Makena Kelly

After five years in a shallow grave, the FCC has revived the rules meant to force internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon to treat all traffic equally. The agency voted in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday, taking its first step toward reinstating net neutrality. “Today, there is no expert agency ensuring that the internet is fast, open, and fair. And for everyone, everywhere to enjoy the full benefits of the internet age, internet access needs to be more tha…

Data workers urged lawmakers to protect their rights ahead of a Senate meeting with artificial intelligence leaders on Tuesday. In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), workers and civil society groups demanded Congress guard against a “dystopian future” of surveillance and low wages for the people in charge of training AI algorithms. “The contributions of data workers, often invisible to the public, are critical to advancements in AI,” the letter read. “Congress…

Data workers urged lawmakers to protect their rights ahead of a Senate meeting with artificial intelligence leaders on Tuesday. In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), workers and civil society groups demanded Congress guard against a “dystopian future” of surveillance and low wages for the people in charge of training AI algorithms. “The contributions of data workers, often invisible to the public, are critical to advancements in AI,” the letter read. “Congress…

Dozens of states sued Meta on Tuesday, accusing the company of putting profit ahead of the safety of its young users. The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, argues that Meta unlawfully misled the public about the harms its products, like Facebook and Instagram, could impose on children and teens. By implementing a business model meant to maximize time on the platform, Meta contributed to a youth mental health crisis, the complaint says. “Over the past decade,” the lawsuit says, “M…

Dozens of states sued Meta on Tuesday, accusing the company of putting profit ahead of the safety of its young users. The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, argues that Meta unlawfully misled the public about the harms its products, like Facebook and Instagram, could impose on children and teens. By implementing a business model meant to maximize time on the platform, Meta contributed to a youth mental health crisis, the complaint says. “Over the past decade,” the lawsuit says, “M…

Apple announced that it would be making all of the parts, tools, and information necessary for consumers and repair shops to fix the device maker’s products during a White House event on Tuesday. Apple is already required to make these materials available in California after the state passed its Right to Repair Act earlier this month, but the company says it will bring this new support to consumers and independent repair shops nationwide. “We intend to honor California’s new repair provisions…

The Gaza Strip is suffering a near-total connectivity outage as the Israeli Defense Forces announced Friday that it was “expanding ground operations” in the region. As of Friday, the connectivity tracker NetBlocks reported “a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip,” with one of the largest and last remaining Palestinian telecom providers, Paltel, being highly impacted by intense airstrikes. Paltel said it had sustained “a complete disruption of all communication and internet services” as a…

President Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence is a first-of-its-kind action from the government to tackle some of the technology’s greatest challenges — like how to identify if an image is real or fake. Among a myriad of other demands, the order, signed Monday, calls for a new set of government-led standards on watermarking AI-generated content. Like watermarks on photographs or paper money, digital watermarks help users distinguish between a real object and a fake one and d…

Amazon’s secret pricing algorithm, codenamed “Project Nessie,” may have generated the company more than $1 billion in extra profits, according to new details released Thursday from the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against the e-commerce giant. In September, the FTC and more than a dozen state attorneys general sued Amazon, claiming that the company operates an illegal monopoly. Among other claims, the complaint says that Amazon buried listings offered at lower prices from other re…

Meta announced Wednesday that it would require advertisers to disclose when potentially misleading AI-generated or altered content is featured in political, electoral, or social issue ads. The new rule applies to advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that contain “realistic” images, videos, or audio falsely showing someone doing something they never did or imagining a real event playing out differently than it did in reality. Content depicting realistic-looking fake people or events would al…