Policy / Civilization & Discontents
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Court upholds New York law that says ISPs must offer $15 broadband
New York obtains significant win for states' ability to regulate broadband.
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Message-scraping, user-tracking service Spy Pet shut down by Discord
Bot-driven service was also connected to targeted harassment site Kiwi Farms.
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TikTok owner has strong First Amendment case against US ban, professors say
Professor: US faces "uphill battle" justifying law against First Amendment suit.
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FCC restores net neutrality rules that ban blocking and throttling in 3-2 vote
Broadband lobby groups prepare lawsuit, calling rules a "net fatality."
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School athletic director arrested for framing principal using AI voice synthesis
Police uncover plot to defame principal with AI-generated racist and antisemitic comments.
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EPA issues four rules limiting pollution from fossil fuel power plants
Coal to be hit hard, natural gas plants will have to capture carbon emissions.
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In the face of bans, ByteDance tightens grip over US TikTok operations
Relationship between TikTok, ByteDance deepens as tensions over the app’s ownership escalate.
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Deepfakes in the courtroom: US judicial panel debates new AI evidence rules
Panel of eight judges confronts deep-faking AI tech that may undermine legal trials.
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Chamber of Commerce sues FTC in Texas, asks court to block ban on noncompetes
Noncompete clauses "benefit employers and workers alike," Chamber tells court.
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US bans TikTok owner ByteDance, will prohibit app in US unless it is sold
Bill gives ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok or app loses access to US market.
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FTC bans noncompete clauses, declares vast majority unenforceable
Chamber of Commerce vows to sue FTC, will try to block ban on noncompetes.
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Grindr users seek payouts after dating app shared HIV status with vendors
Grindr admitted sharing HIV status with software firms in 2018, said it stopped.
Paul Sutter walks us through the future of climate change—and things aren’t great
This episode of Edge of Knowledge focuses on our rapidly transforming world.
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North Korea is evading sanctions by animating Max and Amazon shows
Thousands of exposed files on North Korean server tell the tale.
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Biden signs bill criticized as “major expansion of warrantless surveillance”
FISA renewal requires more service providers to cooperate with government.
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TikTok ready to “move to the courts” to prevent ban in US
Company points out that proposed ban would run afoul of the First Amendment.
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Netflix doc accused of using AI to manipulate true crime story
Producer remained vague about whether AI was used to edit photos.
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China orders Apple to remove Meta apps after “inflammatory” posts about president
WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal removed from Apple App Store in China.
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Crypto influencer guilty of $110M scheme that shut down Mango Markets
Fraudster charged with crypto market manipulation defended Mango Markets scheme.
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Elon Musk’s Grok keeps making up fake news based on X users’ jokes
X likely hopes to avoid liability with disclaimer that Grok "can make mistakes."
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Cops can force suspect to unlock phone with thumbprint, US court rules
Ruling: Thumbprint scan is like a "blood draw or fingerprint taken at booking."
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Big Tech can’t hoard brainwave data for ad targeting, Colorado law says
Neural data can reveal health, mental states, emotions, and cognitive function.
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Author granted copyright over book with AI-generated text—with a twist
Copyright Office changed course after initially denying request.
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Feds appoint “AI doomer” to run AI safety at US institute
Former OpenAI researcher once predicted a 50 percent chance of AI killing all of us.
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Billions of public Discord messages may be sold through a scraping service
Cross-server tracking suggests a new understanding of "public" chat servers.
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Tesla asks shareholders to approve Texas move and restore Elon Musk’s $56B pay
Tesla board calls June 13 shareholder vote on Musk's pay and move to Texas.
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ISPs can charge extra for fast gaming under FCC’s Internet rules, critics say
FCC plan rejected request to ban what agency calls "positive" discrimination.
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So much for free speech on X; Musk confirms new users must soon pay to post
The fee, likely $1, is aimed at stopping “relentless” bots, Musk said.
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Meta’s oversight board to probe subjective policy on AI sex image removals
Celebrity AI sex image scandal spurs Meta to seek comments for policy revamp.
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New UK law targets “despicable individuals” who create AI sex deepfakes
Under new law, those who create the images would face a fine and possible jail time.
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US woman arrested, accused of targeting young boys in $1.7M sextortion scheme
FBI has warned of significant spike in teen sextortion in 2024.
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Judge halts Texas probe into Media Matters’ reporting on X
Texas attorney general remained silent on claims of First Amendment retaliation.
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Google mocks Epic’s proposed reforms to end Android app market monopoly
Google should be barred from “treating Epic differently,” Epic Games says.
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Elon Musk’s X to stop allowing users to hide their blue checks
X previously promised to "evolve" the "hide your checkmark" feature.
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US lawmaker proposes a public database of all AI training material
Proposed law would require more transparency from AI companies.
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Elon Musk’s X botched an attempt to replace “twitter.com” links with “x.com”
Automatic text replacement let users spoof URLs ending in x, like netflix.com.
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More legal acrimony for Truth Social, as executive says he was hacked
Founding CEO says former assistant plotted "coup d'état," hacked his accounts.