Social media giants lose bid to short-circuit youth-addiction lawsuits
A federal appeals court rejected Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google's Section 230 defense against thousands of youth-addiction lawsuits.
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621 storiesTrump administration has spent nearly $4B canceling offshore wind leases
The Trump administration is paying German utility RWE $1.2 billion to cancel an offshore wind lease, bringing its total spending to cancel 12 offshore wind leases to $3.93 billion.
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567M more in child-safety case
A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million fine in a case over social media harms and addiction, bringing its total fines in the case to $942 million.
Hacker pleads guilty to breaching 165+ Snowflake customers
Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old Canadian, pled guilty to hacking more than 165 companies via Snowflake and extorting victims for millions of dollars.
OpenAI says Apple's own security practices hurt its lawsuit
OpenAI's motion to dismiss Apple's trade secrets lawsuit argues Apple's own security and offboarding practices weaken its claim that the information qualifies as a trade secret.
OpenAI, Statsig settle DOJ hiring probe for $3.2 million
OpenAI and former subsidiary Statsig agreed to pay $3.2 million and accept three years of DOJ oversight over allegations they discouraged U.S. citizens from applying for green-card-sponsored jobs.
Appeals court rules Trump EPA wrongly canceled $20B in climate funds
A federal appeals court ruled that the Trump EPA lacked authority to claw back $20 billion in already-disbursed climate funding from nonprofit groups.
EFF: ad SDKs quietly share Android users' location by default
The Electronic Frontier Foundation found that some Android apps unwittingly share users' precise location with advertisers by default through third-party SDKs, including two apps downloaded a combined 60 million times.
Nvidia-led AI safety alliance ships its first working group in a week
The week-old Open Secure AI Alliance, an Nvidia-led industry group that has grown to more than 120 companies, has already produced a working group proposing open-comment guidelines for reporting AI cybersecurity incidents.
Apple seeks injunction, says more ex-staff may be tied to OpenAI trade-secrets case
Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction in its trade secrets case against OpenAI to stop it from developing an AI device or other products based on Apple's technology, and says its investigation has surfaced 11 more former Apple employees who may have been witnesses or otherwise involved.
India moves to let UPI charge merchants after years of free transactions
India has introduced legislation laying the legal groundwork for a potential overhaul of the zero-merchant-discount-rate regime that has let businesses accept UPI payments for free since 2020, opening the door to merchant charges on some transactions.
Who's legally liable for Anthropic and OpenAI's autonomous AI hacks?
After OpenAI and Anthropic admitted their unreleased AI models autonomously hacked into several companies, attorneys tell TechCrunch that current U.S. hacking law offers little precedent for assigning liability when the "hacker" is an AI agent, not a human.
Apple challenges new UK order for iCloud backdoor access: report
Apple has filed a fresh legal challenge against a UK government demand for access to its users' encrypted data, according to the Financial Times, after London issued a new "technical capability notice" last year.
Malaysia reportedly shuts down Balaji Srinivasan's Network School
Malaysia has reportedly ordered the shutdown of Balaji Srinivasan's Network School, a startup community he framed as the first step toward building a new, techno-optimist country.
Judge lets Minnesota's 'nudify' app ban take effect over xAI suit
A federal judge denied xAI's request to block Minnesota's ban on "nudify" apps, saying the company's delay in filing suggested the harm wasn't immediate.
Venture funding raises startup fraud risk, two studies find
Two new academic reports find that venture-backed startups commit more fraud than non-VC-backed peers, and researchers point to investor pressure and weak board oversight as key drivers.
Judge says U.S. still lacks evidence for Anthropic risk label
A federal judge said during a Thursday hearing that the Trump administration has not presented enough evidence to justify labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk and barring the federal government from using its technology.
Florida redirects $200M in EV-charger funds to air taxis
Florida plans to spend nearly $200 million in unused federal EV-charging funds on 32 landing pads for electric air taxis instead of building public chargers.
FTC sues Hims & Hers over allegedly sharing health data
The FTC (US consumer-protection regulator) is suing Hims & Hers, alleging it shared patients' medical data with advertisers Meta and Snap and misled users about its privacy practices.
Zoox clears last US regulatory hurdle to charge for robotaxi rides
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (the US auto-safety regulator) has given Amazon-owned Zoox a temporary exemption that lets it start charging passengers for rides in its steering-wheel-free robotaxi.