A deal is being struck that would allow an investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz to control TikTok’s US operations. The investors will hold roughly 80% of a new company that will operate TikTok. The new company’s board will be composed of a majority of American directors – including one designated by the US government. Under the deal, Oracle will handle user data at its facilities in Texas. The terms of the deal are not finalized and still subject to change. Concerns are rising that under the deal, TikTok may become a platform for American state-run social media. 

YouTube is using AI for age verification by inferring a user’s age, regardless of the birthday in the account. The inference comes from a variety of “signals,” including the types of videos a user is searching for, the categories of videos they have watched, and the longevity of the account. The Center for Democracy & Technology warns that age verification requirements raise serious privacy and freedom of expression concerns. 

There is a growing practice of using large language models for content moderation. A report by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law found that LLM content moderation tools exacerbate discrimination, censorship, and surveillance and are potentially harmful for non-dominant languages in the Global Majority. There is also a risk posed by having a small number of foundational LLMs dictate global online speech norms, thereby creating an “algorithmic monoculture.” Community-led content moderation initiatives that focus on public-interest driven AI development, culturally informed moderation, and decentralization are better options.