UK law Social Media Platforms (Ofcom Licensing) Bill introduced to House of Lords The Social Media Platforms (Ofcom Licensing) Bill has been introduced to the House of Lords. The Bill would require social media companies operating in the United Kingdom to obtain a licence from Ofcom, empower Ofcom to set and enforce binding conditions on…
Dr Felipe Romero-Moreno examines the recent shifts in deepfake technology and asks how legal practitioners can navigate the impending 12-month regulatory vacuum between the AI Act’s functional bans and its high-risk enforcement. Generative AI, fuelled by advanced multimodal architectures and illicit dark-web variants such as WormGPT and FraudGPT, has precipitated a global digital trust emergency….
Read More… from Mind the Gap: Navigating the 12-Month Deepfake Regulatory Vacuum
The Upper Tribunal has issued its decision in TikTok Inc & Anor v The Information Commissioner [2026] UKUT 277 (AAC). The Information Commissioner was concerned about TikTok’s processing of children’s personal data. Following an investigation, the Commissioner imposed a £12.7 million monetary penalty on TikTok for breaches of Articles 5(1)(a), 8, 12 and 13 of…
Read More… from Upper Tribunal issues decision in TikTok appeal
The European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education adopted a report last month in which they said that companies should guarantee that the use of social media and the digital environment is safe, particularly for children and young people. The Committee takes the view that the online environment must be governed by the principles of…
Read More… from European Parliamentary committee calls for better enforcement of online safety rules
In the last year, age checks have been deployed at a greater scale than ever, but Ofcom has emphasised the need for further action to strengthen protections for children across the system. It recently issued a report which showed age checks are now being deployed at a larger scale across pornography, social media, dating and…
Read More… from Ofcom issues report on age checks and children’s safety online
The European Commission has set out two sets of binding specification measures to Google under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The aim of the first set of measures is to make sure that Google’s competitor AI services can compete with its own AI services, such as Gemini, by having equal access to features on Google’s…
Read More… from European Commission provides binding guidance to Google under DSA
Select Committee seeks clarity on UK government’s plans for science, innovation and tech policy After the UK government announced plans distribute the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) responsibilities amongst other departments, MPs have written to three Secretaries of State asking them for further details about how this will work in practice. The Prime…
UK law Reorganisation of government tech and digital departments announced The UK government has announced a significant reorganisation of Whitehall aimed at strengthening economic growth, devolution and the strategic centre of government. Among other things, a new AI Taskforce is being created to oversee AI strategy and adoption across the public sector. The Department for…
UK law IPO updates guidance on Search and Examination of UK Patent Applications under the Patents Act 1977 The Intellectual Property Office has issued guidance which explains how patent applications should now be examined following the UK Supreme Court’s decision in Emotional Perception AI v Comptroller-General of Patents. The guidance replaces the long-standing Aerotel approach…
Matias Cañibe argues that the UK-US data Bridge is not necessarily doomed if the latest challenge from NOYB succeeds On 29 June 2026, the US Supreme Court decided Trump v Slaughter, holding 6-3 that Congress cannot shield Federal Trade Commission commissioners from at-will presidential removal. The Court overturned Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 precedent that had…
Read More… from Schrems III and the UK-US Data Bridge: Could London Reach a Different Answer?