Digital Content

The Online Safety Bill passed its final Parliamentary debate and is now ready to become law. The bill expects social media platforms to:

Netflix and SK Broadband, one of South Korea’s largest internet service providers, are ending all their lawsuits and are instead creating a strategic partnership to provide better entertainment experiences to Korean customers. The legal dispute began in 2020 over whether content providers that generate large amounts of traffic should pay “network usage fees” in addition to the bills paid by the household end users, or whether that would go against the principle of net neutrality and lead to higher costs for consumers. Netflix said that it could offer a technological solution to traffic volu

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA) resolved a $93 million settlement with Google over allegations that its location-privacy practices violated California consumer protection laws. The settlement follows a multi-year investigation by the California Department of Justice that determined Google was deceiving users by collecting, storing, and using their location data for consumer profiling and advertising purposes without informed consent.

California lawmakers passed a bill known as the Delete Act (Senate Bill 362) that would allow consumers, with a single request, to have every data broker delete their personal information. Data brokers include a variety of businesses that gather and sell people’s personal information, such as their address, marital status and spending habits.

US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bipartisan legislative framework to establish guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI). The framework lays out specific principles for upcoming legislative efforts, the establishment of an independent oversight body, ensuring legal accountability for harms, defending national security, promoting transparency, and protecting consumers and kids. The framework would:

The STOP CSAM Act of 2023 (S. 1199) would authorize appropriations to establish the Child Online Protection Board to adjudicate complaints against interactive computer service providers (such as Internet service providers, social media companies, and municipal broadband providers). The bill also would authorize the appropriation of funds to appoint guardians at litem (attorneys and social workers who protect child victims throughout court proceedings) and trustees who facilitate restitution payments owed to child victims.

Powerful tech leaders—including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—expressed unanimous agreement that the government needs to intervene to avert the potential pitfalls of artificial intelligence (AI). However, there was little apparent consensus about what a congressional framework should look like to govern AI, as companies forge ahead amid a tense industry arms race. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Congress’s “difficult job” ahead will be finding ways to enhance the benefits of the technology while minimizing its risks. But Sen.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-CA) will introduce a new artificial intelligence (AI) bill to the California legislature that targets “frontier” AI systems at the threshold of capability. The bill proposes:

On August 30, Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about Leader Schumer's SAFE Innovation Framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Sen. Bennet suggested that several critical elements be considered when developing the framework:

Google is launching new anti-censorship technology, Outline VPN, to increase access for internet users living under authoritarian regimes.