“The rules also ban the use of facial recognition equipment in public places such as hotel rooms, public bathrooms, public dressing rooms, and public toilets. The measures don’t apply to researchers or to what machine translation of the rules describes as “algorithm training activities”” https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/23/asia_tech_news_in_brief/

“[They] have identified a large-scale ad fraud campaign that deployed hundreds of malicious apps in the Google Play Store, resulting in more than 60 million downloads total.” https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/malicious-google-play-apps-bypassed-android-security

“Bitdefender's security researchers have identified a large-scale ad fraud campaign that deployed hundreds of malicious apps in the Google Play Store, resulting in more than 60 million downloads total. The apps display out-of-context ads and even try to persuade victims to give away credentials and credit card information in phishing attacks.” https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/malicious-google-play-apps-bypassed-android-security

“The Netherlands' parliament on Tuesday approved a series of motions calling on the government to reduce dependence on U.S. software companies, including by creating a cloud services platform under Dutch control.” https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-parliament-calls-end-reliance-us-software-2025-03-18/

“ChatGPT shows signs of anxiety when its users share “traumatic narratives” about crime, war or car accidents. And when chatbots get stressed out, they are less likely to be useful in therapeutic settings with people” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/science/chatgpt-digital-therapists-anxiety.html

“Meta has spent more than a year advocating for new laws requiring app stores to give parents control over kids’ app downloads, and just saw an early victory in the states. But Google charges that it’s really just a misguided effort to “offload” Meta’s own responsibility to keep kids safe.” https://www.theverge.com/news/628583/google-meta-app-store-age-verification-kids-ssafety-utah

“The Trump administration’s most influential think tank, The Heritage Foundation, is receiving proposals from illiberal forces in Poland and Hungary on how to shape the future of the European Union. The proposals, obtained by VSquare, include dismantling key EU institutions and renaming the entire bloc.” https://vsquare.org/heritage-foundation-mcc-ordo-iuris-russia-european-union-european-court-of-justice/

“Meta, then called Facebook, developed a censorship system for China in 2015 and planned to install a “chief editor” who would decide what content to remove and could shut down the entire site during times of “social unrest,”” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/09/meta-china-censorship-facebook-mark-zuckerberg/

“Krajčík subscribed to at least 49 extremist Telegram chats and channels, many of them nodes in the Terrorgram network, before he killed two people at an LGBTQ+ bar.” https://www.propublica.org/article/telegram-terrorgram-collective-bratislava-murders-neo-nazi-online-hate

“The effort — which includes AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts — marks a dramatic escalation in the U.S. government's policing of foreign nationals' conduct and speech.” https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/state-department-ai-revoke-foreign-student-visas-hamas

“No decision on reversing this alliance has been made – but members are understood to be looking at ways to revise current protocols. ‘Those discussions are already happening,’ said an NBC source with direct knowledge of the discussions.” https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/06/five-eyes-alliance-starts-crumble-four-nations-give-us-cold-shoulder-22679726/

“Reddit will now issue warnings to users who “upvote several pieces of content banned for violating our policies” within “a certain timeframe,” starting first with violent content” https://www.theverge.com/news/625075/reddit-will-warn-users-who-repeatedly-upvote-banned-content

“Newsguard said it studied 10 major chatbots — including those from Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, You.com, xAI, Anthropic, Meta, Mistral and Perplexity — and found that a third of the time they recycled arguments made by the Pravda network.” https://www.axios.com/2025/03/06/exclusive-russian-disinfo-floods-ai-chatbots-study-finds

“The Irish government has been informed of the decision, which is expected to affect up to 300 workers, or 10pc of the tech giant’s workforce in Ireland.” https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/tiktok-plans-to-cut-up-to-300-jobs-at-dublin-base-government-told/a386875685.html

“The UK’s competition watchdog will not hold a formal investigation into Microsoft’s partnership with the startup behind the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, stating that while the $2.9tn (£2.3tn) tech company has “material influence” over OpenAI it does not control it.” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/05/uk-cma-drops-competition-review-microsoft-openai-partnership

"RT Deutschland — A Kremlin-back media organization [..] pumped out article after article about how the February 23 election was unjust [..] it’s now a 24/7, 365-day battle — one that doesn’t just come to an end when the votes have all been counted." https://www.techpolicy.press/why-claiming-mission-accomplished-after-german-election-is-a-mistake/

“Apple believes age checks aren’t needed for most apps, so its App Store should not conduct blanket age verification, the company said in a white paper [..] Meta has been advocating for age verification on the operating system level" https://www.mlex.com/mlex/technology/articles/2303962

“it would look at whether TikTok's data collection practices could lead to children experiencing harms, such as data being leaked or spending "more time than is healthy" on the platform.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62xxz141plo

“Apple is also setting additional abilities for app developers to restrict kids from downloading apps from Apple’s App Store based on their age.” https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/apple-launches-stricter-age-system-for-kids-downloading-social-media-apps-on-iphones-and-ipads/a1237904798.html

"Tate has been banned from several social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech but has more than 10 million followers on X, where he promotes an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say denigrates women." https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/feb/27/andrew-tate-tristan-romania-us