False or deceptive claims by billionaire Elon Musk in regards to the US election in November amassed 2 billion views on the social media platform X, which he owns, in response to specialists.
Past the democratic course of, paramilitary forces have been blamed for taking the web offline in Sudan as households fled preventing within the civil struggle.
Gig staff fought sexist algorithms, the usage of synthetic intelligence applications prompted strikes in Hollywood, and highly effective tech instruments have been used to foretell the ever extra risky climate attributable to man-made local weather change.
The brand new yr guarantees additional digital shakeups. Listed below are 4 traits to look at:
Social media bans for younger individuals
Australia enacted a world-first ban on social media for kids below 16 in November, setting a benchmark for world regulation.
The Social Media Minimal Age invoice, which is able to come into impact in 2025 and is seen as one of many hardest legal guidelines concentrating on multinational know-how corporations, had 77 per cent public approval. But it surely additionally raised issues amongst rights teams and privateness specialists.
Youth teams warned that LGBTQ+ and migrant youngsters might be reduce off from assist networks, whereas privateness advocates frightened age-verification strategies might result in extra assortment of non-public information.
The legislation requires know-how corporations, together with Instagram, X, TikTok and Snapchat, to show they’re taking cheap steps to maintain out younger customers. This might embrace utilizing age-estimation movies, requiring paperwork be uploaded or age-inference via cross-checking e-mail addresses via different accounts.
Different nations are contemplating related bans, together with Britain, the place know-how minister Peter Kyle stated a ban is “on the desk.”
Florida additionally handed a invoice to maintain kids below the age of 14 off of social media, however the Pc & Communications Trade Affiliation (CCIA) and NetChoice, whose members embrace tech giants Google and Meta Platforms, filed a court docket problem in October.
The Norwegian authorities has proposed elevating the age at which kids can use social media from 13 to fifteen, and Sweden can be contemplating an age-based ban to stop gang recruitment.
Time’s up for TikTok?
The Supreme Courtroom this week agreed to listen to a problem in opposition to a legislation that requires Chinese language-based ByteDance to divest from TikTok in the USA by early subsequent yr or face a ban.
US officers warn TikTok’s administration is beholden to the Chinese language authorities. TikTok has denied that it has or ever would share US person information.
Regardless of making an attempt to ban the app throughout his first time period, president-elect Donald Trump now says he helps TikTok, making a sale, somewhat than a ban, extra doubtless.
After the Romanian election, the European Union ordered TikTok to freeze information linked to the vote, issuing a “retention order” below its Digital Providers Act, which regulates how the world’s greatest social media corporations function in Europe.
Georgescu’s marketing campaign leaned closely on TikTok, and researchers and politicians stated the way in which the candidate’s posts went so viral warranted investigation.
TikTok dismissed issues about its position as “inaccurate and deceptive.”
Generative AI hits extra white-collar staff
Synthetic intelligence is prone to proceed disrupting the job market subsequent yr, with staff employed in areas which have beforehand averted automation, resembling schooling and finance, extra susceptible.
Generative AI has the potential to change a considerably larger proportion of jobs, notably in metropolitan areas, in response to a November report by the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD).
AI instruments have already impacted jobs within the movie trade, the authorized occupation and media.
The World Financial Discussion board has warned that staff in low-income nations are additionally susceptible.
Tech monopolies probed
Authorized wrangling over allegations that Alphabet-owned Google violated US antitrust legislation might play out subsequent yr or into 2026.
A decide in the USA dominated in August that Google acted as a monopoly by spending billions of {dollars} to safe unique agreements with builders, carriers and gear makers to be the default search engine, setting the stage for a second trial to find out fixes, in addition to potential authorized appeals.
The US Division of Justice has really helpful cures that embrace the sale of Chrome, the preferred internet browser, to stop Google from utilizing it to funnel site visitors to its different merchandise.
Microsoft additionally might face an antitrust investigation over its use of cloud computing know-how, cybersecurity and AI merchandise.
US Federal Commerce Fee head Lina Khan authorized the investigation earlier than her doubtless departure when Trump takes workplace in January. He’s anticipated to nominate a Republican with a extra lenient method to enterprise, placing the probe into doubt.
This story was printed with permission from Thomson Reuters Basis, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian information, local weather change, resilience, girls’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Go to https://www.context.information/.
