Speech | The Verge

Age verification is a mess but we’re doing it anyway

2026-04-16T10:03:10-04:00

In the span of a few years, age verification went from an idea to standard practice on large parts of the internet. Seeking to prevent kids from accessing porn, other inappropriate content, or social media altogether, laws mandating age-gating have spread rapidly across the globe, reaching the UK, the US, Australia, France, Brazil, and many more countries. The problem comes in with exactly how to check that a user isn't lying about their stated age. Unfortunately, every method politicians have settled on has significant flaws - and though experts have ideas to improve on them, these remain just concepts for now.

One popular method is age i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Wisconsin governor says ‘no’ to age checks for porn

2026-04-06T18:32:37-04:00

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill that would've required residents to verify their age before accessing porn sites, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In a letter to the members of the assembly last week, Evers writes that the bill "imposes an intrusive burden on adults who are trying to access constitutionally protected materials."

The bill (AB 105) would've required sites with more than one-third of their total content deemed harmful to minors to impose a "reasonable" form of age verification, such as asking users to show their government-issued ID. More than two dozen states have already passed similar age check requirements for acc …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta’s legal defeat could be a victory for children, or a loss for everyone

2026-04-03T11:59:14-04:00

Is social media not just bad, but illegally bad? Should tech companies pay for making it that way? According to two US juries - and no shortage of outside commentary - the answer to both questions is "yes."

Earlier this week, two juries - one in New Mexico, one in Los Angeles - held Meta liable for a total of hundreds of millions of dollars for harming minors. YouTube was also found liable in Los Angeles, and both companies are appealing their losses. In one sense, the decisions were surprising. Meta and Google operate platforms for transmitting speech and are typically protected in a variety of ways by Section 230 and the First Amendment; …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Brendan Carr says his broadcast license threat wasn’t really about Iran war coverage

2026-03-27T09:51:42-04:00

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr never meant to threaten broadcast licenses over their coverage of the war in Iran, he told reporters after an event hosted by FGS and Semafor.

"My comments weren't actually on the Iran war," Carr said in response to a question from The Verge about his statement regarding coverage of the war. "I understand why people say that. I made a statement quoting a tweet."

On March 14th, Carr quote-tweeted a screenshot of a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump, who had bemoaned "an intentionally misleading headline" related to the US military action in the Middle East. "Broadcasters that a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case

2026-03-25T16:26:38-04:00

The jury in a landmark trial testing claims about social media addiction against Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube determined that the two companies failed to warn users about the risks of using their products. The jury found the companies' negligence was a substantial factor in harms like the mental health issues sustained by a now 20-year-old woman Kaley G.M., who used Instagram and YouTube.

The jury ordered both companies to pay a total of $3 million in compensatory damages, with Meta responsible for 70 percent of that balance, according to jurors' responses shared by a firm representing plaintiffs including Kaley. Jurors found that …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta misled users about its products’ safety, jury decides

2026-03-24T17:54:29-04:00

Meta willfully violated New Mexico law by misleading users about the safety of its products and engaging in an unconscionable trade practice, a jury found. The company will face a $375 million penalty for the violations, awarding the maximum penalty of $5,000 per violation for 37,500 violations across two counts. The jury decided against Meta on every count, though it declined to award a penalty as high as the state sought, which would have been closer to $2 billion.

It's a landmark verdict delivered just one day after closing arguments. New Mexico argued that Meta had flouted state law by misleading consumers and facilitating child predato …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta’s reckoning over kids safety is in the hands of two juries

2026-03-24T10:56:31-04:00

Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: The Verge | Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Two juries are currently deliberating a series of cases that could either usher in a legal reckoning for Meta, or maintain the status quo in an uphill battle to impose changes or penalties on tech platforms in court.

Yesterday, a New Mexico jury heard closing arguments in a trial where Meta is accused of facilitating child predators on its platforms - allegations the company vehemently denies. And as soon as today, a Los Angeles jury is tentatively expected to reach a verdict in a separate case, which concerns whether Meta and Google should be held liable for making defective products that addicted a young woman. Verdicts against the compa …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Congress considers blowing up internet law

2026-03-18T16:54:16-04:00

Internet platforms' liability shield Section 230 faced another round of attack at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, this time with two distinct undercurrents complicating the conversation. One was an unprecedented wave of ongoing legal challenges to the law's scope, and the second was a heightened bipartisan concern over government censorship.

"Section 230 is not one of the Ten Commandments," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said in his opening remarks. "This idea that we can't touch it, otherwise internet freedom incinerates, is preposterous." Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced a bill to sunset Secti …

Read the full story at The Verge.

FCC calls on broadcasters to air ‘pro-America content’ for the country’s 250th anniversary

2026-02-20T14:29:34-05:00

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is urging broadcasters to air "patriotic, pro-America content" in celebration of the US's 250th anniversary. The initiative, called the "Pledge America Campaign," encourages broadcasters to run public service announcements, short segments, or specials to promote "civic education, inspiring local stories, and American history."

Carr says broadcasters can "voluntarily choose to indicate their commitment" to the campaign by doing things like starting the day with the "Star Spangled Banner" or Pledge of Allegiance, broadcasting daily programming to highlight historical events, as well as show …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Stephen Colbert says CBS banned him from airing this James Talarico interview

2026-02-17T18:14:09-05:00

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert says CBS blocked him from broadcasting an interview with James Talarico, a Democratic representative from Texas. During his opening monologue on Monday night, Colbert says the network's lawyers told him in "no uncertain terms" that he couldn't have Talarico on the show, forcing him to post the interview on YouTube instead, hours after news broke that Anderson Cooper is leaving his position at the network as a 60 Minutes correspondent.

"He [Talarico] was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast," …

Read the full story at The Verge.