEO Garrett Langley spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to defend his stance that Flock is a net positive in the face of concerns about…

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October 14, 2026

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Flock Safety sits at the intersection of an increasingly intense debate around the spread of surviellance technology, AI, and who’s using all of that information and to what ends. Founder and CEO Garrett Langley spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to defend his stance that Flock is a net positive in the face of concerns about its work monitoring communities, cities, and enabling data sharing across law enforcement agencies.

As a sign of that backlash, as Langley spoke on stage, a protest against Flock was taking place outside of Moscone West in San Francisco.

#TechCrunchDisrupt2026

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Satya Nadella’s ‘emergency brake’ and the race to secure AI agents | Disrupt 2026

TechCrunch’s Equity podcast team took over the Builders Stage Tuesday morning to tackle a growing challenge for the AI industry: What happens when AI agents go off-script, and who’s responsible for keeping them in check? Recent incidents, from Anthropic pulling internal evaluations off the live internet after agents misbehaved to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling…

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October 14, 2026

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TechCrunch’s Equity podcast team took over the Builders Stage Tuesday morning to tackle a growing challenge for the AI industry: What happens when AI agents go off-script, and who’s responsible for keeping them in check?

Recent incidents, from Anthropic pulling internal evaluations off the live internet after agents misbehaved to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calling for an “emergency brake” on AI models, have brought agent security into focus. The Equity team unpacked whether the problem calls for better engineering, new regulation, or both, and why startups are raising millions to secure AI agents.
#TechCrunchDisrupt2026

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