Microsoft says that it has completed a multi-year project to allow Europe-based customers using its cloud services to store and process data in the EU. The project, the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud, began in January 2023, went on for two more years, and finally wrapped up this February, Microsoft said. With its [β¦]
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A change requiring app developers to disclose their address, phone number, and email information to consumers has gone live on the App Store within the European Union. Apple on Tuesday announced it has removed any EU apps that havenβt yet complied with the Digital Services Act (DSA), a regulation that had added a requirement in [β¦]
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The European Union has been a huge pain for Meta over the years as it's faced billions of dollars in fines from its regulators.
The Facebook owner may now have a new weapon in its artillery to defend itself from future enforcement abroad: President Donald Trump.
Meta's chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan told a panel of European policymakers that the company would not shy away from letting Trump know when it felt that it had been discriminated against by the EU. He suggested Trump may step in to help out.
"President Trump has made clear since he's taken office that he is going to defend US companies and US business abroad, and particularly if he feels that US companies have been treated unfairly," Kaplan said, speaking on Sunday at the Munich Security Conference.
"What he decides to do about it is clearly up to him, but I don't think we're going to shy away from saying when we think that the enforcement of these laws is being directed at us in a way that goes beyond what the parliament passed and what the institutions passed," Kaplan said.
Meta has faced massive fines by EU regulators in recent years. In 2023, the company was hit with a β¬1.2 billion fine (around $1.3 billion) from Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which said it failed to comply with a data privacy requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. Meta said it would appeal the ruling.
In 2024, the European Commission levied a roughly β¬798 million (almost $840 million) fine against the company, alleging it created unfair trading conditions by connecting Facebook Marketplace to its social platform. Meta said it would appeal the decision, and in February, it announced it would allow rival classified ads providers to post on Marketplace.
Kaplan's comments arrive at a moment of change at Meta, which owns social apps like Facebook and Instagram, as well as the messaging platform Whatsapp. Since Trump was elected, the company tapped Kaplan, who previously served as a Republican strategist, to serve in its top policy role, replacing Nick Clegg.
Meta also adjusted its approach to content moderation in the wake of Trump's victory, announcing plans to replace third-party fact-checkers with user-generated community notes, similar to what's been implemented by Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter. Kaplan addressed that shift in his discussion on Sunday.
"People do have different perspectives about what's misinformation and what's not," he said. "The approach that we're adopting going forward and starting in the US this year is to use the diverse voices that exist on our platform to assess what they're seeing and provide additional information."
When reached for comment, a Meta spokesperson directed Business Insider to a press release about Kaplan's appearance. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
US Vice President JD Vance has warned Europe not to adopt βoverly precautionaryβ regulations on artificial intelligence as the US and the UK refused to join dozens of other countries in signing a declaration to ensure that the technology is βsafe, secure and trustworthy.β
The two countries held back from signing the communique agreed by about 60 countries at the AI Action summit in Paris on Tuesday as Vance vowed that the US would remain the dominant force in the technology.
βThe Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the US, with American-designed and manufactured chips,β Vance told an audience of world leaders and tech executives at the summit.
Ludovic MARIN / AFP
Vice President JD Vance warned that excessive regulation of AI could "kill" its development, criticizing Europe's regulation-heavy approach on its own turf.
Speaking at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Vance warned against Europe's "self-conscious" and "risk averse" approach to AI.
The moment was closely watched as his first overseas speech since taking office.
His audience included top European leaders like France's President Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, the top official of the EU.
"It would mean paralyzing one of the most promising technologies we have seen in generations," said Vance of overregulation, citing benefits in fields such as economic innovation, job creation, national security, healthcare, and free expression.
Vance continued: "We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off, and we'll make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies."
He said that the Trump administration would focus on building AI systems in the US, with chips designed and made there.
To spread those advances internationally, he said, other countries needed to cut their regulations.
"To create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it, and we need our European friends, in particular, to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation," he said.
He went on to warn against new regulations on US tech firms.
"The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on US tech companies with international footprints," he said.
"Now, America cannot and will not accept that, and we think it's a terrible mistake, not just for the United States of America, but for your own countries."
Vance's speech contrasted with the Biden administration's AI policies, which attempted to provide a regulatory framework for the technology that more closely resembled Europe's approach.
Critics say regulations need to be comprehensive to address concerns that AI could wipe out jobs, or even pose a risk to humanity itself.
AI proponents say it could supercharge economies and help Western countries compete with an ascendant China.
Shortly after taking office, Donald Trump announced the Stargate Project, a $500 billion project to develop US AI infrastructure, and struck down a Biden executive order on regulating AI.
The EU is seeking to introduce a "code of practice" for advanced AI models to address concerns over possible misuse. US firms including Google have criticized that approach.
The EU has long clashed with US tech firms, issuing strict rules on data and privacy, levying large fines and seeking to raise taxes.
As the AI Summit got underway in Paris on Monday, some 60 European companies βΒ from incumbent industrial giants to AI startups (including Franceβs large language model maker Mistral) β signed up to an initiative to help establish Europe as a leader in AI. But the fact that they felt the need to sign up at [β¦]
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OpenAI on Thursday launched data residency in Europe, allowing European organizations to meet local data sovereignty requirements while using the AI companyβs products. Data residency refers to the physical location of an organizationβs data, as well as the local laws and policy requirements imposed on that data. Most tech giants and cloud providers offer European [β¦]
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How do Apple, porn, and Donald Trump end up in the same story?
Glad you asked. It's a tiny bit complicated, but I'm here to serve.
Big picture: Apple is complaining about a porn app that's now available on iPhones, against its wishes, because of European regulations it hates.
Those regulations are among the many complaints Big Tech companies have about the way Europe treats them. And they're hoping that Trump, their newfound ally, will fight back against them β maybe using the same tariff/threat strategy he has been employing against Canada, Mexico, and China.
The details: Apple is grousing about Hot Tub, a new app available to iPhone users in the European Union. You can't get it from Apple's own app store, but it's available from AltStore, an alternative app store that lets users "sideload" apps to their phones. AltStore works because of new EU regulations β bitterly opposed by Apple β that allow for third-party app stores.
On the porn part: I haven't used Hot Tub myself, but from what I understand, it lets you β¦ look at porn. Just like anyone with an iPhone can already do using Apple's Safari browser.
But Apple thinks there's a big distinction since Apple (like Google) has long banned porn apps from the app store it runs. And it's particularly upset that Hot Tub and AltStore have suggested that the new app is "Apple-approved." (The distinction: Though Apple hates the new third-party app stores it has to work with, it still gets to conduct basic supervision of the apps that show up in app stores like AltStore. In Apple's eyes, signing off on an app for someone else's app store is very different from approving it for its own app store.)
All of this comes as a result of a drawn-out fight involving Apple and a handful of developers, including Epic Games, that have complained about Apple's app store rules and EU regulators. I've written about this β and the importance of the App Store to Apple's overall business β a bunch. I'd also suggest reading Shira Ovide's excellent plain-English explainer in The Washington Post.
And the reason Trump comes into play is that rules about the way Apple works with app developers are one of many things Big Tech companies hate about European regulations. (US lawmakers, meanwhile, spent years promising to regulate Big Tech themselves but have largely left it alone: Almost all attempts at Big Tech regulation have instead come from lawsuits filed or threatened by Trump's and Joe Biden's administrations.) They've been making it clear to Trump that they'd like him to do something about it. It's certainly not a coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg, who made a dramatic and vocal pivot into Trumpdom last month, now calls European tech rules "almost like a tariff."
Message received. Last month, Trump used a Davos speech to complain about European fines and regulations aimed at Big Tech. This week, in the middle of tariff threats/negotiations with Mexico and Canada, he suggested that he'd be turning his attention to Europe shortly.
That doesn't necessarily mean American tech companies will get what they want. Trump will have a long list of concessions he'll want out of Europe, and it's entirely unclear what he'll prioritize and what, if anything, he'll get.
But you should still connect the dots between porn apps and potential EU tariffs β because Big Tech companies certainly are.
President Donald Trump isnβt happy with how European Union regulators have treated U.S.-based tech companies, including Google, Meta, and Apple. Onstage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump put EU regulators on blast. He said that the EUβs cases against these U.S. tech companies are βa form of taxation,β according to Bloomberg reporting. Trump [β¦]
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Brussels has ordered Elon Musk to fully disclose recent changes made to recommendations on X, stepping up an investigation into the role of the social media platform in European politics.
The expanded probe by the European Commission, announced on Friday, requires X to hand over internal documents regarding its recommendation algorithm. The Commission also issued a βretention orderβ for all relevant documents relating to how the algorithm could be amended in future.
In addition, the EU regulator requested access to information on how the social media network moderates and amplifies content.
Β© \FT montage/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Are superheroes and supervillains the product of their childhood experiences? Not if they belong to the Marvel Cinematic Extended Universe or DC Universe, according to a new paper published in the journal PLoS ONE. Canadian researchers watched many hours of those movies and looked at which characters suffered considerable childhood trauma. They concluded that those traumatic experiences were not significant factors in whether those characters turned out to be heroes or villains.
Prior studies have looked at the portrayal of trauma in superheroes, most notably the murder of Batman's parents and Spider-Man's uncle, as well as the destruction of Superman's home planet, Krypton. There has also been research on children sustaining injuries while pretending to be superheroes, as well as on the potential for superhero themes to help children overcome trauma and build self-esteem.
According to co-author Jennifer Jackson of the University of Calgary in Canada, two nursing students (since graduated) came up with the idea during a lab meeting to look at adverse childhood experiences and superheroes. It might seem a bit frivolous as a topic, but Jackson pointed out that Marvel and DC films reach audiences of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. "We also know that things we see in films and other media affects life in the real world," she said. "This influence could be used as a positive factor when supporting children's mental health and wellbeing. There may be shame or fear associated with some of the ACEs, and superheroes may be an effective ice breaker when broaching some difficult topics."
Β© Warner Bros,
Daredevil is among my favorite stories in the Netflix Defenders universeβalong with Jessica Jonesβin large part because Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin, played to perfection by Vincent D'Onofrio), was such an incredibly complex and even occasionally sympathetic villain in the first and second seasons. I'm far from alone in this assessment, which explains why it was such a blow to fans when Netflix canceled the critically acclaimed Daredevil (and the rest of its Defenders series) in 2018, despite the showrunners' plans for a fourth season.
Charlie Cox's titular vigilante hero has since made a couple of cameos in other Marvel projects, most notably as a one-night stand for Tatiana Maslany's She-Hulk in 2022. That kept hope alive that Daredevil might be revived and/or re-imagined. The hope has paid off because Marvel Studios just released a trailer for the new nine-episode series Daredevil: Born Again. And the studio has already confirmed a second season as part of the MCU's Phase Five.
D'Onofrio's Fisk (who also appeared in the limited series Echo and Hawkeye) is back, of course. Per the official premise: "Murdock, a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course."
Β© Marvel Studios
Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ryanair, the world's third-largest airline by passengers, is calling on authorities to limit the sale of alcoholic beverages at airports.
The Irish airline wants airports to restrict the sale of alcohol in departure areas to two drinks per passenger in a bid to limit the number of incidents involving rowdy, intoxicated passengers.
Ryanair said in a statement Monday that some people consume excessive amounts of alcohol in airport bars particularly when flights are delayed.
"We fail to understand why passengers at airports are not limited to 2 alcoholic drinks (using their boarding pass in exactly the same way they limit duty free sales), as this would result in safer and better passenger behaviour on board aircraft, and a safer travel experience for passengers and crews all over Europe," Ryanair said.
The airline included the statement in a press release giving more details about a civil lawsuit it recently announced it was pursuing against a former passenger.
It says the passenger was so disruptive on an April 2024 flight from Dublin to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands that the flight was diverted to Porto, Portugal, where the passenger was arrested.
It's pursuing the civil suit to recover costs over the incident, which the airline says totaled more than $15,000.
In the statement Monday, it gave a more detailed breakdown of the costs it said it faced, saying that as a result of the disruption and regulations on staff working hours, the airline had to fund accommodations and meals for six crew members and 160 passengers to spend the night in Porto. It said it also provided an additional aircraft and crew to operate the return flight from Lanzarote to Dublin, which was also delayed.
The airline says overall costs came to 15,350 euros, or nearly $15,750 at today's exchange rate, including 7,000 euros on passenger and crew overnight accommodation, 2,500 euros on landing and handling fees at Porto Airport, and 2,500 euros on Portuguese legal fees to date.
"None of these costs would have been incurred if this disruptive passenger had not forced a diversion to Porto in order to protect the safety of the aircraft, 160 passengers and 6 crew members on board," a spokesperson from the European budget airlines said.
"It's time for THE charger," the European Commission posted to X on December 28, 2024. While the sentiment only applies to one continent (and not all of it) and only certain devices, the Common Charger Directive now in effect in the European Union suggests that far fewer gadgets will foist barrels, USB-micro, or proprietary plugs onto their owners.
The Common Charger Directive demands that a "USB-C receptacle" be equipped on "radio equipment" that is "equipped with a removable or embedded rechargeable battery" and "can be recharged via wired charging." If it has a battery and can be powered by up to 240 watts through a USB-C connection, it's generally subject to the EU's USB-C requirements. The directive applies to devices "placed on the market"βsent to a distributor or buyerβafter December 28, even if they were initially designed and sold before that date.
Laptops get until April 2026 to comply, but most other thingsβphones, tablets, handheld gaming devices, computer accessories, and wireless headphonesβwill have to be powered by USB-C to be sold inside the EU from now on. Drones, for the time being, are largely unaddressed by the directive, but the EU will likely get around to them.
Β© Getty Images
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US President-elect Donald Trump said he has told the European Union it must purchase a large quantity of US oil and gas, or he will impose tariffs on the trading bloc.
"I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
The EU and US have long maintained deep economic ties, but in recent years, the balance of trade has tilted in Europe's favor. In 2022, the overall US goods and services trade deficit with the EU was $131.3 billion.
While the US imports more goods in the trade partnership than the EU, the reverse is true for services.
In 2023, the US exported β¬396.4 billion ($411.5 billion) of services to the EU, while importing β¬292.4 billion ($303.5 billion) β a US surplus of β¬104 billion ($107 billion), according to EU figures.
"The EU and US have deeply integrated economies, with overall balanced trade and investment," Olof Gill, a European Commission spokesperson, told Business Insider.
"We are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector," he added.
"The message is clear: the European Union is committed to continue working with the United States, pragmatically, to strengthen transatlantic ties," European Council President AntΓ³nio Costa told reporters following a meeting of the European Council on Thursday.
Trump made tariffs central to his reelection campaign, suggesting a blanket 10% tariff on goods from all countries. It is still uncertain which policies he will introduce once in office.
The US is one of the EU's largest trading partners, particularly for industries like automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and luxury goods.
Individual countries like Germany, whose stuttering auto market depends heavily on imports to the US, would be particularly hard hit by renewed tariffs.
The pressure of potential tariffs comes as the eurozone struggles with sluggish economic growth and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The bloc expanded by 0.2% in the most recent quarter, compared to 0.7% growth in the US.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Trump's proposed tariff plans pose more uncertainty to the US economy in the coming year.
"We don't know what will be tariffed, from what countries, for how long, in what size. We don't know whether there'll be retaliatory tariffs. We don't know what the transmission of any of that will be into consumer prices," Powell told reporters.
The European Commission did not reply immediately to a request for comment from Business Insider.
MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
Last month, an underwater data cable between Finland and Germany and another between Lithuania and Sweden were discovered cut within a day of each other. The damage to the cables, which European officials said appeared deliberate, highlights just how vulnerable these critical undersea lines are.
Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-flagged cargo ship that had departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port in the Gulf of Finland three days before and was tracked loitering near the two locations, is suspected in connection with the incident. It is said to have dragged an anchor over 100 miles, damaging the cables.
Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP
"No one believes that these cables were accidentally cut," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in November. "We have to assume it is sabotage," he added.
In a joint statement with his Finnish counterpart, Pistorius said the damage comes at a time when "our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors."
As Russia received added scrutiny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement in the incident, saying that "it is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason."
In recent years, a string of incidents involving damage to underwater infrastructure has occurred, many of them in the same region.
Last year, Newnew Polar Bear, another Chinese cargo ship, damaged a gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland. China's investigation concluded the damage was accidental; however, Estonia and Finland's investigation is still ongoing.
In 2022, a Norwegian underwater data cable was damaged, and there were indications of human involvement in that incident. In 2021, a 2.5-mile-long section of another data cable disappeared from waters north of Norway.
The incident that received the most attention, though, was the sabotage of the Nord Steam gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in September 2022. There have been indications that Ukrainian elements might have been behind the sabotage, but this has not been confirmed.
Danish Defence Command
Underwater infrastructure is increasingly critical to modern life. The vast majority of internet traffic passes through underwater fiber-optics cables, and underwater energy pipelines are common in many regions. But protecting this infrastructure, which can stretch for hundreds or thousands of miles, is difficult.
"There's no way that we can have NATO presence alone all these thousands of kilometers of undersea, offshore infrastructure," then-NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg said in 2023. Yet, NATO can be better at collecting and sharing information and intelligence "and connecting the dots," he added.
Indeed, NATO and the European Union are trying to do that.
In May this year, NATO held its first Critical Undersea Infrastructure Network meeting and launched its Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure to better coordinate the capabilities of its members and increase collaboration between them.
Further, the EU is funding several initiatives to develop uncrewed surface and underwater systems to surveil critical areas and detect threats early.
But there are also legal difficulties to protecting underwater infrastructure, as it usually traverses the territorial waters of several countries and can also pass through international waters.
Although it can often be difficult to establish a culprit whenever such infrastructure is damaged, officials have pointed out that Russian activity near underwater cables has intensified.
In 2017, the US admiral in charge of NATO's submarine forces said the alliance was "seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don't believe we have ever seen."
The war in Ukraine has added another dimension to this matter.
"There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life, to gain leverage against those nations that are providing security to Ukraine," David Cattler, NATO's intelligence chief, said last year.
LPhot Kyle Heller/UK MOD
Russia has developed a number of underwater capabilities and has a specialized unit, the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, committed to the task.
GUGI, as the operation is also known, is an elite Russian unit that employs specialized surface and underwater vessels capable of underwater sabotage and surveillance. Yantar, one of GUGI's special-purpose spy vessels, which nominally acts as a survey vessel, has often been spotted near underwater cables.
Furthermore, a joint investigation released in 2023 by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland discovered that Russia, over the past decade, employed a fleet of 50 boats β masking as research or commercial vessels β to gather intelligence on allied underwater cables and wind farms in the Nordic region.
"When you look at the evidence of their activities now, the places they are doing surveys, overlaid with this critical undersea infrastructure β¦ you can see that they are at least signaling that they have the intent and the capability to take action in this domain if they choose," Cattler said.
Subscribers to OpenAIβs ChatGPT Pro and Plus plans will get access to Sora, OpenAIβs video generator, starting today β but only if they live in certain countries. During a livestream Monday afternoon, OpenAI revealed key information about Sora, including technical details. The version launching today, called Sora Turbo, can generate clips between 5 seconds and [β¦]
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