Michael Veale | Lightnews

michael veale

@michae.lv

8.5K followers 1.8K following 1.4K posts

prof @laws.ucl.ac.uk, technology, law, policy, society, whimsical latvian top level domain names. michae.lv and fediverse https://someone.elses.computer/@mikarv 🏳️‍🌈

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Michael Veale is a technology policy academic who focuses on information technology and the law. He is currently associate professor in the Faculty of Laws at University College London (UCL). .. more

Computer science 46%

Political science 22%

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michael veale @michae.lv · May 6

How should legal education respond to AI? Together with 11 UCL Laws colleagues, this paper is our vision for the sector. It's rooted in academic integrity, fundamental competences, and concerns around impacts on learning to learn and intellectual risk taking. (🧵)

discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

Reposted by Michael Veale

Fred Logue @fplogue.bsky.social · 7d

Financial barriers to environmental litigation are against the law, because protecting the environment is an important public interest.

The government now wants to make it super expensive (>€100,000) for ordinary people to go to court to protect the environment

Please read and take action 👇

Picture of Laytown beach in County Meath Ireland showing a cloudy sky with sunlight streaming through to light up a beach with some horse riders in the far distance.

Reposted by Michael Veale, Iñaki Aldasoro

Florian Ederer @florianederer.bsky.social · 9d

Over on Twitter/X, Bill Ackman (of Harvard/Claudine Gay/plagiarism/tennis debacle fame) has written another 3,000+ word post.

He believes that Francesca Gino's RAs faked her data. And, plot twist, he's been funding Gino's legal battle against Harvard since 2024.

x.com/i/status/200...

michael veale @michae.lv · 11d

thankful for books on how to do this

michael veale @michae.lv · 11d

Happy New Year www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/inco...

FOI request: Dear Greater London Authority,

Please provide income details from any sponsorship or commercial arrangements in relation to the “Wicked” film franchise in relation to visial placement during the broadcast of the London NYE fireworks 2025-6. This includes deals between Universal Studios, Marc Platt Productions or Universal Pictures. Please provide income details and all agreements and conditions of any sponsorship.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Veale

Reposted by Joanna Bryson

michael veale @michae.lv · 16d

As you’re watching a Disney film at Christmas, raise a glass to Disney’s lawyers who, in Florida’s 2021 social media law, had a blanket exemption placed in to except any theme park owner from the definition of ‘social media platform’ www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill...

Social media company means any information service [cont.]…
The term does not include any information service, system, Internet search engine, or access software provider operated by a company that owns and operates a theme park or entertainment complex as defined in s. 509.013.

Reposted by Michael Veale

Ana-Maria Cretu @ana-mariacretu.bsky.social · 26d

Our new paper demonstrates that removing images of children from training datasets of text-to-image models fails to prevent the misuse of these models to generate child sexual abuse material (AI CSAM). A thread 🧵

Reposted by Michael Veale

Reposted by Rebecca Tushnet, Michael Veale

Eric Goldman @ericgoldman.bsky.social · 26d

abovethelaw.com/2025/12/ice-...

ICE Accidentally Publishes A 'Watch List' Of Immigration Lawyers, Which Is Definitely A Normal Thing For The Government To Do - Above the Law

This is... disturbing.

abovethelaw.com

michael veale @michae.lv · 26d

NSF under threat from itself.

@markhisted.org on Bluesky

Well, this is an utter disaster for science. This gutting of peer review is very likely driven by Project 2025/OMB/Vought, very likely is about funding junk science, and very likely is coming for #NIH and biomedical research next. 🧪 [contains quote post or other embedded content]

bsky.app

michael veale @michae.lv · 26d

VPNs starting to enter the regulatory frame: now in Denmark www.theregister.com/2025/12/15/d...

Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy • The Register

: Minister insists 'modest' bill is not an assault on privacy-preserving tech

www.theregister.com

Reposted by Michael Veale

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 26d

Europe’s Digital Markets Act aims to open ecosystems: alternatives to app stores, fair access to OS features, real interoperability. But for many free and open source developers, those promises remain fragile without robust enforcement, write Lucas Lasota, Dario Presutti and Jithendra Palepu.

Making the Digital Markets Act Developer-Friendly | TechPolicy.Press

Big Tech restrictions on app stores and operating systems put small developers at risk, write Lucas Lasota, Dario Presutti and Jithendra Palepu.

buff.ly

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom, Scott L. Greer, Steve Peers , and 12 more Carl T. Bergstrom, Scott L. Greer, Steve Peers, Devon Greyson, Lilian Edwards, Rebecca Tushnet, Bessma Momani, Michael Veale, Alfie Kohn, Woodrow Hartzog, Xavier Molénat, Christina Pagel, Jürgen Janger, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Jeannette Sutton

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 26d

Well, this is an utter disaster for science.

This gutting of peer review is very likely driven by Project 2025/OMB/Vought, very likely is about funding junk science, and very likely is coming for #NIH and biomedical research next.
🧪

Science
in reviewing grant proposals.
The changes permit as few as one outside review rather than the current minimum of three, end the routine use of expert panels to discuss those individual reviews, and give program managers greater authority to recommend which proposals should or should not be funded. They are described in an internal 1 December staff memo that Science has obtained and mentioned briefly in an update to NSF's grantmaking manual posted on 8 December.
A major reason for the smaller staff is the elimination of hundreds of so-called rotators, scientists on loan from academia who served as program managers as well as higher level administrators. Their absence, combined with the new review policy, represent a major change in how NSF

Reposted by Michael Veale

Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 27d

Tech whistleblowers say coming forward has unexpectedly derailed their lives... They became isolated among their colleagues, suffered severe professional damage, or were pushed out of the industry altogether...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... by @naominix.bsky.social

She blew the whistle at Meta. Then her career fell apart.

After exposing the harms of Big Tech, many whistleblowers say they faced poor job prospects and isolation in Silicon Valley. They have no regrets.

www.washingtonpost.com

michael veale @michae.lv · 28d

Not sure the Online Safety Acts — either UK or AUS flavours — are ready for kids setting up and running social media services themselves as regulated entities. This already happens: expect more. I ran online forums *as a child* that would now need child access assessments under the UK OSA!

Reposted by Michael Veale

Tim Squirrell @tmsqrll.bsky.social · Dec 9

EC has formally opened an investigation into Google for using publishers’ content without meaningful consent or compensation for its AI Overviews feature.

Big win for civil society orgs like @foxglovelegal.bsky.social who’ve been asking for this.

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive conduct by Google in the use of online content for AI purposes

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether Google has breached EU competition rules by using the content of web publishers, as well as content uploaded on th

ec.europa.eu

michael veale @michae.lv · Dec 4

original statement in may that freaked out many at the time but didn't get that much media coverage www.state.gov/announcement...

Announcement of a Visa Restriction Policy Targeting Foreign Nationals Who Censor Americans - United States Department of State

Free speech is among the most cherished rights we enjoy as Americans. This right, legally enshrined in our constitution, has set us apart as a beacon of freedom around the world. Even as we take acti...

www.state.gov

Reposted by Michael Veale

Graham Smith @cyberleagle.bsky.social · Dec 3

One thing I found odd was the reference early in the judgment to the content being manifestly unlawful. But if it was, the identity checks that the controller has to carry out wouldn’t be necessary. FWIW, it comes from para 17 of the referring court’s request. curia.europa.eu/juris/showPd...

curia.europa.eu

michael veale @michae.lv · Dec 3

I was referring to non GDPR liability created by GDPR related scans g and considering the CJEU’s views on automation in Glawischnig and YT/Cyando (Martin Husovec’s DSA GM chapter great on this). I agree that don’t think it matters for the GDPR liability - and that’s going to create big issues too.