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Regulation Archive

Archives for December 2025

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
China pushes for stricter chatbot laws.

The proposed rules would be among the toughest global AI regulations if passed. Minors and elderly users would be required to register a guardian to use AI services, who’d be notified if topics like suicide come up, and chatbots would be banned from emotional manipulation and promoting violence, crime, or self-harm.

The year the government broke

2025 was the year the federal government and consumer protections were gutted.

Lauren Feiner
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Meredith Haggerty
AI advocates worry David Sacks’ aggression undermines the industry’s hopes.

The administration’s top AI adviser championed Trump’s executive order preempting states from regulating the industry, but alienated everyone from kids’ safety groups to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Insiders worry that the Musk-aligned investor doesn’t understand how Washington works.

What could’ve been Google’s worst year turned into one of its best

In 2025, the company staved off monopoly charges and AI upstarts to set revenue records.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
EU moves to soften its ban on gas cars.

Following mounting pressure, European officials have recommended the bloc drop its 2035 ban on new gas cars, instead aiming for a 90 percent reduction in emissions from new vehicles, leaving room for a few hybrids to still hit the market. The change will still have to pass the EU parliament.

What 1,000 pages of documents tell us about DOGE

As Brendan Carr heads to Capitol Hill, newly released documents still don’t say much about what DOGE did at the FCC.

Lauren Feiner
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
De minimis, EU style.

Europe wants to tax the flood of cheap packages from Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu, just like Trump did. From next July, a €3 charge will apply per item type to parcels below €150, a temporary fix while the bloc works on removing the exemption altogether.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Intel’s once-record EU fine shrinks a little smaller.

Back in the mists of time, in ancient 2009, the European Union fined Intel €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) for anticompetitive behaviors. The two have been in court ever since, and after Intel got the fine cut to €376 million, it’s now dropped again to €237.1 million ($275 million). How low can it go?

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The art of the deal.

As Ted Sarandos and David Ellison play out a public spat over whose turn it is to play with Warner Bros., while trying to impress Trump and the regulators along the way, just remember that the real winners at the end will be HBO Max subscribers.

sam flynn:

It’s really fun how we all get to sit around and watch these idiots toss gold bars back and forth across Trump’s desk while waiting to see if an HBO Max subscription will be $80 or $100 a month this time next year.

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EU fines X $140 million over ‘deceptive’ blue checkmarksEU fines X $140 million over ‘deceptive’ blue checkmarks
Jess Weatherbed and Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
One more thing to worry about.

As Russia bans Roblox for spreading “LGBT propaganda” — now along with Snapchat and FaceTime too — it leaves homophobes with yet another thing to avoid, just in case.

sam flynn:

Fellas is it gay to play Roblox?

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