Report from Euractiv In Brief – The European Commission has announced that it has launched a formal investigation of four major pornographic websites over concerns that they are violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to provide adequate protection for...
Washington Post Tech Workers Vote to Unionize
Report from the Hill Rag In Brief – More than two hundred of the over three hundred tech workers at the Washington Post, including engineers, product designers, and data analysts, have voted to establish the Washington Post Tech Guild (WPTG). The final vote was...
Italian Consumer Protection Authority Targets DeepSeek for Hallucinations
Report from Reuters In Brief – Italy’s joint antitrust and consumer rights regulator has opened a probe into Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn users about the danger of false information arising from so-called “hallucinations” in...
Federal Judge Puts a Hold on Florida Law Regulating Teens on Social Media
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Federal District Judge Mark Walker has blocked enforcement of Florida law HB 3 that prohibits social media platforms that have so-called “addictive features”, such as showing “like” counts and automatically playing videos, from...
French President Macron Wants a Social Media Age Threshold of 15
Report from Politico In Brief – French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he supports setting an age limit of 15 for social media platforms in the European Union, and if the EU doesn’t follow through, his government will set that age standard in France. The...
X Sues to Block New York Content Moderation Transparency Law
Report from The Hill In Brief – X has sued the state of New York to block its law requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate some content. The platform successfully challenged a similar law in California on First Amendment grounds last year. New...
Trump Administration Walks Back Revenge Tax After Minimum Tax Deal
Report from the New York Times In Brief – The Trump Administration has called on Republicans in Congress to drop a controversial tax provision dubbed the “Revenge Tax” from the massive budget reconciliation bill. Referred to as Sec. 899, the measure would impose a new...
Second Circuit Panel Rejects Meta Pixel Tracking Tech as a VPPA Violation
Report from MediaPost In Brief – A panel of the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals has ruled that web companies don’t violate the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), a 1980’s law designed to keep private the names of videos that customers rented, when a...
Canada Promises to Rescind Digital Services Tax to Boost US Trade Talks
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced it is rescinding its digital services tax (DST) that targets the largest US digital companies in a bid to boost trade talks with the US and avoid major...
Another Week. Another State Social Media Teen Law Blocked – Georgia
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Federal District Judge Amy Totenberg has blocked enforcement of Georgia law SB 351, the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act. In her 50-page order she says, “The state seeks to erect barriers to speech that cannot...
Meta’s WhatsApp Expected to be Added to Digital Services Act VLOP Roster
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Meta Platforms WhatsApp is likely to be classified as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) by the European Commission which will bring it under the strictest regulatory guidelines of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA...
No Tech “Fair Share” Fees Expected in Commission’s Digital Networks Act
Report from Reuters In Brief – A draft of the forthcoming Digital Networks Act (DNA) indicates that the European Commission will not propose requiring large online platforms and cloud providers to pay new fees to telecom operators. Expected to the released by...
WhatsApp’s AI Chatbot Ban Paused in Italy
Report from Reuters In Brief – Meta will temporarily exempt Italy from its ban on rival AI chatbots using WhatsApp to interact with customers. The move comes in response to the Italian competition watchdog, AGCM, ordering Meta to suspend the ban while it investigates...
Trade Threat to US Big Tech Again Emerges as Greenland Conflict Heats Up
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – Facing rapid escalation of President’s Trumps demand that Denmark hand over control of Greenland to the United States, including the threat that the US would impose a new 10% tariff on exports from countries that “oppose” his plan as...
Kentucky AG Sues Character.AI for Violating Consumer Protection Law
Report from Mountain Top Media In Brief – Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued the maker of AI companion chatbot Character.AI alleging that its platform harms children and misleads consumers about its safety. Coleman’s office argues the company marketed...
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