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...
EU General Court Rejects Apple’s Argument that DMA Does Not Apply
Report from Courthouse News Service In Brief – The EU General Court dismissed Apple’s challenge to its designation as a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The ruling leaves intact the European Commission’s 2023 decision that Apple is a gatekeeper, and...
President Trump Still Opposes European Digital Taxes and Threatens Tariffs
Report from Politico In Brief – President Donald Trump used a social media post to threaten to impose a 100% tariff on any country that adopts a digital services tax (DST) targeting U.S. technology companies, warning in a social media post that the new tariff would...
Final Big 6 Ads Firm Settles with FTC on Ideological Content Moderation
Report from MediaPost In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that Havas Media Group has agreed to a proposed order that it will not participate in unlawful collusion related to digital advertising “brand safety” standards that the regulator says...
Yelp Wins Legal Ruling in Antitrust Battle with Google
Report from Courthouse News Service In Brief – Federal Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen has ruled that Yelp, a leading internet company critic of Google’s search practices, can rely on District Judge Amit Mehta’s 2024 decision in the Justice Department’s landmark...
Illinois Governor Signs Robust AI “Safety” Law
Report from CBS News In Brief – Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) has signed the AI Safety Measures Act into law pushing the state to the forefront of AI regulation. The law imposes “safety” requirements on companies developing so-called frontier AI models, including...
Booking Faces European Commission DSA Investigation of Fraud Policies
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The European Commission has begun a formal investigation into whether Booking breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately address online fraud and provide users with proper transparency into...
FTC Demands Nine Companies Give Data on Pricing and Gig Pay Practices
Report from Reuters In Brief – The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is demanding information from Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart about how they use personal data, including location, browsing history and income, to set...
Germany’s Top Civil Court Asks for More EU Views on Host Provider Liability
Report from Der Spiegel In Brief – Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has again suspended Green Party politician Renate Künast’s lawsuit against Meta and referred what it believes are unresolved legal questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for...
EU Commission Has Plan to Tax Tech Giants by Taxing Giant Companies
Report from the Financial Times In Brief – The European Commission is examining a plan to impose a big annual lump-sum levy on the largest, most profitable companies operating in Europe as a way to tax the US-based tech giants without imposing a direct tax on just...
Clearview AI’s Privacy Law Battle with the UK ICO Continues
Report from PPC Land In Brief – Clearview AI, the small US company that built a facial recognition database using images collected online, argued to the Court of Appeal in London that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) lacks authority to enforce data...
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