Report from Reuters In Brief – The European Commission has announced three Digital Markets Act (DMA) market investigations into cloud services and its market leaders. Two of the probes will assess if the cloud services business of either or both Amazon and Microsoft...
TikTok to Face Class Action Suit Alleging Underage Privacy Violations
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Federal District Judge George Wu has rejected TikTok’s bid to dismiss a class-action lawsuit brought by young people alleging that the company violated various laws and privacy standards in their home states. The plaintiffs, all under...
Nvidia’s Massive Investment in OpenAI Raises Antitrust Concerns
Report from Reuters In Brief – Nvidia’s giant business deal with OpenAI, with the market-leading AI chipmaker investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI, allowing the market-leading AI chatbot developer to buy millions of chips from Nvidia that will be housed in new...
EU Talking Google AdTech Breakup with US Remedies Trial Underway
Report from Euractiv In Brief – When the European Commission hit Google with a $3.45 billion fine for a range of anti-competitive practices in its vast AdTech business, the regulator ordered Google to end self-preferencing practices and implement measures to cease its...
US Second Circuit Asks NY State Court to Interpret Social Media Law
Report from MediaPost In Brief – New York’s highest court has agreed to review the state’s “Hateful Conduct Act” at the request of the US Second Circuit of Appeals which is considering a challenge to the law that requires social platforms to accept complaints about...
Australia’s 16-Year-Old Social Media Ban May Apply to More Platforms
Report from ABC News In Brief – With Australia’s 16-year-old age limit for social media going into effect on December 10, the country’s eSafety Commissioner has indicated that the ban could apply to more platforms beyond Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and...
Meta Bringing Ad-Free Facebook and Instagram Subscriptions of the UK
Report from The Times In Brief – Meta has announced that it will offer ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram by subscription in Great Britain. The move follows settlement of a privacy lawsuit brought by digital accountability advocate Tanya O’Connell and...
EU May Block Digital Gatekeepers from New Consumer Finance Data Regime
Report from the Financial Times In Brief – The European Union appears set to prevent the largest US tech giants from participating in a new system of consumer financial data sharing. The EU’s Financial Data Access (FiDA) regulation is intended to give consumers the...
Roblox Sued by Kentucky for Harming Teens
Report from AP News In Brief – The Attorney General of Kentucky has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, a vast platform of user-generated games and interactive experiences, accusing the company of failing to protect children and that the platform is a “playground for...
EU Investigating How Four More Large Platforms Protect Minors
Report from Courthouse News In Brief – The European Commission has asked Snapchat, YouTube, Apple’s App Store and Google Play how they protect children on their platforms, including how they attempt to verify users’ ages and prevent minors from accessing harmful...
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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...
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...
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