Report from SFiST In Brief – The latest budget proposal from California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has eliminated funding for the News Transformation Fund, a state initiative to pay millions of dollars to California media companies. The fund was announced in 2024 as...
Spanish PM Announces Social Media Age Threshold Amidst Musk Tussle
Report from AP News In Brief – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced plans for a package of measures to regulate online companies, including banning teens under 16 from social media platforms that he called “a space of addiction, abuse, pornography,...
EU Commission Tells TikTok It Needs to Stop Being So Addictive
Report from Politico In Brief – The European Commission has announced its preliminary finding that TikTok’s design violates the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) by promoting compulsive use and failing to protect users, particularly minors, from harms including...
Amazon Sanctioned for Anticompetitive Price Fixing in Germany
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Germany’s competition authority has ordered Amazon to stop enforcing retailer price controls on its German marketplace and has penalized the company €59 million, which it argues is excess profits it earned from its anticompetitive...
EU High Court Legal Advisor Rules Publishers Not Liable for VPN Use
Report from Courthouse News In Brief – A senior EU legal adviser to Europe’s top court has issued an advisory opinion that online publishers do not violate national copyright laws simply because users can bypass geographic restrictions using tools like VPNs. Advocate...
Court Overturns Brazilian Regulator’s Block on WhatsApp’s Chatbot Ban
Report from Reuters In Brief – In a surprising and possibly temporary turnabout, a Brazilian court has suspended a recent order imposed by Brazil’s antitrust regulator CADE that blocked Meta from restricting third-party AI chatbots from operating over WhatsApp using...
Supreme Court to Hear Video Privacy Case Bedeviling Online Advertising
Report from MediaPost In Brief – The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could clarify how a federal privacy law enacted in 1988 applies to modern online video services. The dispute centers on the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which was enacted after a...
French National Assembly Supports 15-Year-Old Social Media Age Threshold
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s National Assembly has approved legislation to ban children under 15 from accessing social media. Lawmakers voted 116–23 in favor of the bill, which is strongly backed by President Emmanuel Macron, and prohibits under-15s from...
Meta Proposes New Per-Message WhatsApp Fee for Chatbots in Italy
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Meta has announced that it will charge AI companies a per message fee for running their chatbots on WhatsApp in regions where regulators force the company to allow chatbots on the platform. The policy will go into effect in Italy on...
Landmark Social Media Addiction Trial Underway in California State Court
Report from PBS In Brief – The initial “bellwether” trial testing claims that major social media platforms are liable for a wide range of mental health injuries because they intentionally designed their products to be addictive to children is underway in Los Angeles...
View By Monthly
Latest Blog
The European Commission Issues Temu a Digital Services Act Fine
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The European Union has fined the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu €200 million ($232 million) for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately identify and prevent the sale of illegal products on its...
US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Restores Texas App Age Limit Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has cleared the way for Texas to enforce its App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) that broadly expands age verification for online apps and requires app stores such as Apple and Google to...
President Trump Issues Pared Back Executive Order on AI Security Reviews
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – President Donald Trump has signed an executive order establishing a voluntary framework to address potential new cybersecurity risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence systems. The directive reflects the administration’s...
UK CMA Orders Google to Change AI Search to Address Publisher Concerns
Report from Ars Technica In Brief – The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), under its Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC) authority to regulate the most dominant online platforms, has ordered Google to make changes to its AI-powered search...
French Court Backs Tax on Online Book Shipping to Support Bookstores
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s highest administrative court, the State Council, has rejected Amazon’s appeal against the country’s minimum shipping fee for books, upholding a €3 delivery charge on book orders under €35 imposed by the French Government in...
Platform Economy Insights produces a short email four times a week that reviews two top stories with concise analysis. It is the best way to keep on top of the news you should know. Sign up for this free email here.