Report from Australian Broadcasting Corporation In Brief – Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into X, is facing growing backlash for being capable of digitally altering photos posted on X to depict women, and in some cases apparent children, in revealing clothing,...
New York Enacts Law Requiring Warning Labels on Social Media
Report from Digital Watch In Brief – Governor Kathy Hochul added New York to the list of states that is trying to require social media platforms to display cigarette package-style warning labels that describe their services as employing dangerous “addictive features”...
Google Settles Character.AI Liability Suits Tied to Teen Suicides
Report from Washington Post In Brief – Character.AI and Google have agreed to settle lawsuits regarding teen suicide and self-harm bought by victims’ families in Florida, Colorado, Texas and New York. Character.AI is a role-playing chatbot platform that allows users...
More Enforcement of DMA and DSA Lead EU Digital Policy Agenda for 2026
Report from >Financial Times In Brief – Enforcement of EU digital regulations, including intensifying scrutiny of major US tech companies Google, Meta, Apple and X, is going to mark European digital policy in 2026 and almost certainly bring renewed clashes with the...
Japan Competition Regulator Opens Investigation of AI Search Services
Report from Nippon.com In Brief – The Japan Fair Trade Commission, the country’s competition regulator, has announced an investigation as to whether online search services that use generative artificial intelligence to craft responses could constitute an abuse of a...
New York State Joins California Regulating AI “Safety”
Report from New York Times In Brief – New York followed California and became the second large US state to enact sweeping legislation regulating AI services as Governor Kathy Hochul signed the RAISE Act. The bill establishes a new office within the Department of...
Tech Trade Group Challenging Virginia’s Social Media Teen Time Limit Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Tech trade group NetChoice is squaring off in federal court with the State of Virginia to block a law requiring social media platforms to verify users’ ages and prohibit teens under age 16 from using their platform for more than one...
Cloudflare Threatens to Pull Out of Italy After Piracy Judgement and Fine
Report from TechRadar In Brief – Cloudflare, a leading US-based online security service and content delivery network (CDN) provider, is threatening to shut down its operations in Italy after being fined €14 million by the Italian communications regulator, AGCOM, for...
Meta’s WhatsApp Expected to be Added to Digital Services Act VLOP Roster
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Meta Platforms WhatsApp is likely to be classified as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) by the European Commission which will bring it under the strictest regulatory guidelines of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA...
No Tech “Fair Share” Fees Expected in Commission’s Digital Networks Act
Report from Reuters In Brief – A draft of the forthcoming Digital Networks Act (DNA) indicates that the European Commission will not propose requiring large online platforms and cloud providers to pay new fees to telecom operators. Expected to the released by...
OpenAI Reaches Defense Department Deal Flanking Anthropic
Report from the New York Times In Brief – OpenAI says it has reached agreement with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to supply AI for classified systems in a manner that the company says addresses its opposition to the technology being misused in autonomous weapons...
Federal Judge Blocks Virginia’s One-Hour Time Limit for Social Media
Report from Reuters In Brief – US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles has issued a preliminary injunction blocking Virginia from enforcing Senate Bill 854 that imposes a time limit on teens using social media platforms with so-called “addictive” features. Platforms...
FTC Chairman Accuses Apple of News Media Viewpoint Discrimination
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission announced that it sent a warning letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing concerns that the operations of the Apple News may favor certain political viewpoints in a way that conflicts with Apple’s...
PM Starmer Proposes Bringing AI Chatbots Under the UK Online Safety Act
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced plans to bring AI chatbots directly under the Online Safety Act (OSA) to close what he called a “legal loophole” in Britain’s online safety regime and ensure that they are designed to not...
Reddit Fined By UK ICO for Failing to Age Check 13-Year-Olds
Report from the BBC In Brief – The UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has fined Reddit more than £14 million for failing to adequately enforce its rules regarding children under 13 accessing the platform. Following an...
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