California ponders social media laws |
Image © Valerie Morris/Greg Nash/Getty Images |
While Congress holds endless hearings on the dangers social media platforms pose to children and teens, state lawmakers are actually passing legislation. At least 30 new laws related to social media have been enacted in states across the country this year — and the biggest state in the nation is about to weigh in. When California lawmakers return to work on Aug. 5, they will tackle four major bills relating to social media. One would require social media companies to display chronological, rather than algorithmic, feeds to minors. Another would impose penalties of up to $1 million if companies don’t take “ordinary care or skill” to protect minors. Two other bills would require social media companies to guard against cyberbullying and AI-generated sexually explicit images.
The tech industry hasn’t been shy in filing legal challenges to social media laws in states like Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi — and California. After lawmakers are done with their work in Sacramento this year, expect those lawyers to face another heap of work. |
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Image © The Hill, Greg Nash |
Tech leaders celebrate Vance pick: |
Tech leaders are rallying around former President Donald Trump after Trump tapped U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate. Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, David Sacks and others praised Trump’s choice of the former venture capitalist, who has roots in Silicon Valley. Read more at The Hill. |
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Congress eyes AI regulations:
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The House Financial Services Committee is honing in on artificial intelligence regulations for the housing and finance industry after a working group met with industry leaders. In a report, lawmakers said the growing use of AI could lead to increased bias and discrimination. Read more at The Hill. |
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Senators press AT&T on data breach:
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Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are pressing AT&T and data cloud company Snowflake for answers on a data breach that exposed millions of customers. In a letter to the telecom giant, Blumenthal and Hawley demanded answers about the breach. Read more at The Hill. |
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Internet outage causes morning chaos: |
CrowdStrike scrambled Friday morning to fix a worldwide internet outage caused by a software update for Windows users. The outage grounded more than 18,000 flights, and news outlets in Australia and banks in South Africa and New Zealand experienced problems Friday. Read more at The Hill. |
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AI giants promote security:
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The largest artificial intelligence companies are joining a new push for AI security. Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon and others have joined the Coalition for Secure AI, pledging to share information on “secure-by-design” systems. Read more at The Verge. |
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American shoppers spent $14.2 billion on Amazon’s Prime Day sale, up 11% from a year ago, according to an estimate from Adobe. Sales of back-to-school supplies surged 216%, while electronics sales rose 61%. Read more at Reuters. |
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Magnificent Seven performance this week |
AAPL -4.4%, NVDA -8.2%, MSFT -3.1%, GOOG -3.2%, TSLA -4.7%, AMZN -5.2%, META -3.1%. NASDAQ-100 Tech Sector index: -5%. |
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Momentum grows for school cell phone bans: |
At least four states and some of the nation’s largest cities have moved to ban or strictly limit the use of smart phones in schools. Florida became the first state to ban phones in schools last year, while Indiana, Ohio and Virginia did so this year. Departments of education in Alabama and South Carolina are working on their own new policies. Read more at Pluribus News.
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Newsom, Musk feud over California law: |
Elon Musk said this week he would move SpaceX and social media company X out of California after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation barring school districts from notifying parents if a child changes their gender identity. Newsom criticized Musk’s announcement as bending the knee to former President Trump. Read more at The Hill. |
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July 23: The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on AI applications in financial services and housing. Google and Spotify report 2nd quarter earnings. |
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July 24: IBM reports 2nd quarter earnings. |
July 25: The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee holds a hearing on advancing national security through export controls, investment security and the Defense Production Act. |
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover discovered yellow sulfur crystals when it drove over and cracked open a rock. Scientists aren’t sure why sulfur would be found in the area; the project’s lead scientist compared the find to stumbling across an oasis in the desert. Read more at Phys.org. |
Amazon and the Better Business Bureau are teaming up to sue a company that facilitates the sales of fake reviews on the retail giant’s website. The company and the bureau have filed the first joint lawsuit against ReviewServiceUSA.com, alleging the firm evades Amazon’s efforts to enforce bans on fake reviews. Read more at GeekWire.
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You're all caught up! See you next week. |
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