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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 5h

“The EU Council has cancelled its vote, which had been due next week, on [..] a law popularly dubbed "chat control."

The Danish EU presidency [..] are now aiming for a new compromise for a ministerial meeting in December.” euobserver.com/Rule%20of%20...

EU puts off 'chat control' vote amid deep division

The EU Council has cancelled its vote, due next week, on a controversial anti-child sexual abuse regulation, a law popularly dubbed "chat control."

euobserver.com

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Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 18h

Estonia is opposed to a push by the European Union to take further action to restrict kids’ access to social media, its digital minister told POLITICO in an interview.

Estonia speaks out against EU social media ban for kids

Most EU countries have backed the idea of a digital age of majority.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

Norman @noaasm.bsky.social · 1d

The Austrian Data Protection Authority issued a decision finding that Microsoft 365 Education illegally tracks students and uses student data for Microsoft's own purposes. noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-...

noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education tracks school children

Favorable decision by the Austrian DSB: Microsoft Education 365 may not track school kids and Microsoft is ordered to provide full access to kids' data.

noyb.eu

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 6h

“A survey of 10,000 consumers in Europe and North America showed that 39% of Gen Z respondents trust social media platforms with their personal data, compared to just 12% of Baby Boomers and 22% of Generation X.” www.techcentral.ie/gen-z-trust-...

Gen Z trust social media platforms almost as much as governments when it comes to handling their data - TechCentral.ie

The trust Gen Z places in social media platforms is almost as high as their trust in government institutions, according to research by the European privacy tech company Usercentrics. A survey of 10,00...

www.techcentral.ie

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 1d

“The world’s largest startup recently took its gripes to the office of [..] Teresa Ribera, highlighting “difficulties” it faces “in competing with entrenched companies” while pressing watchdogs to intervene to “avoid the lock-in of customers by large platforms,” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

OpenAI Warns EU Antitrust Watchdogs of Big Tech’s Data Dominance

OpenAI has raised concerns with European Union antitrust enforcers over potentially harmful conduct by the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.

www.bloomberg.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 2d

“The German Child Protection Association has come out against the EU’s attempt to break end-to-end encryption via the ‘chat control’ law. [..] Children also have a right to confidential communication [..] Frense said.” brusselssignal.eu/2025/10/germ...

German Child Protection Association comes out against EU digital chat control

The German Child Protection Association has come out against the EU’s attempt to break end-to-end encryption via the ‘chat control’ law. The association said chat control was the wrong tool “because…

brusselssignal.eu

Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 2d

“Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable as of 10 October.” ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Commission publishes guidelines to support the implementation of the Regulation on the Transparency of Political Advertising

Today, the European Commission published guidelines to support the effective implementation of the Regulation on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will become fully applicable...

ec.europa.eu

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 2d

"More than half of [Conor] McGregor’s X posts related to the presidential election contained false information, while over 28% contained ethnonationalist rhetoric. However, only 23 of McGregor’s posts had a proposed Community Note" www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Why Community Notes fail to stop misinformation on social media

Replacing independent fact-checkers with social media users to moderate online posts raises many questions about content moderation

www.rte.ie

Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

Patrick Breyer @echo-pbreyer.digitalcourage.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d

🇪🇺Germany's Minister of Justice today: "Suspicionless #chatcontrol must be taboo in a state governed by the rule of law." Private communication cannot be placed under general suspicion. "Germany will not agree to such proposals at the EU level." […]

Original post on digitalcourage.social

digitalcourage.social

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 3d

“Yesterday, a Dutch appeals court threw out Elon Musk’s X request for a gag order against local tech expert and legal scholar Danny Mekić. Mekić sued X in 2023 after the platform briefly made his account invisible, a so-called shadow ban“ euobserver.com/digital/ar90...

Dutch court rejects X’s bid to silence data privacy claimant

A Dutch appeals court has rejected X’s request for a gag order against a Dutch legal scholar — in a case challenging 'shadowbanning' under EU privacy and Digital Services Act rules.

euobserver.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 3d

“While copyright protects creative works, personality rights protect an individual's image, voice, and identity. [..] deepfakes should be handled through personality rights, which are "directly connected to the honor, intimacy, and dignity of the person." www.techpolicy.press/denmark-lead...

Denmark Leads EU Push to Copyright Faces in Fight Against Deepfakes | TechPolicy.Press

Denmark's Copyright Act amendments would give individuals copyright over their own likenesses, reports Giovana Fleck.

www.techpolicy.press

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 3d

“Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government plans to ban “several social media” platforms for children under the age of 15 while addressing the country’s Parliament on Tuesday.” www.euractiv.com/news/denmark...

Denmark to ban some social media websites for under-15s | Euractiv

The EU member has made protecting minors a top priority for its Council Presidency

www.euractiv.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 3d

“Deloitte Australia will partially refund the [..] $290,000 paid by the Australian government for a report that was littered with apparent AI-generated errors, including a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment and references to nonexistent academic research” apnews.com/article/aust...

Deloitte to partially refund Australian government for report with apparent AI-generated errors

Deloitte Australia will partially refund the Australian government for a report filled with apparent AI-generated errors.

apnews.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 4d

“Cruz alleged that "bias is particularly evident in Wikipedia's reliable sources/perennial sources list" because it describes "MSNBC and CNN as 'generally reliable' sources, while listing Fox News as a 'generally unreliable' source for politics and science.” arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Ted Cruz picks a fight with Wikipedia, accusing platform of left-wing bias

Cruz sends letter demanding answers from Wikimedia Foundation.

arstechnica.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 4d

“Altman said there were “no current plans” in a concrete way to introduce ads within the feature. But he went on to say that he enjoys Instagram ads — and didn’t rule out introducing that type of relevant ad within Pulse in the future.” www.theverge.com/news/793073/...

Sam Altman says there are no current plans for ads within ChatGPT Pulse — but he’s not ruling it out

The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in vi...

www.theverge.com

Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 5d

"Lobby filings show Facebook owner Meta [..] has been in contact in recent months with Jack Chambers, the public expenditure minister; Peter Burke, the enterprise minister; and Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan, vice-chairman of the Oireachtas AI committee.” www.businesspost.ie/companies/me...

Meta and Ibec press government to hire tsar to ‘coordinate’ digital ad rules

www.businesspost.ie

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 6d

“Critics argue that South Korea’s cyber defenses are hindered by a fragmented system of government ministries and agencies, often resulting in slow and uncoordinated responses, per local media reports.” techcrunch.com/2025/10/04/a...

A breach every month raises doubts about South Korea's digital defenses | TechCrunch

Known for its blazing fast internet and home to some of the world’s biggest tech giants, South Korea has also faced a string of data breaches and cybersecurity lapses that has struggled to match the p...

techcrunch.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 7d

“One of Discord’s third-party customer service providers was compromised by an “unauthorized party,” the company says. [They] gained access to “information from [..] users who had contacted Discord through our Customer Support and/or Trust & Safety teams”” www.theverge.com/news/792032/...

Discord customer service data breach leaks user info and scanned photo IDs

An “unauthorized party” may have accessed the names of users, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and more.

www.theverge.com

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Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 8d

Have we passed peak social media? @jburnmurdoch.ft.com here www.ft.com/content/a072...

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 8d

“Global Witness set up fake accounts using a 13-year-old’s birth date and turned on the video app’s “restricted mode” [..] TikTok suggested sexualised and explicit search terms to seven test accounts that were created on clean phones with no search history.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’

Despite platform’s limits on adult content, study finds it not only accessible but often suggested

www.theguardian.com

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 9d

"The judge orders Meta to adjust its apps so that the user’s choice is preserved, even when the user navigates to another section or restarts the app." www.bitsoffreedom.nl/2025/10/02/j...

Judge in the Bits of Freedom vs. Meta lawsuit: Meta must respect users’ choice

Bits of Freedom komt op voor internetvrijheid door de online grondrechten op communicatievrijheid en privacy te beschermen.

www.bitsoffreedom.nl

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 9d

McGrath: "The possible inclusion of hate speech and hate crime in the list of ‘EU crimes’ [..] requires a Council decision adopted at unanimity and with the consent of the European Parliament. To date, the Council has not reached the needed unanimity." www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...

www.europarl.europa.eu

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Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 10d

The UK government has issued a new order to Apple to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time targeting only British users’ data on.ft.com/4nonyx0

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Alderik Oosthoek @alderik.bsky.social · 10d

“Image-hosting platform Imgur has blocked people in the UK from accessing its content. [..] [ICO] said it recently notified the platform's parent company, MediaLab AI, of plans to fine Imgur after probing its approach to age checks and use of children's personal data.” www.bbc.com/news/article...

Imgur blocks access to UK users after proposed regulatory fine

The image-hosting platform - which is widely used to make memes - was facing a fine over its use of children's data.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Alderik Oosthoek

Craig Silverman @craigsilverman.bsky.social · 11d

I found +3,000 Meta ads for nudifiers & AI girlfriend apps that featured bare breasts, simulated sex acts etc.

Meta said in June that it had deployed new methods to block nudifier ads. Indicator will continue to report on its progress, or lack thereof:

Sexually explicit ads for nudifiers and AI girlfriend apps continue to plague Meta

Indicator found thousands of ads that featured bare breasts and simulated sex acts

indicator.media

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