Government & Policy
Technology is deeply intertwined with government and policy, both being regulated by them and augmenting civic infrastructure like voting, social services, the justice system, and state-funded research, as well as exploring the frontiers of civil rights.
Spotify and Epic Games call Apple’s revised DMA compliance plan ‘confusing,’ ‘illegal’ and ‘unacceptable’
Count Spotify and Epic Games among the Apple critics who are not happy with the iPhone maker’s newly revised compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly…
Apple revises DMA compliance for App Store link-outs, applying fewer restrictions and a new fee structure
Apple has further revised its compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) rulebook, which, since March, has forced it to give iOS developers more freedom over how…
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup.…
UK’s internet regulator warns social media platforms over risks of inciting violence
The U.K.’s internet regulator Ofcom has published an open letter to social media platforms raising concerns about the use of their tools being used to incite violence.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) planned $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks is one step closer to completion — the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that the deal…
Elon Musk’s X taken to court in Ireland for grabbing EU user data to train Grok without consent
Elon Musk’s X is being taken to court in Ireland for using Europeans’ data to train AI models without asking for their consent.
Just for a minute, as we digest the information that Google has been found to operate an illegal monopoly, can you imagine a web without Google? An internet without Google…
Google will appeal a U.S. District Court judge’s opinion Monday that found the technology giant acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. The decision from Judge Amit P.…
TikTok Lite: EU closes addictive design case after TikTok commits to not bring back rewards mechanism
The European Commission has closed a Digital Services Act (DSA) investigation of a rewards feature in TikTok Lite by accepting commitments from the social media giant to permanently withdraw the…
While both the DSA and DMA aim to achieve distinct things, they are best understood as a joint response to Big Tech’s market power.
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How the theft of 40M UK voter register records was entirely preventable
A scathing rebuke by the U.K. data protection watchdog reveals what led to the compromise of tens of millions of U.K. voters’ information.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are suing TikTok and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law requires digital…
The European Union’s risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence has come into force starting from today.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that OpenAI is working with the U.S. AI Safety Institute, a federal government body that aims to assess and address risks in AI platforms, on…
AI lobbying at the U.S. federal level is intensifying in the midst of a continued generative AI boom and an election year that could influence future AI regulation. New data…
Copyright Office tells Congress: ‘Urgent need’ to outlaw AI-powered impersonation
The U.S. Copyright Office has issued the first part of a report on how AI may affect its domain, and its first recommendation out of the gate is: we need…
More than 100 VCs, including Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla and Mark Cuban have pledged to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Mobilizing under the…
Spain’s antitrust watchdog fines Booking.com nearly $450M for unfair terms and restricting rivals
The CNMC opened an investigation of Booking.com back in October 2022, following complaints by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and the Regional Hotel Association of Madrid.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that…
The EU has kicked off a consultation on rules that will apply to providers of general purpose AI models under the bloc’s AI Act.
The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has revealed an early-stage probe into Google’s ties with Anthropic, after the Alphabet subsidiary invested in its U.S. AI rival over several rounds. While it’s not…
The U.S. Commerce Department has issued a new report endorsing open models like Meta’s Llama 3.1, which it says promote competition.
It turns out that maybe, just maybe, spending a lot of time staring at your phone and reading bad news isn’t great for your outlook…
Critics have long argued that wararantless device searches at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment.
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MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill
Though MatPat retired from YouTube, he’s still pretty busy. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill.
With Ghostery turning 15 years old this month, TechCrunch caught up with CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz to discuss the company’s strategy and the state of ad tracking.
Two years ago, workers at an Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, were the first to establish a formally recognized union at an Apple retail store in the United States. Now…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Commerce Department agency that develops and tests tech for the U.S. government, companies and the broader public, has re-released a…
The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Proposition 22 — the ballot measure that passed in November 2020 and classified app-based gig workers as independent contractors rather than employees —…
Singaporean e-commerce firm Qoo10’s Korean units face probe due to payment delays to merchants
The e-commerce market in South Korea ranks as one of the largest in the world, but it’s also proving to be a precarious one. On Thursday, South Korea’s Fair Trade…
