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…
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) v Google Ireland Limited (Case C-421/24) that Google may be unable to rely on the hosting exemption under the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) where, under a commercial partnership with a content creator, it reviewed the essential content of…
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
The European Commission has published two decisions finding that Google has not complied with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) because it treated its own services preferentially on Google Search, and placed restrictions on businesses in place to direct consumers to alternative, often cheaper purchase channels on Google Play. The Commission has issued respective fines of…
Read More… from European Commission fines Google €890 million for breaching DMA
Following investigation, the European Commission has sent TikTok preliminary findings indicating that children’s TikTok accounts do not meet the standards required under the Digital Services Act (DSA). On TikTok, minors can choose to set their account as “public”. This means that any user, including those without a TikTok account, may be able to view minors’…
Read More… from European Commission thinks TikTok is failing to ensure safe accounts for under 18s
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled in Anne Frank Fonds v Anne Frank Stichting (C-788/24) that a work may be made available online free of charge in Member States where it has entered the public domain, even if copyright protection continues in other Member States. However, publishers must implement effective…
Read More… from CJEU endorses geo-blocking for public domain works
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Microsoft following concerns that customers may not have been given clear information upfront about subscription options when changes were made to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans, including the addition of new features such as Copilot. From January 2025, Microsoft automatically gave existing customers…
Read More… from Online subscription services under scrutiny: CMA and CJEU updates
Ofcom has published a broader set of draft rules under the Online Safety Act 2023, aimed at making firms more accountable and give users more control over their online experiences. The draft rules will apply to larger ‘Category 1 services’, such as Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat, based on criteria set out by the UK government. …
Read More… from Ofcom publishes rules for categorised services under Online Safety Act