The Verge’s Lauren Feiner will be reporting on Google’s latest antitrust battle from Virginia, where the Department of Justice will argue that it’s not just a search monopolist, but an advertising monopolist as well.
The democratic process is nice and all, but who could go back to normal “I Voted” stickers after this?
Researchers propose this one weird trick to catch ads for drugs, deepfake nudes, forgery services, and even child sexual abuse material on Facebook and Instagram: see if the ad links to a Telegram channel.
[Cybersecurity For Democracy]
A judge partially blocked a Texas law that would mandate filters for minors on social media. But other rules about parental consent and data collection are still in force, and Meta, for one, tells The Verge it will be making changes:
Due to new laws in Texas, people in the state may experience some changes to our services including how teens and parents access and use our apps.
Okay, maybe not so measured, but worth reading. Law blogger and Verge favorite Eric Goldman on the recent moderation ruling against TikTok:
Unless the 3rd Circuit en banc quickly and decisively rejects this opinion, it will be celebrated by other judges eager to blow up Section 230 (of which there are many). As a result, I expect this opinion provides another hard shove towards the impending and seemingly inevitable end of Section 230–and the Internet as we know it.
[Technology & Marketing Law Blog]
The Senate was widely expected to pass the bill, which has now officially cleared every hurdle except a final signature from Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom has until the end of September to make his call.
As Ars Technica notes, the AI image generator company was founded by former Leap Motion CTO David Holz and recently hired former Apple Vision Pro engineer Ahmad Abbas, so it’s got some hardware design veterans on board. And apparently it’s not making an AI pendant. Beyond that, your guess is as good as ours.
