Report from The Hill In Brief – Following California Governor Gavin Newsome’s (D) decision to scale back the state money promised to a new fund to pay California media companies, Google, the one big online company that also promised to contribute millions of dollars,...
Big House Tax Bill Massively Raises Ante in International Digital Tax Standoff
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The massive budget reconciliation tax and spending bill passed by the House of Representatives includes a tax provision that aggressively penalizes foreign countries that impose “unfair” taxes on US companies, bringing the House...
Federal Judge Questions Whether Chatbots Engage in Speech in Character AI Lawsuit
Report from The Verge In Brief – Federal District Judge Anne Conway rejected the efforts of AI companion chatbot service Character AI and Google to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the mother of a teenage user of the service who committed suicide. Conway, who largely...
Missouri AG Regulating Content Moderation Under Consumer Protection Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced a rule under Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act that bans social media platforms from setting their own content moderation standards. The rule states that it is an unfair,...
Big House Tax Bill Massively Raises Ante in International Digital Tax Standoff
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The massive budget reconciliation tax and spending bill passed by the House of Representatives includes a tax provision that aggressively penalizes foreign countries that impose “unfair” taxes on US companies, bringing the House...
Missouri AG Regulating Content Moderation Under Consumer Protection Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced a rule under Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act that bans social media platforms from setting their own content moderation standards. The rule states that it is an unfair,...
Appeals Court Demands More Scrutiny of Social Media Law Challenge
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...
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...
US Department of Justice Joins xAI Lawsuit Challenging Colorado AI Law
Report from the Colorado Sun In Brief – The US Department of Justice has joined a lawsuit filed by xAI, the AI company owned by Elon Musk, seeking to block Colorado’s first-in-the-nation AI safety law from taking effect. Senate Bill 205, which was signed into law in...
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