New York governor signs social media laws |
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Thursday signed into law a pair of landmark bills aimed at protecting teenagers from social media harms and from having their data harvested and monetized without permission. The SAFE Act, a first-of-its-kind law, aims to require chronological, rather than personalized, social media feeds for minors unless their parents allow otherwise. It would also bar platforms from sending notifications to minors during overnight hours without parental permission. The Data Protection Act is designed as a privacy shield to protect kids from having their digital breadcrumbs sold for targeted advertising, without written consent. Expect more states to seek new measures regulating social media companies in next year’s legislative sessions. |
|
|
Welcome to Tech Friday, a joint project of The Hill and Pluribus News covering tech policy across government. |
Sign up to receive The Hill's newsletters here. Rather not receive this newsletter? Let us know. |
|
|
U.S. bans Kaspersky antivirus software |
The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday it would impose a first-of-its-kind ban on Kaspersky antivirus software, which it said poses a threat to national security and privacy because the company is based in Russia. The company will be banned from selling its software in the U.S. beginning July 20. Read more at Reuters. |
|
|
Senators target deepfakes |
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have introduced legislation requiring internet sites to remove deepfake revenge porn images and videos within 48 hours of their publication. The vast majority of deepfakes are nonconsensual and feature women. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) referred a complaint against TikTok related to children’s safety law violations to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency said Tuesday. The complaint relates to a 2019 settlement over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
OpenAI cofounder focused on safety |
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever this week announced a new artificial intelligence venture focused on safely developing “superintelligence.” The new company, Safe Superintelligence Inc. — SSI for short — has the sole purpose of creating a safe AI model that is more intelligent than humans. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
Snapchat settles with California | Snapchat settled with California regulators for $15 million over allegations of discrimination against female employees at the social media company, the California Civil Rights Department announced Thursday. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
Magnificent Seven performance this week |
AAPL -1.96%, NVDA -2.77%, MSFT +2.39%, GOOG +2.28%, TSLA -2.39%, AMZN +2.27%, META -0.7%. NASDAQ-100 Tech Sector index: +0.1%. |
|
|
A federal infrastructure program designed to deliver high-speed internet to unserved and underserved areas of the country has reached a key milestone that will allow states to begin to unlock their allocation of funds and solicit internet service providers to do the work. Read more at Pluribus News. |
|
|
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Tuesday he supports restricting the use of smartphones in the state’s schools, citing potential mental health risks associated with social media. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
A mayoral candidate seeking office in Cheyenne, Wyo., is vowing to let an artificial intelligence chatbot make all governing decisions if he’s elected to lead Wyoming’s capital city, but the state’s top election official says that proposal violates the law. Read more at The Hill.
|
|
|
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear testimony on June 25 over anti-doping methods ahead of next month’s Summer Olympics in Paris. |
|
|
The Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on June 25 on America’s cyber workforce gap. |
The House Veterans Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on June 27 exploring the use of data-driven methods to reduce veteran homelessness. | |
|
The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on critical infrastructure resilience on June 27. |
|
|
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Monday that he will wait until his kids reach high school to let them use social media. Murthy this week advocated for a formal warning label on social media products related to mental health harms for adolescents. Read more at The Hill. |
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R) couldn’t keep his seat in Washington, so he’s launching an OnlyFans page. He pledged, happily, that none of his content would be sexual. Read more at The Hill. |
|
|
You're all caught up! See you next week. |
|
|
1625 K Street NW, 9th Floor,
Washington, DC 20006 |
Copyright © 1998 - 2024
Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
|
