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...
UK Antitrust Regulator Proposes Google Search Rules Including AI Opt-Outs
Report from Euractiv In Brief – The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced proposed rules to govern how Google operates its search engine, including requiring that the company allow website publishers to opt out of having their content used in...
Paris Prosecutors Continue to Investigate X for Criminal Law Violations
Report from Reuters In Brief – French authorities have raided X’s Paris offices as part of an expanded criminal investigation into the social media platform over its handling of unlawful content. The probe, which began last year as an investigation of the platform’s...
Grok Chatbot Faces Regulatory Criticism for Sexualizing Photo Images
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...
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Indonesia Sets a 16-Year-Old Minimum Age for Social Media
Report from the New York Times In Brief – In line with a growing number of countries around the world, the Government of Indonesia announced it will ban teenagers under 16 from accessing social media, citing concerns about online harms and addiction. Indonesia is...
Google and Epic Games Modify Settlement Offer and Google Drops Fees
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Google and Epic Games have proposed an alternative global settlement to end their antitrust dispute to Judge James Donato who was skeptical of the two companies’ first proposal to modify his remedy order. If approved by the judge,...
Google Market Testing Vertical Search Remedy to Satisfy EU Regulators
Report from Reuters In Brief – Google is rolling out changes to its general search engine result page in Europe that would give greater visibility to rival “vertical search” services. It is a market test of a plan addressing the preliminary determination of the...
US Department of Labor Releases New Business-Friendly Gig Worker Rules
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The US Department of Labor (DoL) has proposed a new rule setting standards for employers and workers to determine if a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor or a company employee. The proposal, which has been...
Aussie Media Wants Big AI Added to the Media Company Payments Regime
Report from The Guardian In Brief – Nine Entertainment, Australia's largest diversified media company with television, radio, print and digital platforms, is urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to fast-track legislation reinforcing Australia’s News Media Bargaining...
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