Report from StateAndLocalTax.com In Brief – The Comptroller of Maryland, the state’s tax authority, has finally issued guidance detailing its position on the application of the state’s landmark Digital Advertising Gross Revenues (DGAR) tax, which was enacted in 2021...
Australia’s Social Media Age Limit Will Apply to Google’s YouTube
Report from Reuters In Brief – The Australian Government has reversed course and announced that the country’s strict social-media age limit of 16 years old, set to come online in December, will apply to YouTube despite the initial plan to exempt the massive and...
Platform Telecom Usage Fees Not Likely in the EU Digital Networks Act
Report from Reuters In Brief – As the Trump Administration continues to press the European Commission to step back from regulatory and tax policies that US officials argue discriminate against American tech companies, a commission spokesperson has clarified that the...
Meta to End Political and Social Issue Ads in Europe
Report from the New York Times In Brief – Meta will stop allowing political, electoral or social issue ads on its digital platforms in Europe starting in October due to the requirements of the EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation....
Trump Administration AI Plan Fires a Shot in Chatbot Culture War
Report from the New York Times In Brief – President Trump’s executive order “Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government” directs federal agencies to only procure large language models (LLMs) that adhere to the principles of “truth-seeking”, which it defines as...
EU Commission Says No Plans for a DMA Regulatory Funding Scheme
Report from the Reuters In Brief – European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who is responsible for the bloc’s technology sector, said that the Commission is not currently planning to propose that the digital giants regulated under the EU’s Digital...
Federal Judge Blocks Another California Election Misinformation Law
Report from the Courthouse News In Brief – A federal judge has blocked enforcement of California law AB 2655 that requires large social media companies to remove “materially deceptive content” about political candidates and election officials from their platforms....
Illinois Bans AI Services from Directly Providing Mental Health Treatment
Report from the StateScoop In Brief – Illinois has banned artificial intelligence services from providing mental health services directly to patients. The Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act prohibits AI systems from directly delivering therapeutic...
A Sec. 230 Win as NY Court Rejects Social Media Liability for Shootings
Report from the MediaPost In Brief – A New York state appeals court overturned a lower court decision and dismissed a lawsuit by victims of a racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo in 2022 who argued that social media platforms used by the assailant were...
Top Apartment Landlord Settles DoJ’s Algorithmic Price Fixing Antitrust Suit
Report from the USA Today In Brief – In Brief – The Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a proposed settlement to resolve its antitrust case against Greystar Management Services, the largest residential apartment landlord in the country. Greystar was accused of...
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...
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