Report from MediaPost In Brief – A three-judge panel of US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a district court decision siding with NetChoice, a digital company trade group, that imposed a temporary injunction blocking a Mississippi law requiring “digital...
State Department Closes Its International Anti-Disinformation Office
Report from the Washington Post In Brief – The State Department is closing an office designed to counter foreign online disinformation that was plagued by conservative criticism that it was part of US Government efforts to block conservative viewpoints online. The...
Google Shelves Privacy Sandbox Plan to End Third-Party Tracking Cookies
Report from The Verge In Brief – After years of effort to end the use of third-party cookies for tracking and targeted advertising in its Chrome browser, Google is shelving the plan and maintaining its current treatment of the tracking technology....
Trade War May Hit Big Tech as EU Considers Services Retaliation
Report from DW In Brief – Facing an increasingly aggressive and sizeable collection of tariff increases being imposed by the Trump Administration and searching for the right mix of retaliatory responses, the European Commission is considering trade penalties against...
European Tech Groups Call for “Buy European” Digital Procurement Policy
Report from CNBC In Brief – Nearly 100 European companies and lobbying groups, many representing smaller EU-based tech firms, have signed an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and digital chief Henna Virkkunen calling for “radical...
EU Parliamentarians Tell Commission Not to Water Down AI Act Duties
Report from the Financial Times In Brief – European Members of Parliament (MEPs) who played leading roles crafting the EU’s AI Act are urging the European Commission to reject attempts to reduce the mandates imposed on the developers of the largest general AI systems....
Brazil Steps Back from Digital Services Tax in Face of Trump Tariff Threats
Report from Reuters In Brief – The Brazilian government has shelved the plan it announced last September to enact a new tax on big tech firms in 2025. The measure, which was expected to mostly impact US-based digital giants like Amazon, Google, and Meta, was expected...
Meta’s Zuckerberg Lobbying President Trump to Settle FTC Antitrust Case
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently met with President Trump in the White House and discussed settling the federal antitrust lawsuit that aims to break up the company by forcing Meta to spin out Instagram and WhatsApp. The...
Arkansas Social Media Age Limit Fully Blocked by Federal Judge
Report from the Arkansas Advocate In Brief – A federal judge has blocked Arkansas from enforcing its 2023 law that requires teenagers under age 18 to have parental consent to create accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat....
Google Offers Play Store In-App Payments Alternative in the UK
Report from TechCrunch In Brief – Google has announced that it is offering app developers in the UK the ability to use other billing services for in-app payments in their Android apps besides Google’s own payments system. The company’s “user choice billing” program...
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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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