UK's new online safety law adds to crackdown on Big Tech companies

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers have approved an ambitious but controversial new internet safety law with wide-ranging powers to crack down on digital and social media companies like TikTok, Google, and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta. The government says the online safety bill...

TikTok is hit with $368 million fine under Europe's strict data privacy rules

LONDON (AP) — European regulators slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine on Friday for failing to protect children's privacy, the first time that the popular short video-sharing app has been punished for breaching Europe's strict data privacy rules. Ireland's Data Protection...

TikTok Shop launches in the U.S. as the company bets big on e-commerce

NEW YORK (AP) — After months of testing, TikTok is fully launching its e-commerce product in the U.S. in an effort to translate the app’s cultural relevance among young consumers to sales. The company said Tuesday its shopping wing, called TikTok Shop, will include several...

Book Review: Novelist and blogger Cory Doctorow pens a manual for destroying Big Tech

As a leading blogger in the pre-Substack era, novelist and public-interest technologist Cory Doctorow often warned that Big Tech was rendering of cyberspace a polluted, dystopian, crassly commercial and often hostile world of limited options. Now it's happened. Facebook, Instagram...

EU targets Apple, Amazon, Meta and other Big Tech in next phase of digital crackdown

LONDON (AP) — Six Big Tech companies including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft faced fresh pressure Wednesday from the European Union, which moved to counter their digital dominance with far-reaching rules aimed at giving users more choices and making competition fairer. Google parent...

Judge blocks Arkansas law requiring parental OK for minors to create social media accounts

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction. U.S....

Federal judge temporarily blocks Arkansas law requiring parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts

Elon Musk says X, formerly Twitter, will have voice and video calls, updates privacy policy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk said Thursday that his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. Musk, who has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition,...

NBA referee Eric Lewis retires; league closes investigation into social media posts

NEW YORK (AP) — NBA referee Eric Lewis has retired effective immediately in the wake of a league investigation into whether he used a then-Twitter account to defend himself and other officials from online criticism. The league announced his retirement Wednesday, less than three...

A Hong Kong language group shuts down after police allege one of its essays breached security laws

HONG KONG (AP) — A group that promotes the Cantonese language shut down Monday after Hong Kong authorities said a fictional essay depicting a decline in liberties in the city on the group’s website violated the national security law, in the latest example of the city’s erosion of freedom of...