8 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Policy Archive

Archives for October 2026

Adi Robertson
Adi Robertson
Trump’s attempt to rename AI is still going strong.

The Verge considers anyone that uses the term, “Cool,” as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, “Fetch,” THE ENEMY.

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
A bipartisan bill aims to hold data centers accountable for their energy use.

The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act would require data centers to report their electricity use, and allow utilities to charge them more for transmission costs. The bill aims to speed the construction of new infrastructure needed to meet soaring electricity demand, but won’t come up for a Senate vote until after midterm elections.

Gaby Del Valle
Gaby Del Valle
Someone just swatted Cornell’s Jane Doe.

After online vigilantes doxxed the former Cornell student, someone called the police in Jane Doe’s hometown claiming there had been a shooting at her parents’ house, her attorney told CNN.

“Somebody could have been killed. This has gone too far.”

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
The FCC might let political groups send you more AI robocalls.

It banned AI robocalls in 2024, but the Associated Press reports Brendan Carr’s FCC is considering a waiver that would allow political calls “using an artificial or prerecorded voice—including an AI-generated voice— without obtaining prior express consent.” If the waiver’s granted, it could mean an influx of AI calls ahead of the midterm elections.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Senator accuses Trump Mobile of skipping FCC filings.

Sen. Maggie Hassan wrote to Trump Mobile CEO Patrick O’Brien, accusing the company of missing mandatory filings around robocall prevention and international service provision. She also raised questions about security practices, following a third reported hack of the company, and whether the recent price hike will hit customers still waiting for their phones.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The FTC is sending money to people affected by GOAT marketplace’s “deceptive” policies.

In 2024, the FTC alleged that GOAT didn’t mail “some priority processing orders as fast as promised” and didn’t have a system in place to honor its “Buyer Protection” policy that promised full refunds for products found to be incorrect.

Last year, GOAT settled with the FTC and refunded more than $736,000, and today, the FTC is distributing payments totaling more than $100,000 to 6,205 customers who haven’t gotten money from GOAT yet.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Trump queues up participation trophies for tech execs at Thursday’s “Golden Age” White House summit.

Tomorrow’s event will announce more than $1 billion in commitments for the Trump admin’s “Genesis Project” AI push and investments from the NSF and Energy Department, reports Axios, including $100 million in credits from something called National Compute.

Meanwhile, Fox News and Bloomberg report Trump will award the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sergey Brin, and Lisa Su, while Michael Dell and Satya Nadella are in line for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. It’s the first time Trump has ever given out the awards, which usually don’t go to well-known tech execs, judging by previous recipients.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Florida asked a judge to order Meta to remove kids under 14 from its platforms.

A new filing calls for Meta to make several changes for teen users in Florida, like limits on who can message them and a two-hour time limit across Meta’s apps. As Reuters reports, Florida is continuing its lawsuit against Meta rather than accepting a settlement, which AG James Uthmeier called “a slap on the wrist.”

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
North Carolina man who used AI for music streaming fraud sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Michael Smith, who pleaded guilty earlier this year, was also ordered to pay over $8 million. According to the DOJ, that’s the amount he earned in royalties from using bots to stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs from 2017 to 2024.

What The Social Reckoning gets right — and wrong

Spoiler alert: The Facebook Files are still more interesting than Aaron Sorkin’s new thriller.

Lauren Feiner
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Cable lobby groups plan to sue the FCC to try and stop the end of the national ownership cap rule.

Brendan Carr’s FCC voted to end the rule, which prevents a broadcast station from reaching more that 39 percent of US TV households, in August. The lobby groups say that the order “arbitrarily and capriciously ignores the harms that will surely follow from allowing broadcast station groups to exceed the National Cap,” Ars Technica reports.

The vigilante doxxing campaign against Cornell’s Jane Doe happened in plain sight

X and Substack aren’t doing anything to stop users from harassing women they believe are connected to the rape case — and the women who aren’t.

Gaby Del Valle