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Google has announced new rules that will require election ads created with artificial intelligence (AI) to carry a clear disclosure. As concerns grow about the ease of creating and spreading deceptive information online with AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, the policy comes ahead of the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. Starting mid-November, election advertisers must disclose if their ads contain digitally altered or generated content that does not depict real events. This step aims to promote responsible political advertising and provide voters with the transparency needed to make informed decisions.

Crab fishermen in Alaska face significant challenges as crab populations in the Bering Sea have drastically declined in recent years. The red king crab fishery has been closed, and the snow crab fishery has been severely limited. The collapse in crab populations is believed to be connected to rising ocean temperatures and altered ecosystems due to climate change. Fishermen are experiencing financial hardships and are forced to find alternative sources of income, such as working as salmon tenders. The future of the crab fishing industry remains uncertain as researchers continue to investigate the causes of the collapse and determine appropriate catch limits.

Bandana, a startup co-founded by CEO Timothy Makalinao, has secured $3.8 million in seed funding to develop a platform aimed at helping hourly wage workers find higher-paying jobs with benefits. The platform aims to connect job seekers with employers offering above-minimum-wage salaries, health insurance, paid time off, and locations close to their homes. The startup, which plans to focus on the New York City area initially, will keep its platform free for a year to attract users and plans to charge employers for job postings in the future. Bandana also intends to expand geographically and add features such as certifications and financial tools to aid workers in savings and money management. General Catalyst and Craft Ventures led the funding round.

The European Union (EU) has unveiled a list of tech giants that will be subjected to new regulations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Dubbed “gatekeepers,” these companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft, are seen as having significant market power that requires proactive competition rules.

The DMA designates 22 core platform services operated by the six gatekeepers, encompassing social networks, online marketplaces, search engines, browsers, operating systems, and messaging services. The regulations curb anti-competitive behaviors, such as self-preferencing, controlling app stores, and stifling rivals’ services. Noncompliance penalties can range from 10% to 20% of global annual turnover. However, some tech giants, such as Microsoft and Apple, have faced challenges and objections over including certain services.

Meta Platforms announced that it will discontinue its social media app’s “Facebook News” feature in the UK, France, and Germany later this year. Despite this change, users can still view news articles through links, and European news publishers will maintain access to their Facebook accounts and pages. However, Meta will not enter into new commercial deals for news content or provide product innovations for news publishers in these countries. The decision comes as Meta faces increasing pressure to share a higher percentage of its advertising revenue with news publishers. In response to new laws in Canada and Australia, Meta has already begun blocking news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

Facebook parent company Meta has implemented a return-to-office mandate, requiring employees to work from physical office locations at least three days a week. The policy change will not affect Meta’s remote workers, but employees assigned to an office must comply with the rules starting this week. Meta stated that it believes distributed work will remain important in the future but wants to invest in a valuable in-person experience for those who work from the office.

This decision follows other tech giants, such as Amazon and Alphabet, reversing remote work policies and demanding a return to physical offices. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated that remote work can be successful at scale but hinted at updating the policy after an internal analysis showed in-person engineers performed better.

A Russian court has issued fines to Match Group, the operator of Tinder, and streaming service Twitch for failing to comply with local data localization laws. Match Group was fined 10 million roubles ($104,000), while Twitch received a fine of 13 million roubles ($135,000). Both companies have been accused of repeatedly failing to localize user data as Russian legislation requires.