Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.
Residents of the city say Scott Furgeson was disrespectful.
Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence has thrown a wrench in Republicans’ reauthorization plans.
First reported by Medpage Today, police in New Orleans pushed out medical experts at an American Diabetes Association meeting for the grave crime of… distributing an editorial that was critical of the Trump administration’s war on science. I’ve stopped being able to keep score on the actual censorship happening in this country.
The CEO pitched the idea as a way to bring economic benefits from AI to the public, according to NOTUS, which added that Altman first pitched the idea to President Donald Trump early last year.
State lawmakers passed a bill that, if signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, would restrict AI companies from letting teens use chatbots that suggest they’re human. It comes after some AI companies have faced lawsuits (some of which have settled) over allegations their chatbots coaxed teen users toward suicide or self-harm.
If you or anyone you know is considering self-harm or needs to talk, contact the following people who want to help: In the US, text or call 988. Outside the US, contact https://www.iasp.info/.
Polymarket’s chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber used his personal PayPal account to send at least $350,000 to content creators who hyped the prediction market platform, Politico reports. Shirley and others who were paid promoted Polymarket on X with no paid content disclosures. Influencer content is a huge part of prediction markets’ media strategy — often hiding in plain sight.
Internal documents, which were disclosed as part of a wave of child safety lawsuits filed by school districts across the US, showed:
Snapchat sent phone alerts to adolescents during school hours, urging them to share what was going on in their classrooms.
Meta paid “teen ambassadors” to promote Instagram and hand out swag to their friends at school.
TikTok gave the National PTA millions of dollars, in part to throw school events about online safety and provide favorable comments to journalists.
Following a report from a bitcoin policy think tank and claims from Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, three Republican lawmakers asked the Trump administration to brief them about investigations into alleged foreign influence campaigns. The lawmakers are concerned that adversaries are pushing anti-AI sentiment to slow US infrastructure development.
[House Committee on Energy and Commerce]
Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Lori Trahan (D-MA) are releasing a highly anticipated 269-page draft bill as a launching pad for discussion about federal AI regulation, Politico reported. In a Bloomberg Law op-ed, the lawmakers said a national standard is necessary to extend protections across state lines.
In an 8-1 ruling, the justices found that the Federal Communications Commission’s in-house process to levy fines doesn’t violate companies’ right to a jury trial. The case involved AT&T and Verizon’s challenges to fines they faced during the Biden administration over allegations they illegally shared customers’ location without consent.
Grimes County, Texas, awarded the company a property tax exemption for its planned $55 billion Terafab semiconductor plant. Local residents seem to feel the same way about the project as many do about data centers, and this tax break won’t help. As local landowner Rhonda Nesloney put it in court:
“Elon was on the news bragging he’s about to be a trillionaire . . . and you want to consider giving him a tax abatement.”
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
The ESA / YouGov data unsurprisingly shows that an estimated 212 million Americans play games, with gaming at least one hour a week most prevalent among young people, including over 80 percent of Gen Alpha and Gen Z.
Older Americans are playing games, too, though, including 50 percent of Boomers, the only generation where more women play games than men.
The library, tasked with preserving White House records, told The Washington Post it didn’t have responsive records to its Freedom of Information Request, despite evidence cited in legal filings of his DMs. Failing to preserve Trump’s messages while in office could violate the Presidential Records Act, according to The Post.
[The Washington Post]
The EU’s General Court said the European Commission’s decision to designate Facebook Marketplace as a gatekeeper service under Digital Markets Act rules “lacks sufficient reasoning,” and that it should be exempt from the regulation. Meta also tried to appeal Messenger’s designation, but that decision stands firm.
Utah Senate president J. Stuart Adams is calling for a 75 percent reduction, bringing the project from 40,000 acres to approximately 10,000, alongside demands for greater transparency and stronger conservation commitments. O’Leary says the reduced proposal is like “selling you a house, and you get to live in the upstairs toilet.”
The former Republican congressman claimed in a video on X that he would be at the State of the Union in February, but didn’t show up. Now, according to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn’s sources, the DOJ and CFTC are investigating whether Santos made tens of thousands of dollars betting on Kalshi that he wouldn’t be there.
The ‘90s are in right now, and with a new Microsoft antitrust case on the horizon, even the Federal Trade Commission is getting into the spirit.
Drinkboxgamer:
The Knicks are in the NBA finals and Microsoft are under antitrust investigation, it really is the 90s all over again.
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I just got an emergency alert in Manhattan for something happening 8 miles away at an ICE detention center in New Jersey, where state police and federal agents have been facing off against the public. Newark, NJ has “declared a curfew within a 1/2-mile radius” of Delaney Hall, with the apparent exception of media with “verified credentials.” Trump recently bragged about NJ police cooperating with the feds here.
Note to the government, once again: you don’t need a media badge to report on what’s going on in this country. Stay safe, friends in New Jersey.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier accuses OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of promoting ChatGPT even though its use can allegedly lead to “self-harm, cognitive decline, and behavioral addiction,” according to NBC News.
The state is seeking penalties and a court order instead of criminal charges, but its criminal investigation into OpenAI is ongoing.
404 Media sued ICE to get documents related to its $2 million contract with the spyware company Paragon. In response, ICE sent back heavily redacted documents that provide little insight into the surveillance tool, which can be used to remotely hack people’s phones without their knowledge — and can even break into their encrypted messaging apps.
ICE has publicly hinted that they need the software to combat international drug cartels. But as with all border security tools, there’s always a chance it’ll be turned inward.
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Chrome Holding Co. — formerly 23AndMe — claiming that the company failed to protect user information, leading to the massive 2023 breach that included data belonging to 6.9 million users. In 2024, 23andMe agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit related to the breach.
[California Office of the Attorney General]
After teasing some kind of alien-related disclosure, the White House rolled out… a map of ICE arrests touting 3.1 million encounters. It’s the same great replacement talking points as always — they’re being imported, elites facilitated the “invasion,” etc. etc. — with some X-Files-esque music playing in the background. And the numbers aren’t even right. I can only imagine the glee with which some groyper vibecoded this.
As Deadline reports, ABC filed early renewal applications for its broadcast licenses “under protest” on Thursday, along with a letter condemning the FCC’s demand for the premature license renewal. ABC called it “unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional,” stating:
Simultaneously forcing every station in a media company’s portfolio to file premature license renewal applications is not a regulatory tool. It is an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices, which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America. This is a threat to the First Amendment that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.
In a brief order, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Texas to move forward with implementing its App Store Accountability Act while the case seeking to block it plays out. It’s an early test of a method that is being considered across several states, and in Congress.
[Bloomberg Law]
Governor JB Pritzker says he plans to sign a bill passed Wednesday by the state legislature, which would require independent audits and whistleblower protections at AI companies. Those features go beyond recently passed AI safety laws in New York and California, according to NBC News, while also including similar protections.
The US Justice Department wants names, addresses, and banking information of at least two anonymous users, and is subpoenaing Reddit and X as part of criminal investigations, according to Bloomberg. The users have hired lawyers to push back.
