News Update 5/3: An Entirely Substanceless Episode

Stanford’s Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:

TikTok Tick-Tock

• A law requiring TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest or face a U.S. ban was passed and signed into law as part of a foreign aid and national security funding package. - Casey Newton/ Platformer, Rebecca Kern/ Politico, Mike Scarcella/ Reuters, John Perrino/ Tech Policy Press, Sapna Maheshwari, David McCabe/ The New York Times, Drew Harwell/ The Washington Post, Cristiano Lima-Strong/ The Washington Post, @TikTokPolicy

Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (EU Policy Corner)

• The European Commission opened formal proceedings against Meta on potential DSA violations including the “deprecation and planned discontinuation of CrowdTangle” happening “without an adequate replacement” ahead of the European elections. - Jon Brodkin/ Ars Technica, Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Clothilde Goujard, Aoife White/ Politico, Natasha Lomas/ TechCrunch, Lisa O'Carroll/ The Guardian, Adam Satariano/ The New York Times, European Commission, Mathias Vermeulen (@mathver)
  • The probe will also investigate how foreign influence operations are spreading on Facebook and Instagram, how Meta is handling political advertising and content recommendations and issues with flagging and removing illegal content.
  • Meta’s Threads announced it wouldn’t recommend political commentary earlier this year and recent research found the pro-Kremlin Doppelganger network is buying Facebook ads ahead of the EU election. - Clothilde Goujard/ Politico, Taylor Lorenz, Naomi Nix/ The Washington Post
• The REPORT Act was signed into law by President Biden on May 7 after passing both chambers of Congress on April 29. The law makes common sense updates to the nation's online child abuse reporting system and expands reporting requirements to include instances of child grooming and trafficking. - Dave Williams/ Capitol Beat, Julie Tsirkin/ NBC News, Lauren Forristal/ TechCrunch, Amanda Silberling/ TechCrunch, Kate Klonick, Margo Williams/ The Klonickles, The White House, @HouseFloor, Office of Congresswoman Laurel Lee, Office of Senator Jon Ossoff, Office of Senator Marsha Blackburn
• Georgia lawmakers passed the Protecting Georgia's Children on Social Media Act of 2024, SB 351, requiring age verification and parental consent for teens under 16 to create social media accounts. The bill also updates school education requirements to cover online safety. - Brenna Goth/ Bloomberg Law, FOX 5 Atlanta

Legal Corner

• SCOTUS denied an application for a stay of the Texas age verification law for adult sites. The cert petition is still pending and they didn’t give a reason, but it’s still kind of amazing given the precedent is so firmly against them and you’d normally expect a stay when First Amendment rights are threatened. - Andrew Chung/ Reuters, Adam Liptak/ The New York Times, Free Speech Coalition

Sports Corner

• Alex said he is “excited” to root for the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs with his Sacramento Kings failing to make the playoffs. If only there was more New York sports coverage. - Chris Herring/ ESPN
  • Despite calling New York sports fans “the worst,” his show notes writer says there is still time to be a bandwagon Jalen Brunson fan.

Join the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.

Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.

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