Report from MediaPost In Brief – A three-judge panel of US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a district court decision siding with NetChoice, a digital company trade group, that imposed a temporary injunction blocking a Mississippi law requiring “digital...
State Department Closes Its International Anti-Disinformation Office
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The State Department is closing an office designed to counter foreign online disinformation that was plagued by conservative criticism that it was part of US Government efforts to block conservative viewpoints online. The...
Google Shelves Privacy Sandbox Plan to End Third-Party Tracking Cookies
Report from The Verge In Brief – After years of effort to end the use of third-party cookies for tracking and targeted advertising in its Chrome browser, Google is shelving the plan and maintaining its current treatment of the tracking technology....
Trade War May Hit Big Tech as EU Considers Services Retaliation
Report from DW In Brief – Facing an increasingly aggressive and sizeable collection of tariff increases being imposed by the Trump Administration and searching for the right mix of retaliatory responses, the European Commission is considering trade penalties against...
European Tech Groups Call for “Buy European” Digital Procurement Policy
Report from CNBC In Brief – Nearly 100 European companies and lobbying groups, many representing smaller EU-based tech firms, have signed an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and digital chief Henna Virkkunen calling for “radical...
EU Parliamentarians Tell Commission Not to Water Down AI Act Duties
Report from the Financial Times In Brief – European Members of Parliament (MEPs) who played leading roles crafting the EU’s AI Act are urging the European Commission to reject attempts to reduce the mandates imposed on the developers of the largest general AI systems....
Brazil Steps Back from Digital Services Tax in Face of Trump Tariff Threats
Report from Reuters In Brief – The Brazilian government has shelved the plan it announced last September to enact a new tax on big tech firms in 2025. The measure, which was expected to mostly impact US-based digital giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta, was expected...
Meta’s Zuckerberg Lobbying President Trump to Settle FTC Antitrust Case
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently met with President Trump in the White House and discussed settling the federal antitrust lawsuit that aims to break up the company by forcing Meta to spin out Instagram and WhatsApp. The...
Arkansas Social Media Age Limit Fully Blocked by Federal Judge
Report from the Arkansas Advocate In Brief – A federal judge has blocked Arkansas from enforcing its 2023 law that requires teenagers under age 18 to have parental consent to create accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat....
Google Offers Play Store In-App Payments Alternative in the UK
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Google has announced that it is offering app developers in the UK the ability to use other billing services for in-app payments in their Android apps besides Google’s own payments system. The company’s “user choice billing” program...
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Appeals Court Rejects Apple Effort to Pause District Court Setting App Fees
Report from 9to5Mac In Brief – Epic Games has persuaded a panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court Appeals to reverse an earlier decision that had temporarily paused action in the district court that will determine the maximum level of fees Apple can charge app...
The Trump Administration’s Shifting View on AI Model Security Tests
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Trump Administration is weighing a shift in policy to allow federal agencies to review advanced AI models, with officials discussing an executive order to establish an AI working group composed of government leaders and...
Big AI Industry Companies Reach Agreements with the Pentagon
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The US Defense Department has finalized agreements with eight major US technology companies to deploy their artificial intelligence tools in classified environments. The companies are OpenAI, Google, SpaceX (via xAI),...
Meta Threatens to Leave New Mexico Rather That Create Alternative Platforms
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Meta is warning it may withdraw Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from New Mexico if a court grants an injunction sought by Attorney General Raúl Torrez requiring major changes to its platforms. Torrez is asking a federal judge to...
Australia Finally Releases Tax Plan for Tech Giants to Pay Media Companies
Report from AP News In Brief – After more than a year of talk, Australia has unveiled draft legislation to require Meta, Google and TikTok to pay a 2.25% tax on Australian revenue if they decline to negotiate agreements to pay Australian media companies for news...
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