“Austria's military has completed a major IT overhaul, replacing Microsoft Office with the open-source LibreOffice suite [..] this move isn't about saving money. The real motivation is to gain digital sovereignty and control over critical data.” www.zdnet.com/article/this...

“We had been told that Google would try to stop people placing political ads, a "ban" that was to come into effect this week. I did not read anywhere that this would mean the erasure of this archive of our political history.” www.thebriefing.ie/google-just-...

Very interesting new polling data: The vast majority of French, Germans and Italians support strengthening European tech sovereignty and incentivising "Buy European" approaches. Another area where European voters are ahead of the policy debate. Source: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...

“The subscription offering is similar to a service offered by Meta in the EU, which has been deemed in breach of the digital markets act – a piece of legislation designed to rein in big tech – by the bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“The working group will meet again on October 9. The justice and home affairs ministers will meet on October 14. If Denmark has its way, they will initiate the chat control law there.” netzpolitik-org.translate.goog/2025/interne...

“The testing, by child safety groups and cyber researchers, found 30 out of 47 safety tools for teens on Instagram were "substantially ineffective or no longer exist". Meta has disputed the research and its findings” www.bbc.com/news/article...

New from me: Last week I noticed a feature on TikTok that used AI to scan videos and identify products. It turns out the feature is being applied even to videos from Gaza. In one, a mother cries out for her family. TikTok tagged dresses, head coverings, and handbags. www.theverge.com/tech/782540/...

“The agreement also provides some assurances for how Americans’ sensitive data will be secured. The information will be stored in a “purpose-built cloud environment” in the United States and run by Oracle, one of the officials said.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/u...

“Cookie technology is now a focal point of the EU executive’s plans to simplify technology regulation. Officials want to present an “omnibus” text in December, scrapping burdensome requirements on digital companies.” www.politico.eu/article/euro...

“In some cases, according to the IWF, chatbot icons expanded into full-screen depictions of child sexual abuse imagery when clicked upon – and formed the background image for subsequent chats between the bot and the user.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“Over several days I was repeatedly served Meta adverts for Threads that exclusively featured parents’ images of their daughters in school uniform, some revealing their names. As a father, I find it deeply inappropriate” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“Altman has said on multiple occasions that artists should be compensated if an AI system creates something in their style. [..] Wood, the OpenAI spokesperson, declined to comment on whether the company has made progress on such a program.” www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...

“They [the data sellers] also noted that the smartphone owners would have given permission for the sale of the location data through the terms and conditions of installed apps.” www.rte.ie/news/primeti...

"dropping the Google investigation sends a positive signal to Washington that Beijing can be flexible in the negotiations, said one of the people" 🤔

“Around 40 million of the platform’s users — more than a third — are under 13, making Roblox the pre-eminent gathering place for children online. Facebook and Instagram require users to be at least 13 to open an account.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/t...

“Under the commitments [..] the U.S. software giant will make versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites available at a reduced price without Teams, as well as allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams.” www.cnbc.com/2025/09/12/m...

"A French parliamentary commission probing the psychological effects of TikTok recommends banning social media for children under 15 and adopting a "digital curfew" for 15- to 18-year-olds [..] to make social media inaccessible between 10pm and 8am." www.rte.ie/news/world/2...

"Apple is blocking the functionality due to its interpretation of its obligations under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, specifically a European Commission decision from March. The decision states that the iPhone maker is required to make certain functions interoperable with competitor devices"

“[N]ew guidelines [..] essentially said that regurgitating hate speech, harassment, sexually explicit material, violence, gore or lies does not constitute a safety violation so long as the content was not generated by the AI model.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Europe won't compromise on its right to regulate American Big Tech companies despite threats by President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today.

"The judgment said the Commission calculated the number of average monthly active recipients of the services based on a common methodology. The court added that [..] "it should have been adopted [..] in a delegated act.”" www.euronews.com/next/2025/09...

The @ec.europa.eu’s cloud operations are almost entirely -99%- dependent on 🇺🇸 providers, leaving the EU's daily operations exposed to the threat of US sanctions, according to the institution’s own data. An analysis to read on @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

The Commission is gathering industry and civil society feedback on cookies for the digital simplification package, after it dropped the ePrivacy Regulation proposal earlier this year www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

"'In general, the context is that we should avoid collection of research data that indicates that there are U13s present in VR or in VR apps (or U18 currently in the context of Horizon) due to regulatory concerns,' [a Meta lawyer] added." www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

“US President Donald Trump responded to the European Commission's antitrust fine of Google by threatening to "nullify the unfair penalties" in a Truth Social post on Friday. ” www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

“Today the Commission has adopted a decision finding that Google breached EU competition rules by abusing its dominant position in the display advertising technology industry (‘Adtech') [..] our decision orders Google to pay a fine of €2.95 billion.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

"The CNIL fined Google a record €325 million "for displaying advertisements between Gmail users' emails without their consent and for placing cookies when creating Google accounts, without valid consent of French users" www.politico.eu/article/goog...

"A powerful US Congressional committee has heard a request for the Trump White House to “put pressure” on the Irish government to curb the activities of Coimisiún na Meán." www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Virkkunen: "[T]he Commission does not intend to propose the dismantling of agencies or offices that were set up [..] in recent legislation in the digital sector. However, the added value of these bodies is likely to be assessed" www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...

"Several candidates in last year’s elections told the [Irish] regulator they felt obliged to install home security systems and to alter their real-life routines to mitigate the perceived risk of being attacked. This followed online abuse." www.thejournal.ie/coimisiun-na...

Elon Musk and his company have tweaked Grok, the A.I. powered chatbot, to make its answers more conservative on many issues, according to a New York Times analysis of thousands of its responses. nyti.ms/462hBye

“The decision on how to remedy a monopoly [..] is the most significant attempt to level the tech playing field since an antitrust ruling against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. Google plans to appeal, and the case is likely to be mired in the courts for years.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/t...

“A US judge has ruled that Google doesn't need to sell off its Android operating system or its Chrome browser in a monopoly case However, the tech giant has been ordered to share data with competitors to help open up competition in online search” www.bbc.com/news/live/cg...

"[D]etails visible in photographs can provide more information than parents might realise. House numbers, street signs, school crests on uniforms, and even visible timetables can all potentially be used to identify where a child lives or attends school." news.corksafetyalerts.com/gardai-urge-...

“Google was set to receive an EU antitrust sanction [..] over a misuse of its powerful online ad services, but opposition from inside the European Commission as well as from the US administration saw the decision put on ice, MLex understands.” www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

"TikTok is giving users new ways to interact with others via direct messages (DMs), the company told TechCrunch on Friday. Users will now be able to send voice notes and share up to nine images or videos in one-to-one and group chats on the platform." techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/t...

"There are two reasons why we might expect this Ministry to be different [..] The first is the centralization of digital authority [..] Second [..] is that these new authorities will be combined with a budget for the Ministry to deliver on them." interweavegov.substack.com/p/inside-ger...

Denmark invests 80M DKK in digital sovereignty. Minister of Digital Affairs @carolinestage.bsky.social will lead initiatives to reduce dependency of big tech. Money will be spent on developing and testing alternatives. www.digmin.dk/digitaliseri...

“The US House of Representatives' hearing – on "Europe's threat to American speech and innovation" – will take place on Wednesday (September 3), according to a post on the legislative body's account on X.” www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

"The European Commission has launched a public consultation on artificial intelligence as part of its first review of the Digital Markets Act, due by May 2026." www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

EU Commissioner Hoekstra's answer to written questions on a potential suspension of the OECD global minimum tax rate agreement: www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...

Intel has been touting partnerships with sanctioned Chinese surveillance firms as Trump announces that the USG is taking a stake in the company: www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

“Last week, Russia announced it will require that all new phones and tablets sold within its borders pre-install a messaging app called Max. Security experts who did technical analyses of Max’s software for Forbes said it’s a privacy nightmare.” www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

“President Donald Trump's administration is considering imposing sanctions on European Union or member state officials responsible for implementing the bloc's landmark Digital Services Act, two sources familiar with the matter said” www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

"Preston Byrne [..] announced he would sue Ofcom in US federal court and added an unusual request. He called on the Trump administration “to invoke all diplomatic and legal levers available to the United States” to protect his clients from the OSA’s reach." www.theverge.com/politics/764...

"[FTC Chairman] Ferguson sent letters today to more than a dozen prominent technology companies reminding them of their obligations to protect the privacy and data security of American consumers despite pressure from foreign governments to weaken such protections." www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

“Social networking startup Bluesky has made the decision to block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with a new age assurance law. [..] Mississippi’s HB 1126 requires platforms to introduce age verification for all users” techcrunch.com/2025/08/24/b...

“Amazon, by far the leader in this growing trend, urges users of its Prime Video service to sign up for and watch HBO Max, Paramount+ and other services through its app. Apple, Roku and YouTube encourage the same — as do cable providers like Comcast.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/b...

“First-party studios brought in a small slice of Sony’s gaming and network revenues worth $32bn last year [..] “PlayStation is basically the HBO of gaming, mass budget and big productions,”” www.ft.com/content/d585...

EVP Virkkunen: “The Commission is closely monitoring Grok and its application in the EU, including through X’s upcoming risk assessment report due in August 2025. Risk assessments must be conducted annually” www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...