As Australia bans social media for kids under 16, age-assurance tech is in the spotlight
Age assurance, an umbrella term that refers to technologies for verifying, estimating, or inferring an internet user’s age, is being thrust into the global spotlight thanks to a blanket ban on social media use for people under 16 in Australia.
The law, which is expected to come into force in
Elon Musk donated more than $260M to elect Donald Trump
Fresh campaign financing data shows that Elon Musk poured more than $260 million into political groups in 2024 that helped Donald Trump win the presidential election and, consequently, secured a position for himself as the co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency, according to the Federa
Uber will need to fingerprint drivers in California to transport teens
Uber has 30 days to require certain drivers to get fingerprinted if the ride-hail giant intends to continue transporting unaccompanied teens in California.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a ruling Thursday that requires taxi and ride-hail drivers who are carrying una
UK tribunal green-lights $2.7B Facebook collective action antitrust lawsuit
As Meta faces off with antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, a £2.1 billion+ Facebook U.K. class action-style competition lawsuit, which takes Meta's market dominance as a given, is moving ahead after the social media giant lost a bid to have the litigation thrown out. The suit is seeki
EU puts TikTok on watch over election security
The European Commission has responded to widespread concerns swirling around the impact of TikTok on elections in Romania by announcing it’s stepping up monitoring of the platform’s compliance with the bloc’s online governance framework, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
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Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, and all the other VCs reportedly in the running for DOGE and other Trump committees
With Elon Musk playing such a high-profile role in Donald Trump's transition team, Musk's buddies, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are reportedly being tapped to help out.
For instance, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and in particular co-founder Marc Andreessen, is repeatedl
Intel and Biden Administration finalize $7.86B CHIPS Act grant for domestic manufacturing
The U.S. Department of Commerce confirmed on Tuesday it has awarded $7.865 billion to chip giant Intel under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, a federal statute signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
The funding will go toward manufacture and ad
South Korean prosecutors request 5-year jail sentence for Samsung chief Jay Lee
South Korean prosecutors sought a five-year prison sentence and a 500 million KRW fine, equivalent to $375,000, for Samsung Electronics chief Jay Y. Lee at an appeals court on Monday. The appeals case comes 10 months after Lee and 13 former Samsung executives were originally acquitted of manipulati
DuckDuckGo calls for EU to widen its Digital Markets Act probe of Google
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo has urged the European Union to widen its Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigation into Google, claiming the search giant is in breach of several areas where the bloc has yet to formally probe the company’s compliance.
The EU’s flagship market co
UK competition regulator clears Alphabet’s investment in Anthropic
The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has okayed Alphabet’s partnership and investment in AI rival Anthropic, concluding that it doesn’t qualify for investigation under current merger rules.
The announcement comes a month after the CMA revealed it was launching a forma
What’s DOGE? Musk’s new political appointment under Trump is a crypto joke
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that one of his top donors, Elon Musk, will co-lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It's a not-even-thinly-veiled nod to the popular Doge meme, depicting a cute Shiba Inu, which is also the inspiration behind the
Canada orders shutdown of TikTok offices over security risks (but won’t block app)
With all eyes on how a new Trump administration in the U.S. will interface with China Tech in the years ahead, its neighbor to the north has leveled a blow to one of the biggest apps to come out of the country.
Canada has ordered the closure of ByteDance’s operations in Canada — specifical
The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and t
Corning, maker of toughened Gorilla Glass for phones, faces EU antitrust probe
On Wednesday, the European Union opened an investigation of U.S. manufacturer Corning over possible anti-competitive practices. Corning may not be a name that’s super familiar to the average tech consumer, but you are almost certainly within touching distance of its products, as it’s a