Hello and welcome to a post-October Federal Holiday edition of Regulator. Last week, I caught wind that House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with several top House Republican leaders, had held an exclusive press briefing about the government shutdown that was restricted to “new media.” The contents of the meeting were published as a “scoop” by […]
Meta has removed a Facebook page dedicated to tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Chicago after the Justice Department got involved. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Tuesday that Facebook had taken down an unnamed “large group page that was being used to dox and target” ICE agents after outreach from the […]
A bill attempting to regulate the ever-growing industry of companion AI chatbots is now law in California, as of October 13th. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 243, billed as “first-in-the-nation AI chatbot safeguards” by state senator Anthony Padilla. The new law requires that companion chatbot developers implement new safeguards — for instance, […]
California joins a growing group of states with a new internet age-gating law after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act. The law mandates that device operating systems and app stores require users to enter their age or date of birth when setting up a new phone or computer. The […]
The United Kingdom has slapped 4Chan with a £20,000 (around $26,000) fine in a bid to clamp down on platforms that are hindering Online Safety Act (OSA) investigations. UK telecoms regulator Ofcom says the fine was issued after the controversial social media site ignored “legally-binding information requests” related to global revenue and its illegal harms […]
When Donald Trump’s administration issued orders to send the National Guard into Portland, Oregon, a person in a frog balloon suit showed up at the city’s ICE facility, where protesters had gathered. After the frog humped the air in front of a throng of federal law enforcement – many dressed in head-to-toe camo with military-grade […]
This week the EU Parliament voted in favor of an amendment that would ban vegetarian and vegan products from using terms including “burger” and “sausage.” But the proposed ban goes further than that, and would also prevent cell-cultured meat — a.k.a. lab-grown — from using the same terms. The regulation, passed by lawmakers 355 to […]
Broadband customers may find themselves blighted by unexpected charges again, thanks to Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr. The FCC has submitted a proposal to revise “unnecessary” requirements for internet service providers to itemize every fee on monthly bills, citing that it “may confuse customers.” The proposal comes in response to complaints by ISPs over […]
YouTube is now giving some creators who were banned for spreading covid and election misinformation a chance to make a new channel, according to a blog post. Under political pressure, the company had said last month that it was going to set up this pilot program for “a subset of creators” and “channels terminated for […]
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) was one of a handful of Republicans to speak out against the “mafioso”-like comments Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr issued ahead of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension last month. Now, he’s hoping the liberal outrage over government censorship will fuel bipartisan support for a new bill letting Americans sue […]