Latest posts

  • Elon Musk calls Spanish PM a ‘tyrant’ over plan to ban under-16s from social media and curb hateful content

    Pedro Sánchez says urgent action needed to protect children from ‘digital wild west’, drawing anger from owner of X Spain has proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers as attitudes hardened in Europe against the technology, drawing personal insults against the prime minister from Elon Musk. The government is preparing a series of…

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  • French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit

    Prosecutors’ announcement comes amid a hardening of European attitudes to social media firms Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime. “A search is under way by the cybercrime…

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  • EU launches inquiry into X over sexually explicit images made by Grok AI

    Investigation comes after Elon Musk’s firm sparked outrage by allowing users to ‘strip’ photos of women and children Europe live – latest updates The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot…

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  • The year of the ‘hectocorn’: the $100bn tech companies that could float in 2026

    OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Stripe are rumoured to be among ten of the biggest companies considering IPOs You’ve probably heard of “unicorns” – technology startups valued at more than $1bn – but 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the “hectocorn”, with several US and European companies potentially floating on stock markets at…

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  • My friends in Italy are using AI therapists. But is that so bad, when a stigma surrounds mental health? | Viola Di Grado

    State provision for psychological health services is lamentable. Until things improve, let’s not judge those who turn to an app for help It’s a sunny afternoon in a Roman park and a peculiar, new-to-this-era kind of coming out is happening between me and my friend Clarissa. She has just asked me if I, like her…

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  • TikTok to strengthen age-verification technology across EU

    Move comes as calls for Australia-style social media ban for under-16s grow around world TikTok will begin to roll out new age-verification technology across the EU in the coming weeks, as calls grow for an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s in countries including the UK. ByteDance-owned TikTok, and other major platforms popular with young…

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  • Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US in attack on European tech regulators

    State department accuses group of pressuring tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints through regulation of disinformation The state department has barred five Europeans from the US, accusing them of leading efforts to pressure tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints, in the latest attack on European regulations that target hate speech and…

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  • MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns

    Journalists find Swiss government rejected company over fears US intelligence might gain access to sensitive data UK MPs have raised concerns about the government’s contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted allegations about the suitability and security of its products. The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online…

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  • EU opens investigation into Google’s use of online content for AI models

    European Commission to assess whether Gemini owner is putting rival companies at a disadvantage Business live – latest updates The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence. The European Commission said on Tuesday it…

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  • Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws

    Ruling likely to put European Commission on collision course with billionaire, and possibly Donald Trump Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a high-stakes ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire…

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