The European Parliament has voted not to prolong an interim derogation from e-Privacy rules that allows online service providers to voluntarily detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and grooming. Meaning this essential safeguard set to expire on 3 April 2026. This decision is deeply concerning for child protection.
Universities play a significant, if often obscured, role in the development, perpetuation and expansion of Fortress Europe, says the Transnational Institute report.
For a decade, ‘Apple Engineering’ was a masterclass in planned obsolescence. Now the new Neo is the most repairable Mac in 15 years. This is not due to some sudden surge of corporate altruism — the Neo exists because of a hard deadline: 31 July 2026.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime is testing a “sovereign internet” following the Chinese and Iranian model and is preparing a system of total censorship for cases of public discontent.
The EU has spent the last five years building the most ambitious digital regulatory framework on earth. It has regulated platforms, algorithms, AI models, political advertising, environmental claims, and data brokers. It has legal definitions for “very large online platforms” and “general purpose AI models.” But it doesn’t have one for “influencer” – and that’s an interesting oversight.
The EU restricts biometric surveillance at home – but its landmark AI Act does nothing to prevent European companies from exporting the same technology abroad.
As the clock is running out on the current rules, MEP vote for substantive changes to the controversial chat-scanning measures while agreeing to extend the temporary rules for fighting child sexual abuse material online.
MEPs on Tuesday called for greater transparency and payment for copyrighted works used in AI technology — and legal consequences for violations.
The political content on the social media feeds of young adults is mainly comprised of sensational, unverifiable, opinion-based and mostly rightwing content, according to a new study from Helsinki-based think tank Sitra, published on Tuesday.
![EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič outlined how “more than 40 percent of our €51bn in services trade [with canada] is delivered digitally.”](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/03/P-069102_00-10_02-HIGH-285994.jpg)
The commissioned announced Friday, that the EU and Canada have begun to negotiate a so-called ‘Digital Trade Agreement’, with the aim of boosting legal certainty and fair digital trade across the Atlantic.
A major digital rights NGO found serious differences between the EU Commission’s proposed changes to the bloc’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation — and what data professionals in the field really want altering.
Donald Trump is inspiring European states to consider how to avoid the omnipresent services of US tech giants in everyday life.
TikTok removed 112 million pieces of content – mainly with automated systems – that violated the platform’s policies in the EU between July and December 2025, according to the platform’s latest Digital Services Act transparency report.
‘We are not yet seeing the waves of redundancies that are feared’, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said, but stressed Europe was benefitting for AI-productivity gains on a par with the US and China.
Thierry Breton spoke to the European Parliament on Wednesday, where MEPs expressed their solidarity and reaffirmed their support for the EU’s Digital rulebook.
The open letter on Wednesday from NGOs Corporate Europe Observatory, Transparency International and five other organisations argues Finnish centre-right MEP Aura Salla’s ties to Meta constitute an irreconcilable conflict of interest in the digital file.
Usually, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s Facebook posts earn him an endless stream of insults, cynical comments and worse. But this time it was different.
The European Data Protection Board, along with 60 other data protection authorities around the globe, have called for safeguards on AI content-generators, especially regarding non-consensual AI imagery.
The EU needs to regulate smartly if it wants to have a real impact. Because globally, the US and China — the two biggest AI players — are not regulating AI use.
Many EU member states are working on social media bans individually, before any EU-wide measure — but is banning social media, only for kids, and one country at a time, the best move?
