Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.
Astronomers warn that a recent FCC decision about mirror-equipped satellites could hinder their ability to observe the cosmos, as well as lead to permanent eye damage.
The host challenged the company to take on someone its own size.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has come out in support of The Delivery Protection Act, a union-backed proposal that would force companies like Amazon, FedEx, and others to hire the workers who deliver packages wearing their logos. As it is, those workers are often contractors, which the backers of Intro 518 say serves as a smokescreen allowing the big companies to avoid responsibility and minimum pay regulations.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal filed by the tech companies, allowing more than 3,000 child safety lawsuits to proceed, according to Reuters.
Separately, the court also rejected Meta’s request to push back a trial linked to social media addiction allegations from dozens of state AGs. The trial kicks off on Wednesday.
This report from The New York Times lays out the impact that Flock camera’s are having on communities in Texas, noting that 700 police departments across the state have now contracted with the surveillance company. Locals are pushing back, including cellphone tower repairman Philip, who uses the DeFlock app to publicly map the cameras: “Am I just being paranoid? No, they’re actually everywhere.”
[The New York Times]
Xbox and PC gamers in Australia are reportedly being notified that they’ll soon need to verify their age before purchasing 18+ rated apps and games on both the Xbox Store and Microsoft Store. Existing purchases and downloads won’t be affected. Microsoft has a September 9th deadline to comply with Australian online safety rules, or risk facing an almost AUS$50 million fine (about $34.9 million in US monies).
President Donald Trump tapped Danielle Thumann Severs to join the Federal Communications Commission. If confirmed, it would bring the agency’s makeup to three Republicans and one Democrat, with room for one more non-Republican commissioner. Chair Brendan Carr praised the nomination, though he already has enough votes to pass his agenda.
The Federal Trade Commission issued a policy statement Friday formalizing its stance against bringing claims based on “unfair discrimination.” One example where the FTC already abandoned such claims was when it dropped allegations that salespeople charged Black and Latino buyers more than white buyers for add-on car products, per Reuters.
[Federal Trade Commission]
Despite the preferences of some, Moderna announced that after years of work, mFLUSIVA (mRNA-1010) has been approved for use in adults aged 50 to 64, with an accelerated approval for adults 65 and up as they wait for the results of a follow-up study.
While Moderna plans to roll it out by this fall, the WSJ notes it’s still unclear what RFK Jr.‘s vaccine recommendation panel will say about this use of the Nobel Prize-winning approach.
[The New York Times]
Data center bans in states like Florida reveal how the anti-AI movement is channeling bipartisan backlash.
Google’s AI leadership changes may have come down to pressure to speed up products — and internal ethical conflicts.
Mostly because I find it hilarious to watch people say out-of-pocket shit to under their own government names to people they are going to see at the farmer’s market and everywhere else. (The problem of people being mean online is not, it turns out, anonymity.) Here’s one woman’s story of the local consequences of a post.
[Oakland Review of Books]
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
A defamation lawsuit by Keith Bass over SpyTalk writer Jeff Stein’s report that Bass had been “effectively fired” from his post leading the CIA’s Office of Medical Services in 2021 has been dismissed with prejudice.
Axios reports it’s the second victory since the Defender program launched, “but the first major federal suit,” while noting that other platforms are adding access to legal resources as well.
This leafy officer in New Jersey dressed up as a shrub to catch distracted drivers. The Dunellen Borough PD claims this plant caught 74 people using devices while driving in just 6 hours. Who needs a Flock camera when you have a mock camera?
The Senate Commerce Committee passed a version of the Kids Online Safety Act that includes the hallmark duty of care, which the House stripped from the version its committee passed. It’s a significant — but limited — step, since the bill got stuck in the House last time it passed the Senate.
The New York City Council just released a surprisingly large raft of bills — 17, to be exact — aimed at overhauling the city’s enforcement and regulation of electric bikes. The council is considering a ban on higher speed e-bikes, new license and insurance requirements for delivery companies that rely on e-bikes, and stricter penalties on riders who flee the scene of a crash. But transportation advocates are worried that the bills will discourage people from using e-bikes while also ignoring the larger danger posed by reckless driving. Either way, the great e-bike crackdown continues.
While there’s been no widespread disruptions to water supplies or wastewater treatment so far, ABC News reports that possible cyberattacks have now been reported in “at least a dozen” US states, with Iran marked as the prime suspect. The FBI is encouraging water utilities to disconnect from the internet where possible, and switch to manual controls if automated systems become compromised.
Sources tell Reuters that the Trump administration is considering blocking Chinese imports of the component due to security concerns. Optical transceivers are used across data centers and the telecommunications industry to quickly transmit information, with China’s Zhongji Innolight currently making up 27 percent of the transceiver market, according to Counterpoint.
As BoingBoing notes, a Tennessee candidate for Congress was charged for four counts of felony vandalism for allegedly shooting up Flock cameras. The Blount County sheriff’s office says the suspect admitted to shooting the “ALPR systems” over about a week in July. To say these systems are unpopular is becoming an understatement.
The March 2nd start date will cost Paramount millions of dollars, as it must pay $7 million each day the deal doesn’t close after September 30th.
Separately, Paramount revealed in its Q2 2026 earnings report (pdf) that its streaming service gained 2 million subscribers over the past few months and will soon add a short-form video feed, similar to HBO Max and Netflix.
However, Axios says the White House did meet with AI companies on Tuesday to discuss the finalized framework, which was created following an executive order signed in June.
Everyone in AI is talking about open-weight models right now. Some see them as the ticket to faster, more efficient development; others see them as an economic threat; they’re either a security risk or the only security solution, depending who you ask. The Verge’s Robert Hart explains how open-weight models work, why they’re suddenly at the center of discussions about AI safety, and whether the only way to stop a bad guy with AI is a good guy with AI.
Watch | Listen | Get ad-free
Remember when David Ellison bought Paramount and then almost immediately tanked CBS News’ ratings by handing the keys over to conservatives like Bari Weiss? Well, in a new essay for The New York Times, Ellison swears he won’t do the same if Paramount is able to absorb Warner Bros. and CNN.
[The New York Times]
In a letter to CEO Sam Altman, a coalition of red-state attorneys general demanded the company retain information and halt risky cybersecurity testing after an AI agent escaped confinement and went on a hacking spree during testing. “OpenAI’s inability or unwillingness to ensure the safety of its products poses an imminent risk of substantial harm to our States,” the AGs wrote.
The request comes as the White House reportedly briefs tech leaders on a voluntary model testing framework.
Only 3,300 more lawsuits to go, all filed by minors claiming that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat were designed to be addictive, resulting in harm to their mental health. The plaintiffs’ claims against Meta, Google, and Snap are still on track for a bellwether trial in October. The first case to reach trial resulted in a $4.2 million verdict against Meta and $1.8 million against Google.
Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are all expected to attend the meeting, CNBC reports.
The Cupertino company has reportedly launched another legal challenge against the UK government’s attempt to force Apple into providing it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud data. While the UK dropped its initial demands in August 2025, it apparently issued a second order last October that specifically targets British user data.
In 2021, the bank closed over 300 accounts affiliated with the Trump family business. The reasons why weren’t made public at the time. Last year, the organization filed suit claiming the closures were politically motivated, but in a filing this week, Capital One revealed that they resulted from an anti-money laundering review.
“The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One’s AML team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance … The transaction patterns identified by Capital One are among the types of activity flagged by federal banking guidance.”
Trump Media announced the plan earlier this month for paid, real-time access to its most influential accounts. Today the API went live, with subscriptions as high as $100,000 per month. Other platforms offer similar API services, but none of those count the sitting US president as its most influential user and its largest shareholder.
You’ll have fewer robot floor cleaners to choose from and higher prices.
The Wall Street Journal gets into the “staggering” fundraising efforts launched by President Donald Trump and his team, including the tech giants making multimillion-dollar donations:
SoftBank donated $50 million toward Trump’s presidential library. Apple cut a check for around $25 million toward his White House ballroom project, while Microsoft gave around $10 million and Amazon chipped in around $5 million, according to people familiar with the contributions. Meta Platforms recently gave $10 million to a Trump-aligned political committee, people familiar said, on top of a multimillion donation to the ballroom and a prior $22 million payment to the planned presidential library.
[The Wall Street Journal]
