🔥 What’s next for France’s #SocialMediaBan on minors? The clock is now ticking in Brussels!
France notified its proposal to the EC, triggering a standstill until 10 July, during which the legislation should not be enacted.
🔗 technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/notificat...

Turkey’s social media ban: a familiar playbook with a troubling subtext Turkey's parliament passed a law this week banning children under 15 from social media. Platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram will be required to block account creation for unde...

The ban is framed as child safety. The effect is platform control.
Turkey’s new law bans under-15s and tightly restricts teens’ access. In a country with a record of throttling platforms during political dissent, this narrows the public square.
informationlabs.org/turkeys-soci...

March 2026 information labs recap
🔗 linkedin.com/pulse/march-...
⇒ COMING SOON: AI Tools or Gods podcast by Caroline De Cock
⇒ New interactive AI Tools, Not Gods companion
⇒ Reflections on #SocialMediaBans, #copyright, #deepfakes & EU #AI policy
⇒ Best bits from SSAI podcasts

The DNA Attempts to Rewrite BEREC’s DNA: Net Neutrality Is the Sequence It Wants to Delete? On 31 March, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) held its 14th Stakeholder Forum in Brussels. The agenda was pleasant enough: working group meet-and-greets, a session...

The regulator is becoming the rulemaker.
BEREC is shifting from interpreting #NetNeutrality to shaping how it works in practice under the Digital Networks Act. The rules may stay the same on paper, but governance changes could redefine them in reality.
👉 informationlabs.org/the-dna-atte...

🔥 Austria is also looking into a social media ban for minors, albeit under 14s!
State Secretary Alexander Pröll announced plans to ban under-14s, with a draft law expected by the end of June.
🔗 DW: www.dw.com/en/austria-p...
#SocialMediaBan #DigitalAge #AgeVerification

The Publisher Is Also a Data Broker. We Should Probably Talk About That. Consider how a library works. You walk in. You go from shelf to shelf. You borrow. Nobody keeps records of what you read, once you bring the book back, which…

The Publisher Is Also a Data Broker
Academic research didn’t just go digital — it became trackable. Platforms run by Elsevier (part of RELX) log behaviour across the research cycle.
This isn’t just publishing. It’s data extraction.
informationlabs.org/the-publishe...

You’ve Been Murdoched: Australia’s Teen Ban Offers a Warning for Europe Originally published onTech Policy Press On March 5, the European Commission convened the first closed-door meeting of its special panel on child safety online, opened by President von der Leyen herse...

Europe Is Looking to Australia’s Teen Social Media Ban as a Model
But the law passed in six days, despite opposition from mental health groups and scholars—and Australia still doesn’t know if it works.
👉 informationlabs.org/youve-been-m...
#DigitalPolicy #TechPolicy #EUPolicy #DigitalServicesAct

🔥 Concerned about #SocialMediaBans? Keep an eye out for the upcoming Council Conclusions!
A draft of the 19-20 March European Council conclusions, seen by news outlet @contexte.com, signals a willingness to promote a minimum digital age for social media access.
#AgeVerification

3 THINGS: AI Hype Cycle Edition #2 Welcome back to 3 Things, your recurring reminder that the gap between what AI companies say and what actually happens is large enough to park a data center in. This…

AI Hype Cycle Edition (2)
An AI company banned over safety rules, the same model already in military operations, and 90% of companies using AI feeling… nothing. What’s actually happening in AI?
👉 informationlabs.org/3-things-ai-...
#artificialintelligence #AIpolicy

Still in the Wrong Lake: European Copyright Society Warns How Confused Vocabulary Could Make Bad Copyright Case Law The dolphins are back. Or rather, they never left. In December, we tracked how Like Company v. Google Ireland Limited (Case C-250/25) had turned a pop star's eccentric plan to…

The EU's first AI copyright case goes to the Grand Chamber on March 10 — and the referring court can't tell a chatbot from a search engine. The ECS says: this reference may not even be admissible. Bad facts make bad law.
Still in the wrong lake. 🐬
informationlabs.org/still-in-the...

Caroline De Cock, Head of Research at Information Labs, recently joined the She Shapes AI podcast to talk about the ideas behind her book AI Tools, Not Gods. AI isn’t magic. It isn’t a god. It’s a tool — and how we frame it shapes how we use it.
🎥 youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#aitoolsnotgods #AI

Deepfakes Are Not a Copyright Problem. Stop Pretending They Are. There is a thought experiment in legal philosophy about the drunk man and the lamp post. A man loses his keys in a dark alley but searches for them under…

Deepfakes Are Not a Copyright Problem
Synthetic likeness laws won’t stop harm — they create a market for it. We already have privacy, data protection and criminal law. The gap isn’t doctrine. It’s enforcement.
informationlabs.org/deepfakes-ar...
#deepfakes #copyright

Feb 2026 information labs recap
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/februa...
⇒ New #HumansOfAI Perspectives report from the AI lab
⇒ Reflections on #SocialMediaBans, #copyright, #WebArchives & EU #AI policy
⇒ #DigitalNetworksAct feedback open
⇒ New 3 THINGS series

🔥 370+ researchers from 30 countries sound the alarm on #AgeVerification
The signatories are not asking for a delay for delay's sake. They are asking for scientific consensus before we reshape the digital public sphere for everyone, not just minors.
🔗 csa-scientist-open-letter.org/ageverif-Feb...

From blog posts to beats
Over the past months, we explored 12 ideas at information labs. Alongside each article, we released a song inspired by it. Now they’re together in one place.

🎧 suno.com/playlist/870...

Designed for Atoms, Broken for Bits: How Copyright Law is Locking Europe Out of Its Own Knowledge Imagine inheriting a magnificent library. Shelves floor to ceiling. Rare manuscripts, out-of-print novels, decades of scientific journals. You are entrusted with it not as an owner, but as a custodian...

Designed for Atoms Broken for Bits
Europe built its knowledge system for books, but in the digital world libraries no longer own what they collect. As AI depends on digital memory, the question is who controls access to knowledge and innovation.
informationlabs.org/designed-for...

Putting Culture at the Heart of AI: our new report explores AI across Europe’s cultural heritage sector — from libraries & museums to archives & digital platforms.
📥Report: informationlabs.org/wp-content/u...
🎬Videos: youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#culturalheritage #GLAM #artificialintelligence

Of Potatoes and Walls: A Generation Muted by Good Intentions Last week, I found myself sitting around a table at the Lisbon Council, surrounded by policymakers, platform executives, children’s rights advocates and researchers, all wrestling with one question th...

Of Potatoes and Walls
Europe is racing toward social media bans for children despite contested evidence — digital tech explains ~0.4% of wellbeing variation, the “potato effect.” Bans build walls, not better platforms.
informationlabs.org/of-potatoes-...

🔥 Time to share your views on the DNA: The EC has opened the feedback period on its proposed #DigitalNetworksAct!
The current deadline is 14 April 2026, but being extended until the DNA proposal is available in all EU languages.
🔗 Give your feedback: ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...

🔥 Courts work. Who knew?
A German ruling in the Meta–DT case is presented as proof that “big tech must pay for IP traffic.” Using this case as evidence that new regulatory procedures are necessary is policy spin, not legal reality. #DigitalNetworksAct
🔗 www.reuters.com/business/med...

The Quiet Burning of Our Digital Library <p>The story of the Library of Alexandria is often told as a catastrophe: flames, conquest, a single dramatic moment in which centuries of human knowledge…</p>

The Quiet Burning of Our Digital Library
The Library of Alexandria wasn’t destroyed in a single fire—it faded through neglect. Restricting web archives to fight AI risks repeating the mistake: weaken memory, and truth becomes harder to prove than the lie.
informationlabs.org/the-quiet-bu...

3 THINGS: AI Hype Cycle Edition #1 Welcome to the first edition of 3 Things – your bi-weekly reality check on what’s actually happening in AI, served with a side of skepticism...

AI Hype Cycle Edition (1)
Bots on Facebook, Claude’s manufactured existential angst, and Europe’s AI participation trophy.
What’s actually happening in AI?
👉 informationlabs.org/3-things-ai-...

European Policymakers and AI: Je T’aime… EUx Non Plus <p>Brussels has a peculiar brand of rhythm, one that sounds suspiciously like Serge Gainsbourg’s Je t’aime… moi non plus. On one hand, the European Union…</p>

Europe’s AI Policy: "Je T’aime… EUx Non Plus
Brussels says it wants a homegrown AI rival, yet backs a litigation trap that could turn €20bn AI Gigafactories into cathedrals in the desert. You don’t win a race with your hands tied.
👉 informationlabs.org/european-pol...
#AI #EUPolicy #innovation

What if AI could help us explore the web’s past, not just store it?
Kai Jauslin joins Humans of AI to discuss how AI-powered, #opensource tools are transforming web archives into public, interactive experiences.
🎧 share.transistor.fm/s/8c3fbd54
📺 youtu.be/CDRvArkmVNE
#culturalheritage

Jan 2026 information labs recap
🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/januar...
⇒ Get a free digital copy of “AI Tools, Not Gods” & join the 10 Feb online book talk
⇒ internet lab reflections on #DigitalNetworksAct & #SocialMediaBans
⇒ new #HumansofAI episodes
⇒ AI lab reflection on #PublicDomain

The Leather-Wrapped Village: Why Social Media Bans Miss the Point <p>The leather-wrapped village is expanding. Australia just tried to wrap the world in leather, and now France has taken its first major step to join…</p>

Why Social Media Bans Are Leather-Wrapping the World
Banning social media won’t protect kids. Teach digital literacy & emotional skills instead—give them the shoes, not a leather-wrapped world.
👉 informationlabs.org/the-dnas-vol...

What if AI could help humanity make better climate decisions?
@derasmus.bsky.social, founder of Climate GPT, discusses open, science-grounded AI for climate policy, risk awareness, and a faster path to a carbon-neutral future.
🎧 share.transistor.fm/s/cb960d76
📺 youtu.be/kcKB1WPD3L4

🔥 Move over Brangelina, we have entered the #Melzoni Era
The new love language between Berlin and Rome appears to be "Legislative and regulatory self-restraint"
Is this the dawn of a streamlined, deregulation dream team, or just the honeymoon phase?
🔗 www.governo.it/sites/govern...

The DNA’s “Voluntary” Counseling: How to Ruin a Happy Marriage…and the Internet <p>Picture a happy marriage. It might not be flawless, but it is functional. You have found your rhythm where chores are divided, bills are paid,…</p>

Europe is installing a state-mandated marriage counselor in the internet’s kitchen.
Nothing is broken — but disputes are now encouraged.The DNA’s “voluntary conciliation” is policy gaslighting.
👉 informationlabs.org/the-dnas-vol...
#netneutrality #openinternet #EUpolicy

🔥The #DigitalNetworksAct is here. Is #NetNeutrality safe, or is the "Fair Share" debate back?
The fine print suggests the network fee battle is far from over.
🔗 www.linkedin.com/posts/inform...
#FairShare #NetworkFees