Dutch regulators have fined a cryptocurrency service provider for operating in the Netherlands without the legally required registration, underscoring intensifying enforcement across Europe’s digital asset sector.
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) originally imposed an administrative penalty of €2,850,000 on 2 October 2023. Authorities found the firm breached the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act by offering unregistered crypto services.
Registration rules, introduced on 21 May 2020, require providers to notify supervisors due to elevated risks linked to transaction anonymity and potential misuse for money laundering or terrorist financing.
Non-compliance prevented the provider from reporting unusual transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands. Regulators weighed the severity, duration, and culpability of the breach when determining the penalty amount.
Legal proceedings later altered the outcome. The Court of Rotterdam ruled on 19 December 2025 to reduce the fine to €2,277,500 and annulled the earlier decision on objection.
DNB has since filed a further appeal with the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, leaving the case ongoing as oversight shifts toward MiCAR licensing requirements introduced in December 2024.
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Meta has introduced a new group of Facebook features that rely on Meta AI to expand personal expression across profiles, photos and Stories.
Users gain the option to animate their profile pictures, turning a still image into a short motion clip that reflects their mood instead of remaining static. Effects such as waves, confetti, hearts and party hats offer simple tools for creating a more playful online presence.
The update also includes Restyle, a tool that reimagines Stories and Memories through preset looks or AI-generated prompts. Users may shift an ordinary photograph into an illustrated, anime or glowy aesthetic, or adjust lighting and colour to match a chosen theme instead of limiting themselves to basic filters.
Facebook will highlight Memories that work well with the Restyle function to encourage wider use.
Feed posts receive a change of their own through animated backgrounds that appear gradually across accounts. People can pair text updates with visual backdrops such as ocean waves or falling leaves, creating messages that stand out instead of blending into the timeline.
Seasonal styles will arrive throughout the year to support festive posts and major events.
Meta aims to encourage more engaging interactions by giving users easy tools for playful creativity. The new features are designed to support expressive posts that feel more personal and more visually distinctive, helping users craft share-worthy moments across the platform.
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Russia’s State Duma has passed legislation establishing procedures for the seizure and confiscation of cryptocurrencies in criminal investigations. The law formally recognises digital assets as property under criminal law.
The bill cleared its third reading on 10 February and now awaits approval from the Federation Council and presidential signature.
Investigators may seize digital currency and access devices, with specialists required during investigative actions. Protocols must record asset type, quantity, and wallet identifiers, while access credentials and storage media are sealed.
Where technically feasible, seized funds may be transferred to designated state-controlled addresses, with transactions frozen by court order.
Despite creating a legal basis for confiscation, the law leaves critical operational questions unresolved. No method exists for valuing volatile crypto assets or for their storage, cybersecurity, or liquidation.
Practical cooperation with foreign crypto platforms, particularly under sanctions, also remains uncertain.
The government is expected to develop subordinate regulations covering state custody wallets and enforcement mechanics. Russia faces implementation challenges, including non-custodial wallet access barriers, stablecoin freezing limits, and institutional oversight risks.
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Qiddiya City, a purpose-built entertainment, sports and cultural destination covering nearly three times the area of Paris, involves more than 700 companies and 22,000 workers, with thousands of assets and complex data flowing across teams.
Microsoft 365 Copilot has been integrated into Qiddiya Investment Company’s project dashboards to help employees query data in natural language, saving time on reporting, email summarisation and document creation.
The technology also helps harmonise information across 20 different systems used by design and execution teams, simplifying tasks such as matching asset names and identifying discrepancies.
Copilot can extract insights that static dashboards miss, for example, flagging overdue invoices without engineer comments, enabling more informed decision-making.
QIC’s workforce has adopted Copilot for productivity beyond construction management, with the tool generating hundreds of thousands of emails and meeting summaries.
AlAli emphasises that careful planning and implementation are key to realising the benefits of AI at scale, underscoring how AI can provide an ‘unfair advantage’ when properly embedded into workflows for data-intensive projects.
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Swedish streaming giant Spotify reported a record 751 million monthly active users (MAUs) in the fourth quarter of 2025, an 11 per cent year-on-year increase that marks the biggest quarterly net growth in the company’s history.
The growth was led by the annual Spotify Wrapped campaign, which engaged over 300 million users and generated 630 million social media shares, as well as new free-tier features that improved discovery and user interaction.
Premium subscribers also rose 10 per cent to 290 million, helping lift total revenue to about €4.53 billion ($5.39 billion). Spotify saw gross margin expand to a record 33.1 per cent, reflecting stronger profitability driven by subscription growth and increased podcast and music ad sales, even as ad-supported revenue dipped slightly.
The surge comes as Spotify broadens its platform beyond music streaming to include podcasts, audiobooks, video content, social sharing and AI-driven features like interactive DJ tools and AI playlists.
The company expects continued user growth, forecasting 759 million MAUs and 293 million paying subscribers in the current quarter.
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Strict new rules have been introduced in India for social media platforms in an effort to curb the spread of AI-generated and deepfake material.
Platforms must label synthetic content clearly and remove flagged posts within three hours instead of allowing manipulated material to circulate unchecked. Government notifications and court orders will trigger mandatory action, creating a fast-response mechanism for potentially harmful posts.
Synthetic media has already raised concerns about public safety, misinformation and reputational harm, prompting the government to strengthen oversight of online platforms and their handling of AI-generated imagery.
The measure forms part of a broader push by India to regulate digital environments and anticipate the risks linked to advanced AI tools.
Authorities maintain that early intervention and transparency around manipulated content are vital for public trust, particularly during periods of political sensitivity or high social tension.
Platforms are now expected to align swiftly with the guidelines and cooperate with legal instructions. The government views strict labelling and rapid takedowns as necessary steps to protect users and uphold the integrity of online communication across India.
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Generative AI tools saw significant uptake among young Europeans in 2025, with usage rates far outpacing the broader population. Data shows that 63.8% of individuals aged 16–24 across the EU engaged with generative AI, nearly double the 32.7% recorded among citizens aged 16–74.
Adoption patterns indicate that younger users are embedding AI into everyday routines at a faster pace. Private use led the trend, with 44.2% of young people applying generative AI in personal contexts, compared with 25.1% of the general population.
Educational deployment also stood out, reaching 39.3% among youth, while only 9.4% of the wider population reported similar academic use.
The professional application presented the narrowest gap between age groups. Around 15.8% of young users reported workplace use of generative AI tools, closely aligned with 15.1% among the overall population- a reflection of many young people still transitioning into the labour market.
Country-level data highlights notable regional differences. Greece (83.5%), Estonia (82.8%), and Czechia (78.5%) recorded the highest youth adoption rates, while Romania (44.1%), Italy (47.2%), and Poland (49.3%) ranked lowest.
The findings coincide with Safer Internet Day, observed on 10 February, underscoring the growing importance of digital literacy and online safety as AI usage accelerates.
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Ambitions for AI were outlined during a presentation at the Jožef Stefan Institute, where Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob highlighted the country’s growing role in scientific research and technological innovation.
He argued that AI has moved far beyond a supportive research tool and is now shaping the way societies function.
He called for deeper cooperation between engineering and the natural sciences instead of isolated efforts, while stressing that social sciences and the humanities must also be involved to secure balanced development.
Golob welcomed the joint bid for a new national supercomputer, noting that institutions once competing for excellence are now collaborating. He said Europe must build a stronger collective capacity if it wants to keep pace with the US and China.
Europe may excel in knowledge, he added, yet it continues to lag behind in turning that knowledge into useful tools for society.
Government officials set out the investment increases that support Slovenia’s long-term scientific agenda. Funding for research, innovation and development has risen sharply, while work has begun on two major projects: the national supercomputer and the Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence.
Leaders from the Jožef Stefan Institute praised the government for recognising Slovenia’s AI potential and strengthening financial support.
Slovenia will present its progress at next week’s AI Action Summit in Paris, where global leaders, researchers, civil society and industry representatives will discuss sustainable AI standards.
Officials said that sustained investment in knowledge remains the most reliable route to social progress and international competitiveness.
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Google has announced a major expansion of its AI investments in Singapore, strengthening research capabilities, workforce development, and enterprise innovation as part of a long-term regional strategy.
The initiatives were unveiled at the company’s Google for Singapore event, signalling deeper alignment with the nation’s ambition to lead the AI economy.
Research and development form a central pillar of the expansion. Building on the recent launch of a Google DeepMind research lab in Singapore, the company is scaling specialised teams across software engineering, research science, and user experience design.
A new Google Cloud Singapore Engineering Centre will also support enterprises in deploying advanced AI solutions across sectors, including robotics and clean energy.
Healthcare innovation features prominently in the investment roadmap. Partnerships with AI Singapore will support national health AI infrastructure, including access to the MedGemma model to accelerate diagnostics and treatment development.
Google is also launching a security-focused AI Center of Excellence and rolling out age assurance technologies to strengthen online protections for younger users.
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The Court of Justice of the EU has ruled that WhatsApp can challenge an EDPB decision directly in European courts. Judges confirmed that firms may seek annulment when a decision affects them directly instead of relying solely on national procedures.
A ruling that reshapes how companies defend their interests under the GDPR framework.
The judgment centres on a 2021 instruction from the EDPB to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission regarding the enforcement of data protection rules against WhatsApp.
European regulators argued that only national authorities were formal recipients of these decisions. The court found that companies should be granted standing when their commercial rights are at stake.
By confirming this route, the court has created an important precedent for businesses facing cross-border investigations. Companies will be able to contest EDPB decisions at EU level rather than moving first through national courts, a shift that may influence future GDPR enforcement cases across the Union.
Legal observers expect more direct challenges as organisations adjust their compliance strategies. The outcome strengthens judicial oversight of the EDPB and could reshape the balance between national regulators and EU-level bodies in data protection governance.
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