Platforms

Brazil’s ban of social media platform X has led to greater scrutiny on another part of Elon Musk’s business empire: Starlink. From Amazonian tribes and farming frontiers, to the armed forces and offshore oil industry, the satellite internet service has connected remote corners of the continent-sized territory to the worldwide web since launching there in 2022. Access for Starlink’s 225,000 users in Latin America’s largest nation was thrown into doubt after it was recently dragged into the dispute surrounding the supreme court’s shutdown of X.

In December 2020, the Federal Trade Commission issued 6 Orders to nine of the largest social media and video streaming services—Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, ByteDance, Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp. At the time, a bipartisan group of Commissioners issued a joint statement warning that far too much about how these platforms operate is “dangerously opaque,” with critical questions around data collection and algorithms “shrouded in secrecy.” On September 20, the FTC released a groundbreaking report that sheds light on how these powerful companies have operated.

One of the oddest areas of law under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission is 47 U.S.C. § 230 (Section 230). This is the law that shields internet service providers and social media platforms from liability for content created by users. Section 230 is very much in the political news these days. There were 25 bills introduced in Congress over the last two sessions to modify Section 230 language. The bills look at a range of different topics. One set of proposed regulations would provide more protection for children online.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Body on AI released a report, Governing AI for Humanity, calling for a new policy dialog on AI so that the UN’s 193 members can discuss risks and agree upon actions. The report asserts that while AI is transforming our world, offering tremendous potential for good, the opportunities it provides may not manifest or be distributed equitably if the technology is left ungoverned.

Google has won an appeal against a €1.5 billion competition fine from the European Commission in a victory for the Big Tech group as it comes under growing scrutiny from Brussels regulators. The European Union’s General Court said that while it accepted “most of the commission’s assessments” that the company had used its dominant position to block rival online advertisers, it annulled the hefty fine levied against Google in the case. When launching the action against Google in 2019, Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition chief, said that the search giant had imposed anti-competitive res

California will now require social media companies to moderate the spread of election-related impersonations powered by artificial intelligence, known as “deepfakes,” after Gov Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed three new laws on the subject on September 17. The three laws, including a first-of-its-kind law that imposes a new requirement on social media platforms, largely deal with banning or labeling deepfakes. Only one of the laws will

Top officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the National Economic Council, and private industry all dropped by downtown Washington for the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit on September 17. And with the first presidential election of the generative AI era a mere seven weeks away, much of their attention was turned to ensuring its security and trustworthiness. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) described how artificial intelligence demands a response from each sector of government.

Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets—with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years. Facebook and YouTube outpace all other social media sites as places where Americans regularly get news. About a third of U.S.

If the data center is the brain powering artificial intelligence (AI), dark fiber is the central nervous system. So it makes sense that companies are spending big on such a critical piece of the puzzle. Almost $200 billion in capex last year went toward AI, according to DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi, and it’s not just data centers using that chunk of cash. DigitalBridge has a hand in various digital infrastructure baskets, such as fiber, enterprise and edge data centers, towers and small cells.

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote to Jason Matheny, president and CEO of the RAND Corporation to express concern about RAND's involvement in drafting the Biden-Harris' Artificial Intelligence Executive Order. Specifically, he asked Matheny to answer the following five questions: