Report from CNBC In Brief – Instacart will stop allowing retailers to use its Eversight AI-enabled price testing technology on its grocery delivery platform. The move followed public criticism, a consumer advocacy group study, and scrutiny from lawmakers and...
Google Sues to Stop Massive Scraping of Its Search Results
Report from Reuters In Brief – Google has filed a federal lawsuit accusing SerpApi of illegally and massively circumventing its technical safeguards intended to block automated scraping of search results with the intent of accessing and reselling copyrighted and...
Meta Names Highly-Connected Republican Banker as Company President
Report from The Hill In Brief – Meta has announced the appointment of Dina Powell McCormick as its new president and vice chair as it accelerates investment in artificial intelligence and its “superintelligence” initiative. In the role, Powell McCormick will oversee...
TikTok Will Roll Out Age Estimation Technology in Europe
Report from Reuters In Brief – TikTok will start rolling out a new technology-based age-estimation regime across Europe in the coming weeks with the goal of more effectively identifying and removing accounts belonging to children under 13. The new system follows a...
US TikTok Spinoff Deal Backed by President Trump Finally Completed
Report from Bloomberg In Brief – The business deal to spin off the US operations of TikTok from Chinese parent company ByteDance has been finalized, likely securing the app’s ability to operate in the American market. The new US-based entity includes Oracle, Silver...
EU Commission Opens DSA Investigation of Grok’s Sexualized Images on X
Report from CNBC In Brief – The European Commission has announced a new Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of X and its integration of AI chatbot Grok with functionality that allowed users to create and post realistic manipulated images that could include...
South Korea Faces US Blowback After Enacting Online Disinformation Law
Report from Korea JoongAng Daily In Brief – South Korea’s recent amendment to the Network Act aimed at suppressing online misinformation quickly sparked sharp criticism from the United States who argued that it risks chilling lawful speech and creates barriers for US...
Government Pressure Forces Grok to Back Down on “Sexualized” Photo Edits
Report from Reuters In Brief – Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has announced that it is preventing Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into X, from editing images of real people to put them in revealing clothing such as bikinis. The move represents a major...
Meta Announces Plans to Use Age Verification Tool Developed in Singapore
Report from Financial Times In Brief – Meta has announced plans to adopt a new age-verification credential, AgeKeys, developed by Singapore-based start-up k-ID, as it responds to intensifying global online safety regulation. The reusable, passkey-based credential is...
Apple is Appealing Big UK Court Loss on App Store Pricing
Report from Guardian In Brief – Apple has appealed the 2025 decision of the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) that the iPhone giant violated competition law by imposing excessive App Store commissions on developers, leading to overcharges being passed on to...
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Paris Prosecutors Continue to Investigate X for Criminal Law Violations
Report from Reuters In Brief – French authorities have raided X’s Paris offices as part of an expanded criminal investigation into the social media platform over its handling of unlawful content. The probe, which began last year as an investigation of the platform’s...
Grok Chatbot Faces Regulatory Criticism for Sexualizing Photo Images
Report from Australian Broadcasting Corporation In Brief – Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into X, is facing growing backlash for being capable of digitally altering photos posted on X to depict women, and in some cases apparent children, in revealing clothing,...
New York Enacts Law Requiring Warning Labels on Social Media
Report from Digital Watch In Brief – Governor Kathy Hochul added New York to the list of states that is trying to require social media platforms to display cigarette package-style warning labels that describe their services as employing dangerous “addictive features”...
Google Settles Character.AI Liability Suits Tied to Teen Suicides
Report from Washington Post In Brief – Character.AI and Google have agreed to settle lawsuits regarding teen suicide and self-harm bought by victims’ families in Florida, Colorado, Texas and New York. Character.AI is a role-playing chatbot platform that allows users...
More Enforcement of DMA and DSA Lead EU Digital Policy Agenda for 2026
Report from >Financial Times In Brief – Enforcement of EU digital regulations, including intensifying scrutiny of major US tech companies Google, Meta, Apple and X, is going to mark European digital policy in 2026 and almost certainly bring renewed clashes with the...
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