📺 HAPPENING NOW: House Judiciary Republicans come out the gate with unequivocal support for a sweeping, broad AI moratorium, which will repeal laws protect kids and make CSAM illegal in states like in states like Alabama, Arizona, California, and more.

While the EU debates tech sovereignty, the UK is rolling out the red carpet for Trump and US tech giants—making deals and importing infrastructure that serves America’s AI ambitions. Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood asks, what does it portend for Britain’s future?

Curious thread on the lawsuit that is claiming Google is abusing its monopoly, in this case its search monopoly. It’s an important suit for the open web, searchability, and the publishing industry. It reminds me of how grateful I am Google never got to govern or develop Toronto’s Quayside.

ok, this is HUGE. Late Friday, Penske (PMC) filed a wicked-smart, landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google. I've now read it in full and I'm very impressed. Importantly, it's the first antitrust suit for Google tying its AI-driven products to its adjudicated search monopoly. /1

Mostly good news out of VA courthouse ahead of the 2nd major U.S. v Google remedies trial (kicking off Monday). Judge Brinkema set a strong tone for public interest. It started off the top as she denies Facebook’s efforts to seal the court for a former top engineer testimony. /1

fwiw, i was there and thought that Google’s argument was weak that its background info as part of divestiture analysis for a potential EU settlement wasn’t informative to this divestiture proposal by DOJ. Tech feasibility will likely be their biggest argument but should fall short w phase approach.

This is potentially earthshaking for the advertising-funded publishing business model. In a good way.

The real Google anti-trust case to watch

"the open web is already in rapid decline", says Google, so there is no need to address its structural power

Just Googled "Was 2024 one year ago" and this was Google AI's response. Really just man-in-hot-dog-costume trying to find out who did it meme

🚨REPORT: A new investigation shows Meta buried evidence that kids weren’t safe in its “Metaverse.” If this was their M.O. for virtual reality, why should we trust their chatbots?

"The report is part of a trove of documents from inside Meta that was recently disclosed to Congress by two current and two former employees who allege that Meta suppressed research that might have illuminated potential safety risks to children and teens on the company’s [VR] devices and apps..."

Correct Judge Mehta didn't order Google breakup last week but late Friday night we saw DOJ is full speed ahead in its other remedies trial in 16 days and posted its PFJ (Proposed Final Remedies) now 60+ pages of brilliant detail. Let me walk you through key terms. /1

More Google news. EC making itself clear here. "The Commission has already signalled its preliminary view that only the divestment by Google of part of its services would address the situation of inherent conflicts of interest, but it first wishes to hear and assess Google's proposal." 1/2

Shot / chaser. I struggle to see how these can be the same person. This - should it come to pass - will be (rightly) seen by challenger tech (and Big Tech) as the very capitulation the Commissioner just said Europe could not accept. Let us all hope Reuters is wrong!! www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Statement kicker (I’d say “has disappeared” instead of “is disappearing”)

An extraordinary must-read NYT Editorial Board column on extraordinary abuses of power which “instill fear in anyone who might consider challenging the president, and they erode trust in the justice system.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/o...

Judge Mehta’s imminent remedy order and an injunction have a chance to stop the harms. “…and giving publishers a way to block the use of their content in Al-generated answers without sacrificing their Google search visibility.” www.pcmag.com/news/googles...

since Google rolled out AI Overviews in your search results, median year-over-year referral traffic from Google Search to premium publishers down 10% - Non-news brands down 14% - News brands down 7% - Yr/yr declines outnumber gains two-to-one 1/2

lol. Now on record as we await Court order if Google must divest Chrome. For $35B, Google can control the outcome. Their problem is massive “signal loss” - they lose access to user browsing data likely worth much more to them (including YouTube). 1/2

Good coverage by Press Gazette. Reporters should note the second "change" is actually in the Dept of Justice proposed search remedies for the imminent order out of DC court. Court had shared a desire to issue them by August. All eyes should be on an injunction to stop the ongoing harm ASAP. 1/2

The 2025 Anti-Monopoly Summit is coming up quick! And we’ve got a great lineup already. Join us September 15th & 16th for dynamic sessions and conversations with policymakers, advocates, union leaders, and more — early bird tickets available through August 20th! 🐦🎟️

"As AI overviews become the default gateway to information, we risk creating a generation of users who consume knowledge without question, publishers who cannot sustain quality journalism, and a public sphere increasingly shaped by the statistical patterns embedded in large language models."

It's challenging to apply enough context to streams of posts but this is a remarkably good post that anyone who actually spends time in DC understands so pinning it and tipping my hat. The actual statistics, the pardons, and the racial context are important. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Just updated data in light of eye-popping acceleration of 'zero-click' searches as Google's AI Overview scheme captures web traffic. I've been watching G's ad revenue mix shift from network (publishers) to its own properties for over a decade. It just hit 90% for first time. 1/2

it's cute how amazon lets you filter your shopping search by the name of the seller so you can make sure you're only looking at products from reputable brands like.... uhh... well... hm

NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out! An index from an 8-year-old #FOIA lawsuit shows what's in FBI's Epstein files: bank and phone records, photographs, communications with foreign government agencies and other revealing material related to its 2006 investigation www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Based on your thread, it seems Perplexity is aptly named, though whether their confusion is genuine vs. contrived remains to be seen.

Been off grid only to return to an absurd PR war by Perplexity. tl;dr, Cloudflare is brilliantly offering a tool so a publisher can enforce rules on scraping its site(s). Perplexity’s gripe? It apparently got caught ignoring those rules. That’s not tech innovation, perplexity. 1/6

Going off grid. I’ll be back soon - unless by some miracle - AI firms start rightly paying for what they scrape, Google/Apple stop abusing market power, Meta quits wrecking society for profit, and a free and plural press isn’t under siege. If so, my work here is done, I’ll gladly stay on vacation.

I discussed why the Justice Department has the Epstein files that the public really wants, and why the grand jury transcripts most likely don't contain anything close to that information. But listen to Barry Levine, author of The Spider, explain and expose what's going on here.

So yes, Facebook just settled immediately before board members Andreessen, Thiel, Zuckerberg, Desmond-Hellman, and Sheryl Sandberg were set to testify as to who knew what and when…depriving public of any accountability and facts in courtroom from board and officer comms. 1/4

Facebook just settled what I called the mother of all lawsuits immediately before board members Andreessen, Thiel, Zuckerberg, Desmond-Hellman, and Sheryl Sandberg were set to testify as to who knew what and when…depriving public of facts in courtroom from board and officer communications.

Good thread. WaPo report may have been a good time to note Marc will be testifying live in court this week along with several board members on the largest privacy settlement ever and allegations of insider trading for Zuckerberg and a coverup to protect him. Sandberg, Zuckerberg, Thiel…etc.

Also the report may have been a good time to note Marc will be testifying live in court this week (wed or Thu) along with several FB board members on the largest privacy settlement ever and allegations of insider trading for Zuckerberg and a coverup to protect him. Sandberg, Zuckerberg next week.

The important thing to understand about the current state of affairs is that Andreessen hired a partner at the most influential VC firm in the tech industry solely on the basis that the man strangled a Black man to death in my neighborhood.

This report may have been a good time to note Marc will be testifying live in court this week along with several board members on the largest privacy settlement ever and allegations of insider trading for Zuckerberg and a coverup to protect him. Sandberg, Zuckerberg next week @nitasha.bsky.social

If you're wondering what happened with Grok overnight, it ended up referring to itself as MechaHitler before being switched off.

Tay on steroids. (Remind me again why people are supposed to feel guilty about abandoning Twitter?) gizmodo.com/round-them-u...

For people jumping on some Texas officials' claims that the NWS didn't warn them ... scrolling the #EWX timeline shows numerous warnings of potential flash flooding. (Thnx again @wandrme.paxex.aero for creating the Bluesky mirrors of NWS feeds.) ll

If you want* to read Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"--a clear-eyed yet profoundly hopeful inspection of the gap between U.S. ideals and U.S. reality--you can read it as it was first published at the Internet Archive. * Yes, you do.

Chhabria in Kadrey v. Meta: bsky.app/profile/kint... Eviscerates AI companies for dozens of pages on fair use; ultimately says authors' lawyers were specifically incompetent but authors will win in other cases. Agreed re: your latter part, but the companies sure thought they could get away with it

It's no secret Facebook had massive privacy issues but after ~$8B in settlements we're 2 weeks from their mother of all lawsuit trials with discovery and depositions of the board and CEO to discover who knew what when in alleged 'colossal' cover-up. Pretrial brief just posted. /1

The headline is actually pretty misleading. It's not that big of a "win" for them over training with copyrighted material. Here is a really good thread that highlights some of the positives for creators within the judges' written opinion. bsky.app/profile/kint...

A good link to use, share and promote. Thanks.

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Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee pushed back against the Trump administration's bid to rescind federal funding for public broadcasting and international aid programs.