Australia’s under-16 social media ban meets with disapproval of under-16s

As of midnight on the 9 December, social media companies operating in Australia must take ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure that their services are not used by anyone under the age of 16. By some estimates, 1 million accounts will be deleted. The new legislation is described as ‘world-leading’ by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while the companies affected say it will simply drive teenagers to other, less-well protected sites. Research conducted by ABC in Australia suggests that the majority of under-16 social media users in the country don’t think the ban is a good idea and intend to find ways around it. The survey sampled 17,000 young people. It showed that YouTube was the most popular platform, followed by Roblox. Although included in the ban, both companies will be allowed to operate a ‘kid-friendly’ version for under-16s. Instagram and Snapchat, the next most popular, are banned for under-16 use in any form. 75 per cent of young people surveyed said they would carry on using social media. Only six per cent thought the ban would work. Read the report on ABC’s survey.

EU publishes ‘digital simplification’ package

Delaying the implementation of new AI rules, simplifying cybersecurity reporting and amending the GDPR to create an ‘innovation-friendly framework’ are among the measures proposed in the ‘Digital Omnibus’ package announced by the European Commission. The package is designed to address the issues identified in the Draghi report, which argued that complex regulation was hindering European competitiveness. The proposed measures also include a ‘data union’ strategy, modernising cookie rules and a ‘European Business Wallet’ to help digitalise operations for EU entities.

Datacentres in space

In the latest move in the space race, SpaceX and Blue Origin are racing  to launch orbital datacentres. Deploying satellites with significant AI computing technology is recognised as technically challenging and critics say they won’t be competitive on cost. But supporters argue that the ability to tap unlimited solar energy can solve the huge energy demands of datacentres.  Google is planning to launch two test satellites carrying AI chips as soon as 2027, but sees orbital datacentres as a ‘moonshot’. One estimate is that recreating the capacity of a gigawatt datacentre would require 10,000 satellites. However, SpaceX’s massive new Starship design, expected to debut next year, could deliver 300 gigawatts of solar-powered AI satellites into orbit, according to owner Elon Musk.

Executive order expected to end ‘patchwork of AI laws’ in the US

EU launches investigation into Google’s training of its AI models

In its latest challenge to big tech companies, EU regulators will examine whether Google is breaking competition law over the company’s use of third party content to train its artificial intelligence models. The investigation will also look at the terms Google is imposing on online publishers and content creators who upload videos to its YouTube platform and consider whether rival AI developers are being put at a disadvantage. The EU is also investigating Meta over its latest policy on AI providers’ access to WhatsApp and follows a $120 million dollar fine imposed on X for breaking rules on digital transparency, described by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as ‘an attack on all American tech platforms’.

FCC to introduce new licensing framework for subsea cables

The US Federal Communications Commission has proposed a new rule for submarine cable landing licensing designed to ‘prevent national security risks from current and potential foreign adversaries, while encouraging the use of trusted technology and measures to further accelerate the buildout of submarine cables’. The proposed framework will grant a blanket licence to entities, subject to meeting certain requirements. (See the article by Gregory Staple on the ownership of submarine cables by big tech companies in this issue of Intermedia.)

Faulty DNS update the cause of major disruption to online services

A range of online services were disrupted when an Amazon Web Services (AWS) database crashed on 20 October. The Wall Street Journal reports that the outage was caused by a fault in a minor update to the DNS (domain name services) system that meant the world’s largest database, DynamoDB, was fed incorrect addresses. AWS’s biggest hub in Northern Virginia crashed out of action for 14 hours, resulting in a cascading set of failures of websites around the world ceasing to work and thousands of flights being cancelled. The effect spread well beyond users of AWS. The WSJ suggests that the failure raises questions about the vulnerability of systems that are now, effectively, critical international infrastructure.

In brief

Proposals by the UN to insist on human oversight of AI weapons technology met stiff resistance during a Security Council debate. The Council was discussing the creation of a legally binding treaty by 2026 that would ban lethal autonomous weapons that operate using AI without human control. A US spokesman said that his country ‘totally rejects all efforts by international bodies to assert centralised control over the governance of AI’, while the Russian representative to the UN said it would oppose the proposals.

Companies will have to minimise the collection of personal data and give users more control over their data under India’s newly enforced Digital Personal Data Protection law. The rules adopt similar principles to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), such as the requirements that companies can only collect data necessary for a specified purpose. India is also drafting other digital regulation, including higher compliance standards for social media and AI.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken legal action against Microsoft, accusing the company of misleading customers over its new Microsoft365 software. The ACCC alleges that Microsoft suggested to its 2.7 million customers that they had to move to new plans that had bundled the software with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI product, with an increase in price of up to 45 per cent. The company, says the ACCC, failed to tell customers that the cheaper ‘classic’ plan, which doesn’t include Copilot, was also available.

The European Commission has adopted a ‘privacy shield’, a series of actions to be rolled out by 2027 to strengthen the protection of European democracies against attacks launched, in particular, by foreign powers. The actions include the establishment of a European Centre for Democratic Resilience, the creation of an independent European network of fact-checkers, a new Digital Services Act incidents and crisis protocol, and measures to support free media in the upcoming review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and other future initiatives

South African telco Vodacom has reached a deal with Starlink to provide high-speed , low latency broadband for businesses across Africa. With the high costs of rolling out towers in rural areas, Vodacom will integrate Starlink’s technology for data relay into its mobile network, and will be authorized to sell Starlink’s equipment and services to customers in Africa.

Sources: The Financial Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Euronews, Euractiv, US News, CNN,  TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, Economic Times, BBC, Politico, Telecoms.com