James Farrell
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Trump pardons Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road drug marketplace
President Donald Trump today signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the man who operated the notorious dark web drug marketplace, Silk Road. Ulbricht ran the Silk Road from 2011 until 2013 under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.” That year he was arrested and in 2015 was sentenced to life without parole. The ...
Trump signs executive order to prevent censorship of online platforms
President Donald Trump today signed an executive order that he claims will restore freedom of speech and end federal censorship, with the express purpose of keeping government out of social media. “Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive ...
Nick Clegg steps down as Meta’s global policy chief, replaced with Trump-friendly Joel Kaplan
Former Republican White House staffer Joel Kaplan just became Meta Platforms Inc.’s global policy head as Britain’s former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, leaves the company after six years. Clegg (pictured, center), who led the Liberal Democrat Party from 2007 to 2015, joined Meta – then Facebook Inc. – in 2018 as vice president of ...
Judge upholds most of California’s ban on ‘addictive feeds’ for children
Tech industry trade group NetChoice has failed to block California’s attorney general from enforcing most of a law that will regulate how social media firms deliver content to young people. The Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September last year. The law ...
UK coalition of creatives rejects government plan on AI copyright exemption
A coalition of publishers, news media, musicians, photographers and film producers has rejected a proposal issued earlier this week by the U.K. government to allow artificial intelligence companies to train their large language models on their content if they don’t opt out. Since the rise of generative AI, tech companies have found themselves in legal tangles with the artists who ...
EU opens probe into TikTok over possible Russian interference in Romanian election
Regulators in the European Union today announced they’ve opened an investigation into TikTok for possible breaches of the Digital Services Act, DSA, by failing to prevent foreign interference in the recent Romanian presidential election. The second round of the vote didn’t go through earlier this month after intelligence showed that 25,000 TikTok accounts suddenly became ...
TikTok CEO meets with Trump as company hopes Supreme Court will block upcoming ban
President-elect Donald Trump today met with TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss the app being banned in the U.S. over security risks. Prior to the meeting, Trump said at a press conference he had “a warm spot” for the Chinese app, saying, “We’ll take a look” ...
Character.AI sued over slew of harmful chatbot messages sent to children
A lawsuit today was launched against Google LLC-funded chatbot service Character.AI Inc. it’s alleging the chatbot groomed children and induced them into committing violence and self-harm. The suit follows another one against the company in October by a Florida mother who claimed her 14-year-old son’s suicide was a consequence of his addiction to one of the hyperrealistic ...
TikTok makes a last stand as it asks for emergency pause on US ban
Chinese social media app TikTok today asked a court for an emergency injunction to prevent it from becoming unavailable to U.S. users next month. Last Friday, the company lost an appeal to save its existence in the U.S. when it argued in an appeals court that the ban signed into legislation earlier in 2024 is ...
Waymo’s driverless taxis are coming to Miami
Alphabet Inc.-owned Waymo LLC announced today that its continued expansion of robotaxi services into U.S. cities will now include Miami, Florida, where it will set up shop in 2026. The fleet of driverless taxis will take to the streets first in 2025 with a human test driver at the wheel, after which the full driverless ...