Adi Robertson

The Washington Post has been pushing Meta on what its recent decision to stop recommending “political” content and “social topics” on Threads and Instagram means, and it’s culminated in this illuminating quote from Meta spokeswoman Claire Lerner:

The Washington Post reports that Truth Social has the Securities and Exchange Commission’s go-ahead to complete its SPAC merger, taking the company public and unlocking around $300 million after years of uncertainty. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of drama:

Child sexual abuse material is a well-known exception to the First Amendment, but the law around AI-generated simulations of it is vastly more complicated. Lawfare’s new analysis addresses some of my longstanding questions — along with others I hadn’t even thought to ask, including the status of tools that accidentally train on CSAM. It’s long, but if you’re interested in how AI will test the criminal justice and legal systems, absolutely worth the read.

But according to Bloomberg’s Leah Nylen, it’s delayed plans to file an antitrust complaint from late 2023 to sometime this year, continuing its investigation into the company’s business practices. It’s reportedly not too happy with Ticketmaster’s response, either:

Mashable’s Matt Binder pulls out a good note from today’s child safety hearing: X CEO Linda Yaccarino says she supports the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that poses serious risks to online speech. Microsoft’s Brad Smith also came out in favor of KOSA yesterday, and Snap endorsed it prior to the hearing.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pressed Zuckerberg to apologize to families who attended the hearing, calling attention to kids who were targeted by predators online in a push to pass social media regulation. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone later posted the text of the apology, though it differs slightly from the audio — it sounds to us like Zuckerberg says “industry-leading,” not “industry-wide”: