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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Italian Regulator Challenges Booking on Unlabeled Sponsored Links
Report from the Wall Street Journal In Brief – The Italian Competition Authority, which is both an antitrust and consumer protection regulator, has opened an investigation into Booking over concerns that the company’s “preferred partner” and “preferred plus” programs...
Another Publisher AI Copyright Suit – This Time Targeting Meta’s Zuckerberg
Report from MediaPost In Brief – Another coalition of major publishers and authors has filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging the company illegally downloaded millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from pirate websites...
Settlement Between the FTC and Kochava Defines Sensitive Location Data
Report from AdExchanger In Brief – The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with data broker Kochava over allegations that the firm engaged in unfair competition by improperly collecting and selling precise geolocation data from hundreds of millions of...
French Regulator Buys Suspicious Products and Reports Online Problems
Report from Reuters In Brief – France’s consumer protection agency, the DGCCRF, reported that it purchased over 600 “high risk” items from seven large foreign-based ecommerce platforms and deemed that 75% failed to comply with EU product safety or labeling standards,...
Utah Prohibits Adult Websites from Discussing or Offering VPN Services
Report from TechRadar In Brief – Utah is implementing a new law imposing a 2% excise tax on online adult content sites with a controversial provision aimed at reducing the likelihood that Utah residents will employ Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or other digital...
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