“Ofcom [..] announced the proposals under the next phase of implementing the Online Safety Act (OSA) [..] The scam ad requirements apply to [..] platforms such as Instagram and X, as well as Google and ChatGPT.” www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

The European Commission has taken aim at infinite scroll and autoplay on Instagram and Facebook, finding that Meta failed to adequately mitigate the risks its platforms pose to users' mental health, including children. ➡️ https://l.euronews.com/mYuU

“[A]ll new websites signing up for Cloudflare [..] will have the default settings in their bot management protocol set to block “multi-purpose crawlers” on any webpage that has ads [..] the primary, unnamed target of this action is Google” www.adweek.com/media/publis...

"LinkedIn was the most AI-saturated platform, where more than 40% of longform posts flagged as fully AI-generated. However, if we included mixed AI and human content, X/Twitter was the worst off: [..] with only 53.2% of X articles flagging as fully human-authored." www.pangram.com/blog/ai-in-y...

“The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has developed a new software suite, driven by Google Gemini, Open AI and Anthropic’s Claude, that helps party members generate so-called “rage bait” social media postings.” www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...

“Grok allowed the man to generate extreme images depicting incest and rape without flagging any harmful behavior, the complaint said. Seemingly, xAI’s child safety system only intervened after the man input a prompt for “gang rape.”” arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Apple loses EU court fight over App Store 'gatekeeper' status under the #Digital #Markets #Act, clearing the path for more competition and user choice on iOS. #Technology #News

“As part of this update, public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being fodder for generative AI remixes. All someone has to do is tag your account’s profile in a prompt—if it’s public—and they can use Meta AI to generate an image using your likeness.”

“MEPs call for further measures to protect minors who use video-sharing platforms. [..] MEPs also want influencers and content creators to be subject to media content rules, with codes of conduct and clear guidelines.” www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres...

NEW BLOG FOR YOU Google's energy consumption numbers in their new climate report are mind-blowing. 2 years ago they flipped from linear to exponential growth, and their climate impact is blowing out, too. A WILD testament to the obscene bloat and waste of GenAI: ketanjoshi.co/2026/07/01/g...

“The European Commission had wanted to replace cookie banners with an automated consent signal. However, Google and several EU member states [..] including Germany and France – are obstructing this” www.techcentral.ie/european-mem...

NEW: A politician investigating Pegasus spyware… had their phone hacked with Pegasus multiple times. The compromises came days ahead of key meetings of the spyware inquiry Story with @lhn.bsky.social

“[A]n A.I. elite has emerged that can outspend other tech workers. The two companies [OpenAI and Antrophic], along with Elon Musk’s newly public SpaceX, could mint more than 20 new billionaires among current and former employees” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/t...

"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce proposals for an EU-wide social media ban for children during her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg on 16 September, multiple EU officials and diplomats told Euractiv." www.euractiv.com/news/eu-plan...

New: there is a major vulnerability with Apple’s Hide My Email feature that lets attackers discover peoples’ real emails. Verified it works on my own email. We’re not disclosing how it works because Apple has not fixed it. But Apple has known for more than a year www.404media.co/apple-hide-m...

"The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against that judgment of the General Court, thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them [..] for their anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system." curia.europa.eu/site/upload/...

“Tech companies can expect more investigations from Ireland’s media regulator under the EU’s Digital Services Act in the next six months — even as existing probes are already facing procedural court challenges. John Evans, the Digital Services Coordinator, told MLex” www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

"This €1.48 million pilot project will involve young people from different countries and backgrounds in the conceptualisation and development of new European social media platforms, focusing on user safety, mental health, privacy and ease of use." digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/new-...

US Supreme Court just blew up EU-US Data Transfers - noyb.eu/en/us-suprem... and #maxschrems is on it: "given that the US still exercises massive pressure on the EU to keep personal data flowing, noyb will also file a lawsuit in the coming weeks, aiming to allow the CJEU to annul the current deal"

“Australia will double the maximum penalty for violating its social media minimum age law, raising the fine ceiling from [..] [33 to 68.2 million USD]. The government is also moving to expand the eSafety Commissioner's powers to compel platforms to hand over evidence” mashable.com/tech/austral...

“Australia will double the maximum penalty for violating its social media minimum age law, raising the fine ceiling from [..][33 to 68.2 million USD]. The government is also moving to expand the eSafety Commissioner's powers to compel platforms to hand over evidence” mashable.com/tech/austral...

“Screen time for babies and toddlers under the age of two has been linked with long-term negative effects on health and quality of life and should be avoided, according to a landmark study.” www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

“Zuckerberg [..] recently dispatched a small team at his company to create a smartphone app similar to Polymarket and Kalshi, two employees with knowledge of the matter said.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/t...

“The latest version [..] contains strings that describe “Audio Memory,” [..] Google explains how enabling will let you “keep track of what you hear throughout your day, from the music around you to your important conversations.”” 9to5google.com/2026/06/22/g...

EU Member States and European Parliament agree on amended EU law on child sexual abuse/CSA material www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre... 'designing or adapting AI systems to produce CSAM, as well as distributing such systems, will be considered a criminal offence'

“Many of those videos were reportedly filmed on “near-perfect copies” of the Polymarket website, while featuring trades and winnings that were not real. The creator videos were then amplified by a “social-media army” deployed by a marketing contractor.” techcrunch.com/2026/06/21/p...

""As recommendation models improve, and increasingly as AI can generate or tailor content to the individual in real time, the gap between 'what you'd enjoy' and 'what you're shown' will likely keep shrinking."" www.dw.com/en/how-tikto...

"Cancer misinformation is directly linked to higher rates of death, yet we still treat it as something for individual patients to navigate and individual doctors to address in brief appointments, while platforms nominally flag content as their algorithms continue doing the opposite."

The EU is about to classify AWS and Azure as gatekeepers under the DMA. This is expected to lead to requirements around interoperability and data portability with other cloud providers. Given the EU’s push towards data sovereignty, this will make it easier to migrate off of US big tech clouds.

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he regrets how he approached trying to implement hate speech legislation while in office, and that he now believes it would have been better to try to regulate social media algorithms instead. jrnl.ie/7073816t

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today said her government would not take the initiative to introduce a social media ban on teens like those in the works in France, the U.K and other countries.

"France may require pornography websites established elsewhere in the EU to implement age-verification measures — provided it complies with the conditions set out in the e-Commerce Directive [..] — the EU Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday." www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

🔴 Russia was behind arson attacks targeting PM, BBC reveals BBC found the arson attack was just one part of an extensive campaign of sabotage, provocation and lies leading all the way to the Russian state. www.bbc.com/news/article...

‘Our research shows that Musk used the Belfast tragedy to amplify anti-migrant narratives to millions of users, prompting endless calls for violence’ www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

“Teenagers will be banned from all the main social platforms and online products that are not covered by the ban – such as gaming apps – will face new restrictions such as having the option to chat to strangers removed.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“Teenagers under the age of 16 are to be banned from accessing “high-risk” social media apps while safer platforms will be subjected to restrictions, under a sweeping government crackdown.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

This is wild: essentially every LLM—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini—keeps using the same character when asked to make up a story, a guy called 'Elias Thorne'. He appears so much it's impacting Google Trends data and the self-published book market. Now we might know why www.404media.co/elias-thorne...

"Landmark German ruling declares Google's #AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers": the-decoder.com/landmark-ger... #ethics #law #internet #tech #business h/t @garymarcus.bsky.social

"[F]rom 2 August 2026 [..] Deepfakes and AI-generated or AI-manipulated text published on matters of public interest must be clearly labelled. Users must also be informed when they are interacting with an interactive AI system, such as a chatbot." ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

"The European Commission has ordered Meta to restore free access to WhatsApp for rival general-purpose AI assistants, and maintain it until the end of the Commission's antitrust investigation" ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

New: the FCC is trying to ban burner phones by forcing all telecoms to store ID information on all new and renewing customers. That includes a government issued ID number. Massive privacy-impacting change “We never thought that would happen here,” the ACLU says www.404media.co/fcc-wants-to...

“In a submission to a government consultation on online safety, the US government came out against “prescribed one-size-fits-all government restrictions” and “blunt regulatory instruments” to address online harms to children.” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“Starmer called on Apple and Google to introduce “device controls” – which could potentially include AI tools – to prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images, warning of legal action if they did not commit to doing so within three months.“ www.euractiv.com/news/uk-warn...

"Canada is proposing legislation that would require companies to retain certain metadata and provide law enforcement with access to it. [..] tech players have sharply criticized the proposal, with some saying they would rather leave the Canadian market than comply." www.techspot.com/news/112672-...

“If passed into law, the bill would require any company planning to build a "large" data center, defined as having at least 20 megawatts of capacity, to also fund a public hearing into the desirability of the project among local residents.” mashable.com/tech/new-yor...

“Meta is notifying thousands of people whose Instagram accounts were hijacked during the months-long abuse of the company's AI chatbot, which hackers repeatedly tricked into taking control of a person's account.” this.weekinsecurity.com/meta-confirm...

The world’s largest residential proxy network runs on consent, TLS and vibes. The TV is always watching and apparently it is also available for contract work in surveillance or data acquisition? blog.includesecurity.com/2026/06/the-...

EXCLUSIVE: A top Polymarket executive sent hundreds of thousands of dollars — and likely more — to social media influencers from left to right. One influencer says Polymarket wrote posts for them to share on X and asked them to promote specific bets.

The ruling will put publishers in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with the company and requires Google to ensure publisher content is properly attributed in AI-generated results.

NEW: WIRED analyzed Meta's AI app and found NameTag — a hidden facial recognition system designed to identify people via the wearer's smart glasses — has already shipped to over 50 million phones.