Digital Content

Facebook officials said the company is using a range of techniques including artificial intelligence to counter Russian operatives or others who use deceptive tactics and false information to manipulate public opinion. The officials told reporters in a telephone briefing they expected to find such efforts on the social network ahead of the US mid-term elections in November, but declined to disclose whether they have already uncovered any such operations.

An update to Twitter’s terms of service that was made months ago due to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is still locking users out of the platform for being underage — even though some are in their mid-20s.

A Q&A with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

[Analysis] In a new article for the Georgetown Law Technology Review, I seek to jumpstart a conversation about how to shape an Internet ecosystem that will serve the public interest. First, let me lay out the rationale for a new, unified policy framework for an open Internet: 1) Lack of Competition/Incentive and Ability to Discriminate, 2) Collection of and Control over Personal Data, 3) Lack of Transparency, and 4) Inadequacy of Current Laws and Enforcement.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter joined to announce a new standards initiative called the Data Transfer Project, designed as a new way to move data between platforms. Google described the project as letting users “transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.”

The European Union wants Google to stop tying together its search, browser and app store products for handset makers. The regulators would love it if Google simply let handset makers like Samsung ship Android phones loaded with their own browsers and app stores instead of Google’s. Yet the European Union is letting Google decide how it wants to comply with its ruling. Keep in mind that Google is staffed with some of the world’s top lawyers and engineers, who will probably find compliance solutions that have a minimal impact on its business.

BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith was confused as hell and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. So while he’s not exactly Howard Beale, the famously pugnacious editor of BuzzFeed pressed hard recently on global news partnerships head Campbell Brown to explain how Facebook defines journalism and who practices it. The focus of his ire was the presence of six conservative publications at a biannual meeting that Brown ran recently with a group of editors and publishers Facebook works with.

While many regulations promoting consumer protection and competition apply throughout a sector, some economic regulations apply to “dominant” firms or firms with “market power.” Behavior that is harmless, or potentially even positive when done by smaller companies or in a more competitive marketplace, can be anticompetitive or harmful to consumers when done by dominant firms -- regardless of the firm’s actual intent.

complying with the European Commission’s demand to loosen up requirements for handset makers to pre-install Google’s apps on their phones has the potential to raise the costs that have already been acting as a counterweight to the profit margins for Google’s lucrative search business. For example, the company pays Apple an undisclosed-yet-sizable sum to direct search traffic from its mobile Safari browser.