Wait, the Trump phone might actually exist
Wait, the Trump phone might actually exist

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This week I think I’ve found an FCC listing for the phone, showing it’s received certification to launch in the US. Last week I issued a reminder that Trump Mobile’s […]

Returning from a humanitarian aid trip to Cuba, Americans have phones seized at US airport
Returning from a humanitarian aid trip to Cuba, Americans have phones seized at US airport

Members of a convoy that delivered humanitarian aid to Cuba were detained and interrogated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) upon returning to the United States on a charter flight from Havana. Of the 20 US citizens who were pulled for secondary inspection at Miami International Airport on Wednesday morning, 18 had their phones and […]

Meta’s court losses could be just the beginning
Meta’s court losses could be just the beginning

Social media companies have long seemed impervious to legal threats. Meta, YouTube, Snap, and the rest have long waved off criticism of their platforms on free speech and Section 230 grounds. But twice this week, juries rendered verdicts against the platforms, not because of some bad videos but because of the design and structure of […]

Brendan Carr says his broadcast license threat wasn’t really about Iran war coverage
Brendan Carr says his broadcast license threat wasn’t really about Iran war coverage

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr never meant to threaten broadcast licenses over their coverage of the war in Iran, he told reporters after an event hosted by FGS and Semafor. “My comments weren’t actually on the Iran war,” Carr said in response to a question from The Verge about his statement regarding coverage of […]

David Sacks is no longer the White House AI and Crypto Czar
David Sacks is no longer the White House AI and Crypto Czar

David Sacks, the venture capitalist and tech billionaire who’d become Silicon Valley’s primary advocate inside the White House and a key architect of its aggressive AI policy initiatives, revealed on Thursday that he was no longer a special government employee – and therefore no longer President Donald Trump’s Special Advisor on AI and Crypto. Sacks’ […]

Everyone hates Ticketmaster. Why’d Trump go easy on them?
Everyone hates Ticketmaster. Why’d Trump go easy on them?

Today on Decoder, we’re talking about the major antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, and what it might mean for antitrust and competition law in general now that the Justice Department under Trump has decided to settle its part of the case. That’s even as many states — including New York, California, and Texas — carry […]

Senators are pushing to find out how much electricity data centers actually use
Senators are pushing to find out how much electricity data centers actually use

On Thursday, senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) asking it to collect “comprehensive, annual energy-use disclosures” on data centers and make that information publicly available, as first reported by Wired. They’re urging the agency to “establish a mandatory annual reporting requirement for data centers,” […]

EU backs nude app ban and delays to landmark AI rules 
EU backs nude app ban and delays to landmark AI rules 

European lawmakers have voted to delay key parts of the EU AI Act, the bloc’s flagship law for regulating artificial intelligence, while also backing proposals to ban nudify apps. The measures, approved by a large majority in the European Parliament, would push back compliance deadlines for developers of high-risk AI systems – those deemed to […]

Can you monitor a situation without monitors? The Polymarket sports bar tried
Can you monitor a situation without monitors? The Polymarket sports bar tried

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge readers who are political junkies, and Washington insiders hooked on technology. If this email has been forwarded to you but you’re not a subscriber, sign up here so you can get that pure, uncut Regulator every Wednesday, straight from the source (aka me). I was taking […]

Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case
Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case

The jury in a landmark trial testing claims about social media addiction against Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube determined that the two companies failed to warn users about the risks of using their products. The jury found the companies’ negligence was a substantial factor in harms like the mental health issues sustained by a now […]