Connecticut bans sale of precise geolocation data under new law
The privacy expansion also restricts data-driven pricing, requires facial recognition notices and prepares a data broker registry.
Digital culture
Letterboxd draws A24 and New York Times interest in possible $300 million-plus sale
Sony, Netflix and Paramount have also been linked to the reported talks, but no winning bid or platform changes have been confirmed.
YouTube will bring Watch With to long-form videos and expand its live-streaming tools
The platform will begin expanding live reactions later in 2026 and is preparing co-host matching, fan-funded showdowns and real-time speech translation for 2027.
US asks Australia to exempt American platforms from new digital law
Washington says the proposal could affect speech beyond Australia; the Albanese government says the draft would return meaningful choices to users.
Six banks propose five principles for purchases made by AI agents
The voluntary paper calls for transparency, safety, privacy, choice and interoperability before digital assistants begin buying without constant supervision.
Mastodon case study: how independent servers formed one social network
The project showed that a shared social experience can exist without placing accounts, rules, and infrastructure inside one company.
Meta appeals extra UK duties for WhatsApp and Instagram
The company is challenging both services’ Category 1 status under the Online Safety Act, which expands transparency, user-control and fraudulent-ad duties.
Judge may block part of TikTok’s $400 million child privacy settlement
The judge wants more detail before ending a 2019 order; an additional $100 million payment depends on that decision.
Kiwix case study: how an open reader took Wikipedia beyond the internet
The project separated content, archive and reader to turn entire websites into portable, searchable libraries that do not depend on continuous connectivity.
FCC clears Gulf funding for Paramount–Warner deal, but merger remains on hold
The authorization addresses indirect foreign equity and does not end the antitrust dispute that still prevents the acquisition from closing.
OpenStreetMap case study: how a community map became digital infrastructure
The open database separated data, presentation and services, allowing communities, companies and humanitarian teams to build maps for different needs.
Australia considers banning smart glasses in government buildings
The government has sought advice on recording-capable devices in federal workplaces, but the rule and its exemptions have not been defined.
Jellyfin case study: how a fork preserved an open media server
The community started from the last open Emby release, kept the server under GPLv2, and rebuilt clients and governance without adding a premium tier.
Why some pages do not appear in the Wayback Machine
Finding a domain on the calendar does not mean every URL, image and feature was preserved at the same moment.
AO3 case study: how fans built an archive outside platform logic
Ad-free and donation-funded, Archive of Our Own combines open-source software, volunteer labor, and a taxonomy designed to preserve fanworks.