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 […]
Today on Decoder, let’s talk about prediction markets, which continue to insert themselves into the news cycle and the news itself in increasingly weird, unsettling, and potentially illegal ways. My guest today is Liz Lopatto, senior reporter at The Verge, who owns what we cheerfully call the chaos beat. Liz has been writing a lot […]
The Federal Trade Commission is encouraging companies to adopt age verification technologies by announcing it will not enforce a children’s online privacy law against certain websites that collect and use minors’ personal data in order to verify their ages. “Age verification technologies are some of the most child-protective technologies to emerge in decades,” Christopher Mufarrige, […]
President Donald Trump tried to quell Americans’ concerns about rising electricity costs during his State of the Union speech by claiming that he’s negotiated a “rate payer protection pledge” with major tech companies, which would see them build out or pay for new electricity generation for their data centers. Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, […]
Crypto is creeping back into the startup conversation, but at ETHDenver last week, the buzz was as much about Washington as it was about tokens. Policy shifts are rippling through the market as Tether and stablecoins face scrutiny, players like Stripe re-enter the conversation, and startups either find traction or flame out. The hype cycle is over, or at least taking a break. So what comes next? On […]
Apple complies with new age-assurance laws in the U.S. and abroad, including those that block users from downloading apps aimed at adults.
Anthropic’s weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: “any lawful use.” The new terms, which OpenAI and xAI have […]
The Trump administration just tossed out Biden-era restrictions on mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. It’s repealing Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) just as electricity demand in the US ticks up with the buildout of new AI data centers. Those standards are particularly impactful when it comes to pollution from coal plants […]
Nevada is suing to block the prediction market platform Kalshi from allowing residents to place bets on the outcomes of events, including elections and sports games, as reported earlier by Business Insider. The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal battles across the country, claiming that Kalshi is harming the state’s gambling market by […]
The European Union has opened a formal investigation into Shein after French regulators found listings for “child-like sex dolls” on the retail platform last year. The investigation will assess whether the systems Shein is using to curb illegal product sales are compliant with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), according to the European Commission, including […]