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Microsoft announces service 'restored,' global outage over

Tech giant Microsoft said Saturday it has "restored service" to customers, effectively bringing an end to a massive outage that caused chaos and disrupted public services and business around the world.

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Microsoft says services fully restored after hourslong global outage

Microsoft said Saturday that services were fully restored after a massive outage that lasted for hours.

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Influencers, AI, addiction: EU looks to protect consumers online

The European Union on Wednesday put forward new rules to crack down on influencer marketing, ban online features that trick Europeans and force platforms to give users the right to turn off "addictive" features.

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New research highlights shortcomings in the protection of freedom of expression on social media

Who ensures that social media platforms do not restrict people's freedom of expression? The EU has introduced a system intended to strengthen users' rights when posts are removed or accounts are suspended. However, new research ...

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I don't want AI in my online search. What options do I have?

Last week, Google announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) policy for schools that use Google apps. It provides new settings for opting in or out of AI products on student accounts. Schools that reject AI in the classroom ...

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Tracing the online networks behind AI-generated nude images

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to a close this week, one University of Florida researcher is examining the roots of nudification apps, online platforms that use AI to turn images of clothed people—easily and convincingly—into ...

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How to prepare your online life for your death

What happens to all of your online accounts—credit cards, merchants, news subscriptions, social media, streaming services—after you die? How will your heirs know how to access these accounts or understand what you want done ...

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AI giants promise publishers new way to block some scraping

OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic pledged on Friday to give media outlets and other websites a single way to prevent their content from being scraped to train artificial intelligence (AI) models, amid growing criticisms ...

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Thousands of deceptive ads evade Google's safeguards

Thousands of deceptive advertisements have slipped through Google's advertising safeguards, exposing internet users to fake virus warnings, misleading software promises and potentially dangerous downloads, according to new ...

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UK probes Meta over 'exploitative' new terms for media

Britain's competition watchdog Friday opened an investigation into whether Meta was imposing "exploitative" new terms allowing it to use media content for its own products, including AI, without giving publishers adequate ...

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41,000 DHS names leaked in major hack, collective says

A nonprofit news leak group said Wednesday it has published data on more than 41,000 employees of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including those working on President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement efforts.

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Google boosts news and link visibility in AI Mode

Google announced Thursday it will start displaying links to websites and articles more prominently and higher up in search results powered by artificial intelligence (AI), as brands and news publishers warn of a sharp decline ...

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US judge sides with Meta in AI training copyright case

A US judge on Wednesday handed Meta a victory over authors who accused the tech giant of violating copyright law by training Llama artificial intelligence on their creations without permission.

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Grok shows 'flaws' in fact-checking Israel-Iran war: study

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok produced inaccurate and contradictory responses when users sought to fact-check the Israel-Iran conflict, a study said Tuesday, raising fresh doubts about its reliability as a debunking tool.

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UK aims to tackle Google dominance of online search

Britain's competition watchdog on Tuesday proposed measures aimed at tackling Google's dominance in online search, with the US tech giant warning that "punitive regulations" could impact UK economic growth.

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Dutch suggest social media ban for under-15s

The Dutch government Tuesday advised parents to forbid children under 15 from using social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat, the latest country to propose curbs over mental health concerns.

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WhatsApp introduces first major advertising features

WhatsApp announced Monday it will introduce its boldest advertising features yet, marking a significant shift for the messaging platform that has largely remained ad-free since its launch.

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Google turns internet queries into conversations

Google on Friday began letting people turn online searches into conversations, with generative artificial intelligence providing spoken summaries of query results.

Internet

Google rejects app store age verification for online content

American tech heavyweight Google on Friday reiterated its opposition to verifying the age of a device's user through the app stores built into operating systems, calling a proposal from Facebook and Instagram parent Meta ...