Report from MediaPost In Brief – Google, Meta, and TikTok have filed federal lawsuits and urged a federal judge to temporarily block enforcement of California’s “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act” that restricts personalized or “addictive” content...
Apple Loses UK Class Action Arguing Its Fees Were Too High
Report from Financial Times In Brief – The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that Apple violated competition law by imposing excessive App Store commissions on developers, leading to overcharges being passed on to consumers. The decision requires Apple...
Apple Says It May Disable App Tracking Transparency Rules in Europe
Report from DPA International In Brief – Apple is saying that it might turn off its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in Europe due to regulatory pressure that the iPhone giant attributes to lobbying from the advertising industry. ATT is the Apple policy that...
Character.AI Setting an 18-Year-Old Age Limit for Its Companion Chatbots
Report from New York Times In Brief – AI “companion” company Character.AI has announced that they will bar users under 18 from its chatbots in a sweeping move to address concerns over teen safety. The move follows mounting scrutiny over how AI chatbot companions can...
Google and Epic Games Settle Federal Antitrust Battle Over the Play Store
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Google and Epic Games have agreed to settle their long-running antitrust battle over the rules and fees of the Android Play Store, with Google agreeing to implement changes both sides say will lower fees and expand choices for...
Reddit and Kick Added to Social Media Platforms Facing Aussie Age Limit
Report from BBC In Brief – The Australian eSafety Commissioner has announced that nine digital platforms will be required to comply with the country’s new threshold of 16 years of age for individuals to have an account on social media platforms when the mandate goes...
EU Commission Expected to Propose GDPR Changes to Ease AI Training
Report from Computerworld In Brief – The European Commission is planning to propose revisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) intended to ease the ability to train AI systems with data collected in Europe as part of its “Digital Omnibus”...
Google Pulls Gemma AI Developer Tools Following Conservative Criticism
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Google has removed Gemma, a family of AI models the company says were intended for developers, not consumers, from its AI Studio after US Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) accused the AI model of defamation by fabricating accusations of...
UK Tech Minister Criticizes Ofcom Delaying Some Online Safety Act Rule
Report from National Technology News In Brief – The UK’s technology minister has expressed deep disappointment to communications regulator Ofcom about its updated roadmap for rules implementing the Online Safety Act (OSA) that extends the rollout of some platform...
Judge Delivers Conclusive Win to Meta in Federal Antitrust Trial
Report from New York Times In Brief – Federal Judge James Boasberg has ruled that Meta did not violate federal antitrust law when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, delivering a major victory to the social media giant. In an 89-page decision, Judge Boasberg held that...
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Snapchat Facing an EU Probe for Failing to Protect Minors
Report from Politico In Brief – The European Commission has announced an investigation into concerns that Snapchat is failing to adequately protect children under its authority as the lead enforcer of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for the largest online platforms....
Pressure Grows in EU Parliament for an EU-Wide Digital Services Tax
Report from DigWatch In Brief – The chair of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on tax matters is calling for an EU-wide digital services tax (DST) despite strong opposition from the US. Pasquale Tridico argues that an EU DST would make Europe’s tax system fairer...
Trump Administration “Settles” Social Media Case They Always Agreed With
Report from Reuters In Brief – The Trump Administration has reached a legal settlement that restricts three federal agencies from pressuring social media companies to remove or limit content, ending a legal battle that initially pitted conservative commentators...
Still More AI Copyright Suits — Encyclopedia Britannica Sues OpenAI
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Encyclopedia Britannica, which owns Merriam-Webster and retains the copyright on over 100,000 online articles, has sued OpenAI for widespread copyright infringement. The publisher claims that OpenAI unlawfully scraped and used its...
Judge Says Utah’s Lawsuit Alleging Snapchat Harms Kids Can Proceed
Report from Courthouse News In Brief – A federal judge has dismissed an attempt by Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, to block the State of Utah from engaging in civil litigation in state court to enforce consumer protection laws against the social media...
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