Social Media

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has been slapped with a €91 million fine after inadvertently storing some users' passwords in plain text. Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Friday announced its final decision in an inquiry launched in April 2019.

The European Commission has launched investigations into Google owner Alphabet, Apple and Meta under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The non-compliance investigations announced yesterday will scrutinise Alphabet's rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing on Google Search, Apple's rules

Dozens of US states have come together to launch legal proceedings against Meta, alleging that its Instagram and Facebook platforms are harmful to children and teenagers – which Meta denies. A federal lawsuit has been filed in northern California by a coalition of 33 attorneys general, while e

The European Union has reached political agreement on landmark new legislation aimed at addressing "systemic misbehaviour" among so-called Big Tech companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) will blacklist certain practices used by large platforms acting as &

Ireland's data protection watchdog has imposed a €450,000 fine on Twitter following a landmark inquiry regarding a data breach. The Data Protection Commission found that the social media giant infringed Article 33(1) and 33(5) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in terms of a fa

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland has launched statutory inquiries into practices at tech companies Google and Tinder. The watchdog said it had received complaints from consumer organisations across the EU in relation to Google's processing of location data and transparency surrounding

A lack of real competition to tech giants Google and Facebook could mean people are already missing out on the next new idea from a potential rival, the Competition and Markets Authority has said in a new report. Furthermore, the market position of Google and Facebook may potentially be undermi

Social media giants Google, Facebook and Twitter must take "serious further steps" to tackle disinformation on their platforms by the end of the year, the European Commission has warned. If the platforms fail to improve their record by year-end, the Commission has said it may introduce "regulatory o

The UK government has proposed the creation of an independent regulator as part of a series of measures to ensure social media companies and tech firms keep their users safe, including possible liability for individual members of senior management. The measures are set out in the Online Harms White

International law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has assisted a children's charity to develop proposals for the statutory regulation of social media companies. The NSPCC is campaigning in favour of a new "social media regulator" which could issue fines of up to £20 million to social media compan