Content Policy Archives | Page 29 of 227 | Digital Watch Observatory

Government ramps up online safety for children in the UK

The UK government has announced new measures to protect children online, giving parents clearer guidance and support. PM Keir Starmer said no platform will get a free pass, with illegal AI chatbot content targeted immediately.

New powers, to be introduced through upcoming legislation, will allow swift action following a consultation on children’s digital well-being.

Proposed measures include enforcing social media age limits, restricting harmful features like infinite scrolling, and strengthening safeguards against sharing non-consensual intimate images.

Ministers are already consulting parents, children, and civil society groups. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology launched ‘You Won’t Know until You Ask’ to advise on safety settings, talking to children, and handling harmful content.

Charities such as NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation welcomed the announcement, emphasising swift action on age limits, addictive design, and AI content regulation. Children’s feedback will help shape the new rules, aiming to make the UK a global leader in online safety.

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Shein faces formal proceedings under EU Digital Services Act

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against Shein under the Digital Services Act over addictive design and illegal product risks. The move follows preliminary reviews of company reports and responses to information requests. Officials said the decision does not prejudge the outcome.

Investigators will review safeguards to prevent illegal products being sold in the European Union, including items that could amount to child sexual abuse material, such as child-like sex dolls. Authorities will also assess how the platform detects and removes unlawful goods offered by third-party sellers.

The Commission will examine risks linked to platform design, including engagement-based rewards that may encourage excessive use. Officials will assess whether adequate measures are in place to limit potential harm to users’ well-being and ensure effective consumer protection online.

Transparency obligations under the DSA are another focal point. Platforms must clearly disclose the main parameters of their recommender systems and provide at least one easily accessible option that is not based on profiling. The Commission will assess whether Shein meets these requirements.

Coimisiún na Meán, the Digital Services Coordinator of Ireland, will assist the investigation as Ireland is Shein’s EU base. The Commission may seek more information or adopt interim measures if needed. Proceedings run alongside consumer protection action and product safety enforcement.

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Gabon imposes indefinite social media shutdown over national security concerns

Gabon’s media regulator, the High Authority for Communication (HAC), has announced a nationwide open-ended suspension of social media, citing online content that it says is fueling tensions and undermining social cohesion. In a statement, the HAC framed the move as a response to material it described as defamatory or hateful and, in some cases, a threat to national security, telling telecom operators and internet service providers to block access to major platforms.

The regulator pointed to what it called a rise in coordinated cyberbullying and the unauthorised sharing of personal data, saying existing moderation measures were not working and that the shutdown was necessary to stop violations of Gabon’s 2016 Communications Code.

The announcement arrives amid mounting labour pressure. Teachers began a high-profile strike in December 2025 over pay, status and working conditions, and the dispute has become one of the most visible signs of broader public-sector discontent. At the same time, the economic stakes are significant: Gabon had an estimated 850,000 active social media users in late 2025 (around a third of the population), and platforms are widely used for marketing and small-business sales.

Why does it matter?

Governments increasingly treat social media suspensions as a rapid-response tool for ‘public order’, but they also reshape information access, civic debate and commerce, especially in countries where mobile apps are a primary channel for news and income. The current announcement comes at a politically sensitive moment, since Gabon has a precedent here: during the 2023 election period, authorities shut down internet access, citing the need to counter calls for violence and misinformation. Gabon is still in transition after the August 2023 coup, and President Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the takeover, won the subsequent presidential election by a landslide in 2025, consolidating power while facing rising expectations for reform and stability.

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EDPS urges stronger safeguards in EU temporary chat-scanning rules

Concerns over privacy safeguards have resurfaced as the European Data Protection Supervisor urges legislators to limit indiscriminate chat-scanning in the upcoming extension of temporary EU rules.

The supervisor warns that the current framework risks enabling broad surveillance instead of focusing on targeted action against criminal content.

The EU institutions are considering a short-term renewal of the interim regime governing the detection of online material linked to child protection.

Privacy officials argue that such measures need clearer boundaries and stronger oversight to ensure that automated scanning tools do not intrude on the communications of ordinary users.

EDPS is also pressing lawmakers to introduce explicit safeguards before any renewal is approved. These include tighter definitions of scanning methods, independent verification, and mechanisms that prevent the processing of unrelated personal data.

According to the supervisor, temporary legislation must not create long-term precedents that weaken confidentiality across messaging services.

The debate comes as the EU continues discussions on a wider regulatory package covering child-protection technologies, encryption and platform responsibilities.

Privacy authorities maintain that targeted tools can be more practical than blanket scanning, which they consider a disproportionate response.

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WordPress.com integrates AI assistant into its editing workflow

Major updates to AI tooling are reshaping website creation as WordPress.com brings an integrated assistant directly into its editor.

The new system works within each site rather than relying on external chat windows, allowing users to adjust layouts, create content, and modify designs in real time. The tool is available to customers on Business and Commerce plans, although activation requires a manual opt-in.

The assistant appears across several core areas of the platform. Inside the editor, it can refine writing, modify styles, translate text and generate new sections with simple instructions.

In the Media Library, you can create new images or apply targeted edits through the platform’s in-house Nano Banana models, eliminating the need for separate subscriptions. Block notes provide an additional way to request suggestions, checks, or link-based context directly within each page.

The updates aim to make site building faster and more efficient by keeping all AI interactions within the existing workflow. Users who prefer a manual experience can ignore the feature entirely, since the assistant remains inactive unless deliberately enabled.

WordPress.com also notes that the system works best with block themes, although image tools are still available for classic themes.

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China boosts AI leadership with major model launches ahead of Lunar New Year

Leading Chinese AI developers have unveiled a series of advanced models ahead of the Lunar New Year, strengthening the country’s position in the global AI sector.

Major firms such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Zhipu AI introduced new systems designed to support more sophisticated agents, faster workflows and broader multimedia understanding.

Industry observers also expect an imminent release from DeepSeek, whose previous model disrupted global markets last year.

Alibaba’s Qwen 3.5 model provides improved multilingual support across text, images and video while enabling rapid AI agent deployment instead of slower generation pipelines.

ByteDance followed up with updates to its Doubao chatbot and the second version of its image-to-video tool, SeeDance, which has drawn copyright concerns from the Motion Picture Association due to the ease with which users can recreate protected material.

Zhipu AI expanded the landscape further with GLM-5, an open-source model built for long-context reasoning, coding tasks, and multi-step planning. The company highlighted the model’s reliance on Huawei hardware as part of China’s efforts to strengthen domestic semiconductor resilience.

Meanwhile, excitement continues to build for DeepSeek’s fourth-generation system, expected to follow the widespread adoption and market turbulence associated with its V3 model.

Authorities across parts of Europe have restricted the use of DeepSeek models in public institutions because of data security and cybersecurity concerns.

Even so, the rapid pace of development in China suggests intensifying competition in the design of agent-focused systems capable of managing complex digital tasks without constant human oversight.

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Meta explores AI system for digital afterlife

Meta has been granted a patent describing an AI system that could simulate a person’s social media activity, even after their death. The patent, originally filed in 2023 and approved in late December, outlines how AI could replicate a user’s online presence by drawing on their past posts, messages and interactions.

According to the filing, a large language model could analyse a person’s digital history, including comments, chats, voice messages and reactions, to generate new content that mirrors their tone and behaviour. The system could respond to other users, publish updates and continue conversations in a way that resembles the original account holder.

The patent suggests the technology could be used when someone is temporarily absent from a platform, but it also explicitly addresses the possibility of continuing activity after a user’s death. It notes that such a scenario would carry more permanent implications, as the person would not be able to return and reclaim control of the account.

More advanced versions of the concept could potentially simulate voice or even video interactions, effectively creating a digital persona capable of engaging with others in real time. The idea aligns with previous comments by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has said AI could one day help people interact with digital representations of loved ones, provided consent mechanisms are in place.

Meta has stressed that the patent does not signal an imminent product launch, describing it as a protective filing for a concept that may never be developed. Still, similar services offered by startups have already sparked ethical debate, raising questions about digital identity, consent and the emotional impact of recreating the online presence of someone who has died.

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Ireland’s DPC opens data privacy probe into X’s Grok

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has opened a formal investigation into X, focusing on whether the platform complied with its EU privacy obligations after users reportedly generated and shared sexualised, AI-altered images using Grok, the chatbot integrated into X. The inquiry will examine how the EU users’ personal data was processed in connection with this feature, under Ireland’s Data Protection Act and the GDPR framework.

The controversy centres on prompts that can ‘edit’ real people’s photos, sometimes producing non-consensual sexualised imagery, with allegations that some outputs involve children. The DPC has said it has been engaging with X since the reports first emerged and has now launched what it describes as a large-scale inquiry into the platform’s compliance with core GDPR duties.

Public and political reaction has intensified as examples of users altering images posted by others without consent, including ‘undressing’ edits, circulated. Child-safety concerns have widened the issue beyond platform moderation into questions of legality, safeguards, and accountability for generative tools embedded in mass-use social networks.

X has said it has introduced restrictions and safety measures around Grok’s image features, but regulators appear unconvinced that guardrails are sufficient when tools can be repurposed for non-consensual sexual content at scale. The DPC’s inquiry will test, in practical terms, whether a platform can roll out powerful image-generation/editing functions while still meeting the EU privacy requirements for lawful processing, risk management, and protection of individuals.

Why does it matter?

The DPC (Data Protection Commission) is Ireland’s national data protection authority, an Irish public regulator, but at the same time, it operates within the EU’s GDPR system as part of the network of EU/EEA regulators (the ‘supervisory authorities’). The DPC’s probe lands on top of a separate European Commission investigation launched in January under the EU’s Digital Services Act, after concerns that Grok-fuelled deepfakes on X included manipulated sexually explicit images that ‘may amount to child sexual abuse material,’ and questions about whether X properly assessed and mitigated those risks before deployment. Together, the two tracks show how the EU is using both privacy law (GDPR) and platform safety rules (DSA) to pressure large platforms to prove that ‘generative’ features are not being shipped faster than the safeguards needed to prevent serious harm, especially when women and children are the most likely targets.

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Study says China AI governance not purely state-driven

New research challenges the view that China’s AI controls are solely the product of authoritarian rule, arguing instead that governance emerges from interaction between the state, private sector and society.

A study by Xuechen Chen of Northeastern University London and Lu Xu of Lancaster University argues that China’s AI governance is not purely top-down. Published in the Computer Law & Security Review, it says safeguards are shaped by regulators, companies and social actors, not only the central government.

Chen calls claims that Beijing’s AI oversight is entirely state-driven a ‘stereotypical narrative’. Although the Cyberspace Administration of China leads regulation, firms such as ByteDance and DeepSeek help shape guardrails through self-regulation and commercial strategy.

China was the first country to introduce rules specific to generative AI. Systems must avoid unlawful or vulgar content, and updated legislation strengthens minor protection, limiting children’s online activity and requiring child-friendly device modes.

Market incentives also reinforce compliance. As Chinese AI firms expand globally, consumer expectations and cultural norms encourage content moderation. The study concludes that governance reflects interaction between state authority, market forces and society.

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Hollywood groups challenge ByteDance over Seedance 2.0 copyright concerns

ByteDance is facing scrutiny from Hollywood organisations over its AI video generator Seedance 2.0. Industry groups allege the system uses actors’ likenesses and copyrighted material without permission.

The Motion Picture Association said the tool reflects large-scale unauthorised use of protected works. Chairman Charles Rivkin called on ByteDance to halt what he described as infringing activities that undermine creators’ rights and jobs.

SAG-AFTRA also criticised the platform, citing concerns over the use of members’ voices and images. Screenwriter Rhett Reese warned that rapid AI development could reshape opportunities for creative professionals.

ByteDance acknowledged the concerns and said it would strengthen safeguards to prevent misuse of intellectual property. The company reiterated its commitment to respecting copyright while addressing complaints.

The dispute underscores wider tensions between technological innovation and rights protection as generative AI tools expand. Legal experts say the outcome could influence how AI video systems operate within existing copyright frameworks.

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