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...
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EU Commission Believes Meta’s Platforms Violate Law by Encouraging Use
Report from Reuters In Brief – The European Commission has issued preliminary findings that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram breach the EU’s Digital Services Act by using design features that encourage excessive engagement. The findings follow a two-year investigation...
South Korea’s Fake News Law Raises Free Speech Concerns
Report from EuroNews In Brief – South Korea has begun enforcing a “fake news” law aimed at curbing online misinformation. It imposes tougher penalties for users who deliberately spread false information and requires major digital platforms to strengthen content...
UK Ofcom Proposes Rules Directing Largest Platforms to Fight Scam Ads
Report from the Guardian In Brief – Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has released a set of Online Safety Act (OSA) regulatory proposals headlined by rules directing the largest platforms to combat scam advertisers. The requirements will apply to large social...
French Competition Authority Orders Meta to Agree to Pay Media Companies
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s competition authority has ordered Meta Platforms to submit a media payments proposal and resume negotiations with French media groups over more than a year of unpaid fees for the use of news content on its platforms. The...
Google and Epic Drop Alternative Settlement so Court’s Plan Will Proceed
Report from The Verge In Brief – The federal court-ordered overhaul of Google’s Android app store practices is set to move forward after Google and Epic Games withdrew their joint request to modify the remedies imposed in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit. The companies...
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