AI and data breaches were among top issues last year for Italian data protection authority Garante, it said Tuesday in an annual report.
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
A New Hampshire state court on Tuesday allowed a consumer protection case against social media platform TikTok to continue, ruling the state has jurisdiction to bring the suit, and that the First Amendment does not bar it from bringing the claims. One claim involving the Consumer Protection Act was dropped, however.
State requirements to display social media warning labels will likely be challenged before they take effect, said Liisa Thomas and other SheppardMullin privacy attorneys Friday.
Several advocacy groups filed amicus briefs supporting NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in a case challenging a 2023 law requiring social media companies to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for children younger than 18.
Bluesky will verify ages to comply with the U.K. Online Safety Act, the social media platform said on its blog Thursday. The platform said it will deny access to adult content and disable direct messaging for users younger than 18 and those who don’t want to verify their age.
TikTok transferred European Economic Area (EEA) users' personal data to servers in China, the Irish Data Protection Commission said Thursday as it launched a probe into the social media platform's activities.
Massachusetts should follow New York state in passing an age-verification bill to ban social media platforms from using algorithms to deliver content to users younger than 18, said Massachusetts Rep. William MacGregor (D) at a livestreamed Thursday hearing of the Joint Committee on Advanced IT, the Internet and Cybersecurity.
Some state lawmakers are looking to pass legislation regulating the data broker industry in the wake of the shooting deaths last month of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband and the attempted killing of John Hoffman (D), a Minnesota senator, and his wife.
Federal court Judge Halil Ozerden granted a stay of proceedings in a Mississippi social media age-verification law case while an appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is pending. The parties in the case, NetChoice and Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R), jointly moved for the stay on Wednesday (see 2507020027).
Trade association NetChoice and Mississippi AG Lynn Fitch (R) jointly moved for a stay of proceedings of a social media age-verification law case while Fitch's appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is pending.