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Policy

Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is about to be sentenced for committing fraud

The former crypto billionaire’s punishment could have huge implications for the industry.

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Sam Bankman-Fried is about to find out how much prison time he’s facing.

The FTX founder is in court now, waiting to see whether Judge Kaplan hands the 40 to 50 years in prison prosecutors recommend — or if his decision is closer to the more lenient five- to six-year sentence that Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are pushing for.


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Disney and Florida’s land battle is over.

Both sides came to an agreement on Wednesday that would end a nearly two-year-long legal battle over the self-governed special district that DeSantis took over from Disney.

Disney agreed to recognize its last-minute rule change in the district in 2023 as “null and void.” The company also agreed to drop its public records lawsuit against the district.


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What about other Chinese-owned apps?

It’s not just TikTok — other apps like Shein, Temu, and WeChat are popular in the US, too. The TikTok ban focuses on ByteDance-owned subsidiaries including CapCut and Lemon8, but includes a carve out for popular shopping apps, The Washington Post reports. On the other hand, “everything app” WeChat could be in a gray area.


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Visa and Mastercard agree to put a limit on credit card swipe fees.

The proposed settlement, which stems from a years-long legal battle, will require Visa and Mastercard to lower swipe fees for merchants by 0.04 percentage points for three years, while capping these rates into 2030.

Even though it may seem like the deal will lower fees for customers, that may not be the case for everyone. The settlement will allow retailers to charge more when customers use premium cards that offer cashback rewards and other perks, as these come with higher swipe fees.


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Porn industry group plans to bring Texas age verification fight to the Supreme Court.

The Free Speech Coalition, which represents the adult entertainment industry, has asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the Texas age verification law from taking effect while it appeals it to the Supreme Court.

Pornhub disabled its site in the state earlier this month, displaying a message that said providing an ID for an adult website “is not an effective solution for protecting users online.”


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Oversight Board says Meta “disproportionately restricts free expression” with its ban on “shaheed.”

The independent body funded by Meta recommended it change its approach to moderating the term “shaheed.” The word “is sometimes used by extremists to praise or glorify people who have died while committing violent terrorist acts,” says the board. But it says there are alternate meanings, not intended to glorify.

The group was finalizing the opinion before the October 7 Hamas attack, but paused publication. Further research confirmed the recommendation “held up.”


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Silicon Valley’s biggest city is training AI to detect homeless encampments.

A decade ago, San Jose broke up “The Jungle,” reportedly the biggest homeless encampment in the US; the feds estimate San Jose still has the highest proportions of unsheltered homeless and homeless youth. It’s not unusual to see a sidestreet filled with sunbaked RVs, or tents lining a creek or underpass.

Now, under new pressure to solve the homelessness emergency that’s never gone away, San Jose is quietly training AI to detect lived-in vehicles. More:


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Binance faces tax evasion charges in Nigeria after executive escapes custody.

Binance executives Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan were detained in Nigeria last month after visiting the country amid concerns about crypto’s effect on local currency.

However, Binance tells CNBC it has been “made aware” that Anjarwalla is no longer in Nigerian authorities' custody. The Nigerian government has since accused Binance of four counts of tax evasion, including failure to file tax returns.


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Hackers for the Chinese government targeted email accounts of political dissidents and US officials.

In an indictment unsealed on Monday, the US government said that seven Chinese nationals were charged with conspiracy to committee computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Law enforcement said the hackers were part of a China-based group that targeted “thousands of U.S. and foreign individuals and companies” over 14 years.


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Kamala Harris insists “we do not intend to ban TikTok.”

In an interview with ABC News, the vice president said the goal of the bill recently passed by the House is to force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell:

We need to deal with the owner, and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok... It’s an income generator for many people, what it does in terms of allowing people to share information in a free way, in a way that allows people to have discourse, it’s very important.


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Google was ordered to identify people who watched certain YouTube videos.

Police investigating suspected Bitcoin money laundering wanted info on viewers of certain tutorial videos viewed over 30,000 times, Forbes reported.

The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos. 

The documents reportedly don’t reveal whether Google gave over the information.


US v. Apple: everything you need to know

It’s all about Apple’s vise grip over the smartphone market and the iPhone’s locked-down ecosystem.

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$10,000 fine shows why you should report ISPs who lie about serving your address.

When I suggested you should challenge the FCC’s new broadband maps — which still let ISPs lie about coverage — some readers told me it was pointless. Well... a small ISP in Ohio is now getting fined $10,000 after it was caught lying! Here’s hoping we can make bigger lying ISPs feel the heat, too.


Meet Jonathan Kanter, the man heading the antitrust charge against Apple.

This New York Times article provides an overview of Kanter’s career in criticizing competition, from representing Microsoft’s offensive against Google during the Obama administration to leading the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

“In some ways, he’s still looking for that more prominent trophy to go on the mantelpiece,” said former FTC chair William Kovacic. “You win one of these monopolization cases, you can take the rest of the decade off.”