Rule

Apple Peiqing Ni targeted by account portraying her as promiscuous drug addict after posting about Tiananmen SquareA high-profile Chinese activist in the UK who was inundated with deepfake posts on X portraying her as a sexually promiscuous drug addict was told that the abuse did not breach the rules of Elon Musk’s platform.Apple Peiqing Ni, the 27-year-old founder of the UK-based China Dissent Network, had been advised by UK police to complain to the US-headquartered platform after she was targeted by what she believes is a pro-regime bot. Continue reading...

• The European Commission has accused Apple of refusing to comply with regulations designed to prevent Siri from unfairly dominating the AI assistant market on iPhones. • A spokesperson for the Commission stated that Apple's attempt to keep Siri as the primary assistant while blocking potential competitors is "not an option" under current rules. • This conflict highlights the EU's ongoing efforts to curb the market power of Big Tech and ensure fair competition for third-party AI developers.

• Apple has announced a redesigned, AI-enabled assistant branded as "Siri AI" during its developer conference in Cupertino, California. • The company is withholding the rollout of these new AI features for devices within the European Union, citing concerns over EU regulatory rules. • European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier responded by stating that the decision to exclude the bloc is "Apple’s and Apple’s only."

• Digital leaders from the D9+ group are advocating for a unified set of European rules to combat the harms associated with children's social media use. • While there is a general consensus on the need for a common front, Estonia has raised specific concerns regarding the implementation of age verification checks. • This effort matters as the EU seeks to standardize protections for minors across member states to prevent fragmented regulation and inconsistent safety levels.

President dramatically raised cost of visa for highly skilled workers in executive order last yearA federal judge on Monday declared a $100,000 fee that Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers is unlawful and must be invalidated.US District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas. Continue reading...

US president says ‘I’d pay the kind of money they deserve’ amid questions over his administration establishing fundDonald Trump declined on Sunday to definitively rule out compensating individuals who were charged with assaulting police officers when his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 toward the end of his first presidency.Trump did that in an interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he spoke in support of what his administration calls an “anti-weaponization” fund, arguing that people who entered the Capitol while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election had been treated unfairly by prosecutors and should receive compensation. Continue reading...

• The White House has proposed a new rule that would grant political appointees greater control over the approval and funding of scientific research grants. • Critics argue the proposal threatens the U.S. scientific enterprise by undermining the longstanding peer review process used to allocate funding. • Experts warn this shift could stifle critical advancements in artificial intelligence, climate science, and the treatment of HIV, cancer, and rare diseases.