Sarah B. Rogers

Sarah B. Rogers appears in Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers on dismantling the Censorship Industrial Complex as the U.S. Department of State under secretary for public diplomacy. She explains public diplomacy as the relationship between the U.S. government and foreign publics, then argues that internet governance and disinformation disputes have made that work central to foreign policy.

In the episode, Rogers is the source for a Trump-administration-aligned free-speech critique of the UK Online Safety Act, the EU Digital Services Act, trusted flaggers, debanking, demonetization, and foreign fines against American technology companies. Her position is not that every foreign government must adopt U.S. law; it is that American platforms and users should not be pressured into foreign speech standards through cross-border enforcement.

Rogers also connects AI deepfake concerns to existing law. She accepts that some disclosure or watermarking tools may be useful, but argues that fraud, defamation, cybercrime, and child-protection law should be applied before governments build broad AI-specific speech-control systems.

Connections

• U.S. Department of State and United States - institutional and country context.
• All-In, David Sacks, and Jason Calacanis - interview setting.
• UK Online Safety Act and EU Digital Services Act - regulatory regimes criticized in the source.
• Cross-Border Platform Speech Regulation, Censorship Industrial Complex, and Trusted Flagger System - core speech-governance concepts she describes.
• NRA v. Vullo, Indirect Regulatory Coercion, and Viewpoint Debanking - legal and intermediary-pressure branch she brings into the discussion.
• AI Deepfake Parody Boundary, Community Notes, and Grok - AI, fact-checking, and counterspeech branch.