TX Legislature Passes Comprehensive Consumer Data Privacy Law Texas was poised last week to become the sixth state to enact a comprehensive consumer data privacy bill, after state lawmakers approved the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act ( HB 4 ). If signed...
SCOTUS Refuses to Hold Tech Platforms Liable for Users’ Posts In a pair of decisions issued last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hold social media platforms accountable for the posts of their users. In one case, Gonzalez v. Google , the court refused...
Attacks on FL Gig Workers Raises Safety Concerns Three attacks on app-based drivers within days of each other in Florida last month, one of which was fatal, have raised concerns about the safety of such workers. A report issued last week by the activist group...
Social Media Parental Consent Legislation Catching On Last month Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 152 , making that state the first in the nation to require teenagers to get permission from their parents before setting up a social media account. Last week...
MN, NY Follow CO’s Lead on Taxing E-Commerce Deliveries In 2021 Colorado passed a transportation funding bill ( SB 260 ) that included a 27-cent charge on food and goods deliveries from companies like Amazon and DoorDash. This year the Minnesota House is...
MT Senate Passes Sweeping TikTok Ban The Montana Senate approved a TikTok ban ( SB 419 ) that goes much further than the executive actions of several Republican governors prohibiting the use of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app on state-issued devices. The...
CA Lawmakers Trying Again to Regulate Crypto Industry California lawmakers are considering legislation ( AB 39 ) that would require digital asset companies to be licensed by the state and also impose new disclosure requirements on them intended to protect consumers...
FL, Other States Seek to Protect Teens from Social Media A bill ( HB 591 ) introduced in Florida this month would require social media companies to disclose to users that that they employ “addictive design features” like auto play and infinite scrolling...
U.S. Rep Introduces Unique Measure Calling for Regulation of AI U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced a resolution last week calling on Congress to establish a nonpartisan commission to make recommendations about how to regulate artificial intelligence. What made...
Illicit Crypto Use Reaches $20B: The use of cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes reached a record $20.1 billion in 2022, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Despite falling crypto transaction volumes overall, the value of illicit transactions...
Big Tech Sues to Block CA Child Online Protection Law The tech industry group NetChoice is suing to block California’s new Age-Appropriate Design Code Act ( AB 2273 ), which is aimed at making the internet safer for kids. NetChoice, which includes Amazon...
SF Authorizes Police Use of Lethal Robots On an 8-3 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors authorized police to deploy robots with lethal force in very rare cases involving violent suspects such as mass shooters. A minority of the board opposed the...
No Clear Direction on Crypto Regulation after FTX Crash The collapse this month of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume , has intensified calls for regulation of the industry. But exactly how to proceed with that...
Tech Company Job Freezes, Cuts Continue Amazon publicly disclosed last week that it was pausing corporate hiring due to economic uncertainty. The news came on the same day that ride-hailing company Lyft said it was laying off 13 percent, or about 650, of its...
Autonomous Vehicles May Always Require Human Supervision Autonomous vehicle (AV) industry executives and experts say remote human supervisors may always be needed to help robot drivers deal with unexpected incidents or so-called “edge cases.” In addition...