Advertising

The European Commission has informed Meta of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In the Commission's preliminary view, this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social networks. The Commission takes the preliminary view that Meta's “pay or consent” advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2).

The free flow of information and the exchange of ideas is the lifeblood of our cultural lives and our democracy. Humans need connections to one another like they need air and water. And a democracy needs citizens to exchange information and ideas. That is what democracy is all about: competing ideas in a debate that plays out freely over time. With freedom of thought and expression, democracy thrives. In contrast, the first goal of the tyrant is to control thought and information.  Today we are confronting that challenge.

T-Mobile says it will comply with an advertising watchdog’s recommendation that the company discontinue or adjust its price lock claims for its Internet service in response to a challenge brought by AT&T. The watchdog, BBB’s National Programs National Advertising Division (NAD), uses these challenges to self-regulate service providers’ advertising claims.

Judging by the online comments, T-Mobile’s price increase didn’t go over well. That’s putting it mildly—and it’s also no surprise. People generally don’t like to be told their monthly bills are increasing. But in T-Mobile’s case, customers are seething because T-Mobile is raising prices on plans that were offered with “guarantees” they wouldn’t go up, such as T-Mobile One plans. A T-Mobile spokesperson said customers who have Price Lock are still covered under that guarantee.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues a new agency proposal that, if adopted, would look into whether the agency should require disclosure when there is AI-generated content in political ads on radio and TV. With the circulation of this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the subsequent support of her colleagues, the FCC would initiate a proceeding that recognizes consumers’ right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they view. If adopted, this proposal aims to increase transparency by:

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) and a multistate, bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general secured more than $10.22 million from AT&T Mobility and its subsidiary Cricket Wireless; T-Mobile; and Cellco Partnership and its subsidiary TracFone Wireless for deceptively marketing wireless service plans for years.

Google is taking Canada's broadcasting regulator to court, arguing "significant" revenue it earns from advertisements on YouTube videos shouldn't be considered when it comes to the regulatory fees it owes the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). In an application filed in the Federal Court of Canada on April 24, Google says those revenues come from user-generated content, which it argues should be excluded from fee calculations because of exemptions in the Broadcasting Act. But the tech giant says that after submitting a form to the regulator which outlined it

Meta Platforms is urging a federal appellate court to reconsider a recent 2-1 decision allowing Facebook and Instagram advertisers to proceed with a class-action fraud lawsuit over inflated metrics.

One of the messages Frontier aims to deliver in its new “Good to Go” ad campaign is that 100 percent fiber infrastructure can support subscribers now and into the future. The campaign was developed by McCann New York. The video illustrates the “changes in human experience over a lifetime” and suggests that a fiber-based broadband can be one of the few constants.

A pending bill in the California state legislature, the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), would create a “link tax” that would require Google to pay for simply connecting Californians to news articles. We have long said that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism. If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers. By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. CJPA would up-end that model.