Report from MediaPost In Brief – The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has that Google holds “strategic market status” (SMS) in the markets for general internet search and search-based advertising. SMS is a regulatory status under the UK’s Digital Markets,...
Dutch Court Uses DSA to Order Meta to Alter Facebook and Instagram Feeds
Report from Reuters In Brief – A Dutch court has ruled that users of Facebook and Instagram are not “sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems,” and ordered Meta to change the platforms to allow users to...
Deloitte Delivered Report to Australian Government Filled with AI Errors
Report from ABC News In Brief – Consulting firm Deloitte Australia will refund part of the AU$440,000 ($290,000) it was paid by the Australian Government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for a report assessing the agency’s use of automated welfare...
UK Ofcom Fines US 4chan Raising Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Concerns
Report from ArsTechnica In Brief – UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has imposed a £20,000 fine on 4chan, an online platform where users post texts and images anonymously and face minimal content moderation, for failing to respond to “legally binding information requests”...
Federal Judge Strikes Prohibition on Bill Line-Items for Maryland Digital Tax
Report from Maryland Matters In Brief – A federal district judge in Maryland has permanently blocked a provision in the state’s landmark 2021 digital advertising services tax that barred companies from using a line-item on customer bills to inform them of the tax and...
Federal Judge Allows Video Privacy Lawsuit Targeting LinkedIn to Proceed
Report from MediaPost In Brief – District Court Judge Casey Pitts has rejected LinkedIn’s motion to dismiss a class-action complaint that the company violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) by allegedly sharing a user’s video-viewing history with Meta...
Apple in European Court Because the DMA Outlaws Apple’s Business Model
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – In a hearing before the EU General Court in Luxembourg, Apple launched a sweeping legal attack against the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), arguing that the bloc’s landmark Big Tech regulation imposes “hugely onerous and intrusive”...
California Enacts Law Regulating AI Chatbot Companion Services
Report from The Verge In Brief – California has enacted legislation requiring companion chatbot developers to implement safeguards so that users are not misled into believing that they are interacting with a human. The measure requires a clear and conspicuous...
Louisiana Attorney General Sues Roblox for Failing to Protect Children
Report from the TechCrunch In Brief – The Attorney General of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, a vast platform of user-generated games and interactive experiences, accusing the company of failing to protect children and making the site the “perfect place...
Ohio State Judge Rules That Google is not a Common Carrier
Report from the MediaPost In Brief – Ohio State Judge James Schuck has dismissed state Attorney General David Yost’s lawsuit arguing that Google should governed under state law as a “common carrier’, comparable to a telecommunications company or electric utility, and...
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X Commits to Strengthen Anti-Terror Content Moderation in the UK
Report from The Guardian In Brief – Ofcom, the UK regulator enforcing the Online Safety Act (OSA), has announced that X has agreed to strengthen its moderation of terrorist and hate-related content. The commitments stem from Ofcom’s discussions with the top social...
Meta Joins Snap, TikTok and YouTube to Settle School District Lawsuit
Report from the New York Times In Brief – Meta has reached reached a settlement agreement in the first lawsuit headed to trial in federal court over claims that addiction to social media platforms has pushed public schools to spend massive sums fighting a youth mental...
UK Antitrust Authority Investigating Microsoft Business Software Dominance
Report from Reuters In Brief – The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the country’s antitrust regulator, has announced that it will investigate Microsoft's dominance in business software using its powers to oversee big tech. The CMA is opening a "strategic...
AI Hallucination Stories Grab Bag
Context - Within weeks of Chat-GPT’s public release, the fact that chatbots make plausible and realistic sounding stuff up emerged. The AI scientists knew about the phenomenon, which they called “hallucinations”. It appears to be baked into the technology. LLMs don’t...
Texas Supreme Court Facing Online Legal Jurisdiction Question in Yelp Case
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), with a long track record of aggressive legal action against big online companies, is urging the Texas Supreme Court to reject Yelp’s attempt to block a lawsuit he filed in 2023 alleging that...
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