Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.
AB 1856 redefines an “operating system provider” to exclude open-source software from the state’s age-gating law, set to go into effect on January 1st, Tom’s Hardware reports. It follows a similar exemption added to Colorado’s age verification bill earlier this year.
He probably thinks he’s invincible at this point, but Trump is actually now wading into a place that may even (sadly) be more dangerous for him than living in the Epstein files. Data centers, like Flock cameras, are remarkably unpopular among Americans of all stripes. He always manages to wiggle out of consequences, but this will be a compelling new test of how far people will go to drink his Kool-Aid.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that a request from Pflugerville, TX, resident Sam Aly found that hundreds of unauthorized agencies were searching the city’s Flock data, even though the company claims only two agencies were improperly included. The City Council canceled Flock’s contract last week and covered its cameras.
Aly:
Between February 16 and August 15, 2026, outside agencies searched Pflugerville’s camera data 1,597,918 times. 1.6 million searches in six months. 459 different agencies searched us. That works out to roughly 8,900 outside searches per day, every day. Our own police department ran 5,078 searches in the same period. So for every 1 search by Pflugerville PD, outside agencies ran 315.
It’s the top navigation app on Apple’s and Google’s app stores after it took a stance against renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Google Maps changed the name of the Great Lake over the weekend, while Apple Maps may make the switch following the company’s chat with President Trump, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Kalshi says that in February, the former Republican congressman “placed a series of large trades in a market where the underlying contracts depended upon his own attendance” at the State of the Union. He’s now permanently banned and penalized $71,356.
In other news about everything being gambling now:
The governor on 3D-printed guns, AI and data center backlash, and who protects kids online.
In a lawsuit filed on Friday, AT&T claims Charter misuses the word “fiber” in its “Spectrum Fiber Broadband Network” service to “hide the fact that its network mainly connects to customers’ homes using copper wire:”
Charter’s 100% fiber service is available only to “select residential consumers,” according to Charter’s website. It represents a small percentage of Charter’s network… The campaign deceives consumers, distorts competition, and appropriates the goodwill that AT&T’s 100% fiber network has earned.
Reddit and Roblox have been designated “Very Large Online Platforms” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), while ChatGPT has been named a “Very Large Online Search Engine.” Those designations bring strict obligations to protect user safety, ensure transparency, and curb illegal content in the bloc. The companies now have four months to get their houses in order.
[European Commission]
Google can have its “long-standing policy,” but MapQuest is having a laugh.
In a tirade on Truth Social, the president said that NBC News’ Kristen Welker should be “reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” because she pointed out that the his prefered candidates had “mixed results” in their respective primaries.
Amidst his trade tiff with Canada, President Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. As it did when the president tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico, Google has caved to his whims, swapping in Lake America on Maps. Users in Canada will continue to see Lake Ontario. In a blog post, Google said, “These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”
Update August 30th: Added link to Google’s blog post about the change.
In July, Gabriel Perez was accused of insider trading on Kalshi and became the target of a federal investigation for placing bets on what words would be mentioned in the president’s speeches. Now the invesitgation has come to a close. The CFTC issued a release on Friday saying:
Perez must disgorge the profits he made from his unlawful trading totaling $107,539.02 and pay a civil monetary penalty of $65,000 … Under the order, a three-year trading ban is imposed on Perez.
Some banter from the tiny show I’m at in rural upstate New York tonight (lightly condensed): “Stick around for the other bands, tip your bartender, destroy Flock cameras.”
In an executive order signed today, President Trump established a commission to create a new academy to “educate and develop the next generation of leaders across the space domain.” Scant details so far, but it appears the academy would feed recruits and talent into both the Space Force and NASA.
[The White House]
TMZ first reported that the UK-born longtime right-wing internet personality was apprehended in Louisiana, and Mother Jones’ Anna Merlan (and The Verge) confirmed he’s listed in ICE custody records. In recent years, Yiannopoulos has fallen out of favor with MAGA world, and Trump ally Laura Loomer, for one, is gloating.
A notice published on the Department of Homeland Security’s website says the agency plans to spend up to $2 million on Boston Dynamics’ robot dog, as reported earlier by 404 Media. This comes just weeks after the Associated Press reported that ICE aims to spend up to $20 million on gloves that deliver electric shocks.
The executive order, which comes days after Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the US, says Trump is changing the name to honor Lake Ontario’s “flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy.”
We have reached out to Google and Apple to see if they’re going to swap Lake Ontario to Lake America in their Maps apps — as they did with the Gulf of America last year.
How is Amazon getting away with this? This isn’t a third-party seller; they’re shipped and sold by Amazon Germany. Even DJI knows the DJI Pocket 4P isn’t legal to import, but Amazon’s been offering one of the best prices to US buyers for over a week now.
I’m surprised it took this long for Nvidia to make its own PAC — something that seems like table stakes for any huge company trying to influence the US government. Well, now it’s here, according to Bloomberg. The PAC will take in voluntary contributions from employees, which is a classic way of giving big money in a distributed manner given caps on election contributions.
AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:
It’s planning to run full-page ads in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times on Thursday, according to NYT reporter Mike Isaac, on the heels of Meta’s $17 billion settlement with state AGs. Meta is using the settlement to urge its top competitors to take on similar restrictions.
