Regulators, antitrust, and the politics of tech.
74 stories · page 1 of 4
Regulation is now a first-order constraint on what technology companies can ship, and this desk covers it as such. Antitrust cases and remedies, the EU's digital rulebook and its enforcement, AI governance, privacy and data protection, export controls, child safety, and the platform liability fights working through the courts. We read filings and decisions rather than press statements where we can, and we separate what a regulator has actually ordered from what it has merely opened an investigation into. Fines are reported alongside the behavioural remedies that usually matter more. The recurring question is compliance cost and product impact: what a company now has to build, stop building, or open up.
As location data surveillance becomes a central policy battleground, the shift from federal inaction to fragmented state-level regulation creates a complex landscape for tech firms.
Federal regulators have launched an immediate investigation into Tesla's newly deployed Cybercab robotaxi fleet in Austin, challenging the company's vision-only autonomous technology and its lack of physical safety controls.
The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft escalates, with recent court filings highlighting fundamental challenges to copyright law posed by AI model training and content generation.
A Massachusetts federal court has ruled that subjective, even objectively unreasonable, beliefs shield copyright holders from liability for bad-faith DMCA takedowns, raising concerns over online censorship.
A federal judge has ruled that Google must alter its dominant advertising technology operations to resolve antitrust violations, stopping short of ordering a forced divestiture of the business.
As antitrust regulators secure landmark victories against Google and Meta, judges increasingly hesitate to order structural breakups due to the rapid pace of technological change.
A federal court has blocked the Department of Defense from using supply chain risk designations to punish AI developer Anthropic for asserting ethical limits on its technology.
The Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against Amazon, accusing the e-commerce giant of systematically overcharging businesses for advertising through a hidden surcharge mechanism.
The European Commission has designated ChatGPT and Reddit as Very Large Online Platforms, forcing both companies to redesign core algorithmic systems and submit to unprecedented independent audits.
A federal lawsuit alleging Elon Musk’s xAI trained its Grok models on child sexual abuse material exposes the severe legal and technical vulnerabilities of uncurated web-scraping pipelines.
A federal appeals court has ruled that prediction markets cannot classify event contracts as financial swaps, effectively subjecting platforms like Kalshi to strict gambling oversight.
Meta's settlement with state attorneys general mandates pervasive age verification, shifting the burden of online safety from parental oversight to platform-level identity architecture.
France's top court has struck down a proposed ban on social media for minors, marking a pivotal moment in the global debate over state-mandated digital age verification.
The Federal Trade Commission's investigation into individualized 'surveillance pricing' faces pushback from critics who warn that sweeping restrictions on algorithmic pricing could eliminate consumer discounts.
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a settlement with Zillow and Redfin, unwinding a restrictive syndication agreement that regulators argue illegally suppressed competition in the digital rental advertising market.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority has issued a landmark €825 million penalty against Uber, targeting the ride-hailing giant's use of automated algorithms to suspend drivers without sufficient human intervention.
The Department of Justice's investigation into Andreessen Horowitz over potential interlocking directorates marks an aggressive expansion of antitrust enforcement into the structural foundations of Silicon Valley governance.
The record-breaking settlement resolves a 2024 federal lawsuit accusing the platform of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data on minors without parental consent.
A recent Ninth Circuit decision prevents online platforms from immediately appealing lower court denials of Section 230 immunity, forcing them into prolonged and costly litigation over user-generated content before a final ruling.
Under pressure from European regulators and Germany's cartel office, Apple is adjusting its App Store fee structures and redesigning its App Tracking Transparency consent prompts.
The Supreme Court has declined to hear Verizon's challenge to a $47 million FCC fine, cementing a regulatory precedent that holds telecom carriers strictly liable for safeguarding user location data.
Flock Safety has introduced new policies for its automated license plate readers, aiming to address widespread criticism regarding data retention and sharing, though critics argue the changes fall short of necessary protections.
A pro se litigant's attempt to manipulate court decisions using hidden AI prompt injections exposes a novel vulnerability in legal systems increasingly reliant on automated processing.
A sweeping new executive tariff on foreign drones and all aircraft parts threatens to upend the hardware supply chains of both domestic robotics startups and commercial drone operators.