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#online-harms

European Parliament hemicycle, Strasbourg — Photo: jeffowenphotos, CC BY 2.0

Policy Watch|European Union

EU AI Act: a ban on AI that makes non-consensual sexual deepfakes applies from 2 December; high-risk rules are pushed to December 2027

The ‘Digital Omnibus on AI’, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, has been in force since 27 July. It adds a new prohibition on AI practices that generate non-consensual sexual or intimate content and child sexual abuse material, applying from 2 December 2026, and sets the same date as the deadline for older generative systems to mark synthetic content. It fixes the delayed start of the high-risk rules at 2 December 2027 (listed uses such as hiring, schooling and biometrics) and 2 August 2028 (AI in regulated products).

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Riverside House, Bankside, London, Ofcom’s headquarters — Photo: Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0

Policy Watch|World

UK age checks: Ofcom has fined three porn sites for failing to verify ages and is now investigating Pornhub, TikTok and Meta

Ofcom’s 15 October Online Safety bulletin lists fines of £630,000 (fapello.com), £730,000 (Xgroovy.com) and £80,000 (First Time Videos) for failing to use ‘highly effective age assurance’, provisional decisions against four more providers, and open investigations into Pornhub’s owner Aylo, TikTok and, from October, Meta over Instagram’s ‘Instants’. Ofcom is also assessing what age checks would work for a planned under-16 social media ban.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
Elbert P. Tuttle U.S. Court of Appeals Building (Eleventh Circuit), Atlanta — Photo: Warren LeMay, CC0

Accountability|United States

11th Circuit vacates injunction blocking Georgia’s social-media age-verification law

In NetChoice v. Attorney General of Georgia (No. 25-12436, filed 15 October 2026), a three-judge panel held that NetChoice failed its facial First Amendment burden under Moody, and failed on vagueness and § 230 preemption. The panel vacated the Northern District of Georgia’s preliminary injunction against SB 351 and remanded. The law’s age checks, parental consent under 16, and minor-ad targeting limits can be enforced while the case continues.

Daily Teabag Desk·Centre
The Rolls Building, Royal Courts of Justice, London — Photo: Muhammad Karns, CC BY-SA 4.0

Accountability|European Union

Meta takes Ofcom’s Category 1 Instagram/WhatsApp labels to the Upper Tribunal

In mid-September 2026 Meta served an appeal against Ofcom’s Category 1 designation of Instagram and WhatsApp under the UK Online Safety Act — joining a wave of platform challenges Ofcom told Lords peers it faces in a “highly litigious environment.”

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