Media and Telecom Sector

Meta faces a landmark federal trial in Oakland, California, where 29 state attorneys general accuse the tech giant of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and teenagers. Lawyers representing California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey argued that Meta prioritized engagement and advertising revenue over youth safety, pointing to internal documents indicating the company knew its platforms harmed adolescent mental health. The lawsuit alleges Meta violated federal and state laws, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, by collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent. Plaintiffs are seeking up to $1.4 trillion in penalties alongside mandatory product redesigns to remove features like infinite scroll and recommendation algorithms. Meta denies all allegations, maintaining that its research does not support claims of addiction and that the company has implemented robust safety protections for young users.

The Walt Disney Company and ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission in federal court on Tuesday, alleging that the agency's demand for early television license renewals violates the First Amendment. The lawsuit seeks to halt the accelerated review process, which covers eight Disney-owned stations originally scheduled for renewal between 2028 and 2031. ABC's 45-page complaint characterizes the regulatory action as a retaliatory campaign intended to punish the network for editorial content and viewpoints the administration dislikes. The FCC ordered the accelerated review in April, linking the move to an ongoing investigation into the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. That directive followed public calls from President Donald Trump for late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke about first lady Melania Trump. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has maintained that the early license review is unrelated to First Amendment matters and focuses strictly on Disney's DEI practices under the Communications Act of 1934. ABC previously submitted its early renewal applications under protest, stating in May filings that it was responding to an unlawful and unconstitutional order. The network argues that if the administration succeeds in coercing its programming choices, every media company in the country will face pressure to broadcast only stories deemed favorable by the government.

TikTok is developing a peer-to-peer payment feature within its messaging app, as revealed by internal code discovered in the U.S. version of its iPhone application. The planned tool would rely on TikTok Pay, an existing financial service infrastructure that already operates in Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand to settle transactions on TikTok Shop. Users would be able to send money with attached messages and accept funds through a tap-to-accept mechanism, functioning similarly to established platforms like Venmo. Although code references indicate early development, TikTok stated that the feature is not currently undergoing active testing and has not committed to an official public launch timeline. This financial push mirrors parent company ByteDance's broader strategy to transform the platform into a comprehensive super app, following earlier moves to secure fintech authorization in Brazil and expand e-commerce offerings. The potential entry into digital payments places TikTok in direct competition with money transfer services and positions it alongside platforms like X, which recently introduced its own financial app features. Meanwhile, the expansion brings significant operational hurdles, requiring compliance with strict anti-money laundering controls and data privacy regulations while ByteDance simultaneously manages heavy capital expenditures for artificial intelligence infrastructure.