President Donald Trump attacked AT&T on social media Monday after experiencing problems on a call with faith leaders. AT&T addressed the issue on X, saying, "We've reached out to the White House and are working to quickly understand and assess the situation."
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Texas law requiring age verification for access to porn sites (see 2506270015 and 2501130012). The majority in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton sided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in support of HB-1181, which the adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition said violates the First Amendment (see 2409170012).
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s USF contribution scheme in a 6-3 opinion Friday in Consumers’ Research v. FCC, but dissenting and concurring opinions from several conservative justices appeared to invite future challenges, attorneys told us.
President Donald Trump made repeated calls on social media this week for reporters from CNN and the New York Times to be fired over their reporting on the U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear program Sunday. “FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., called Thursday for the federal government to “ban cellphones in every K-12 classroom in America,” reflecting similar recent state-level pushes to bar students from using smartphones and other mobile devices in school (see 2501290066). Slotkin and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., last week filed the Restoring Our Educational Focus on Children of U.S. Servicemembers at DOD Education Activity (DODEA) Act to bar students at K-12 schools on U.S. military bases from using cellphones during school hours.
An FTC probe into Media Matters for America is "aimed at silencing [it] and punishing it for its speech," the left-leaning journalism watchdog group told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed Monday (docket 1:25-cv-01959) against the agency. It said that due to its reporting, "state governments and now a federal agency have employed sweeping governmental powers to attempt to silence and harass an organization for daring to speak the truth." The Texas and Missouri attorneys general previously launched investigations after unflattering reporting about social media platform X, but those probes have been dropped or halted by court injunction, so "the Trump Administration has picked up where the states left off." Media Matters asked the court to declare that the FTC's civil investigative demands are a retaliatory action in violation of the group's First Amendment rights and to enjoin the FTC from trying to enforce the demands or continue the investigation.
The Trump Organization announced Monday that later this year, it will launch Trump Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator, and a gold-colored smartphone, which it said will eventually be made in the U.S. The launch would create ethics concerns regardless, but even more so given the Trump administration's pressure for the FCC to answer directly to the White House, public interest groups said.
What the apparent collapse of a previously tight relationship between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump means for Musk's SpaceX is uncertain, space industry and FCC watchers told us. Some believe SpaceX will face a chillier reception from regulatory agencies, including for FCC proceedings that SpaceX is intensely interested in, such as the agency's probes into EchoStar's use of the 2 GHz band and its terrestrial 5G network buildout (see 2505130003). Others don't see the feud meaning much. The FCC and FAA -- which regulates SpaceX's launch operations -- didn't comment.
The FCC should “act to restore public trust in those who use public airwaves” in the wake of an ABC News journalist publicly criticizing President Donald Trump (see 2506090054), the Center for American Rights said Tuesday in a letter to Chairman Brendan Carr. ABC reportedly released correspondent Terry Moran after he described Trump as a "world-class hater" and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as one in a social media post.
ABC News reportedly suspended journalist Terry Moran after White House officials complained about his social media post disparaging President Donald Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. ABC didn’t comment. Moran, who covers the White House for ABC, reportedly said Sunday in a since-deleted post on X that Miller was “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” and that Trump is “a world-class hater.” Moran’s comments were “unhinged and unacceptable,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt posted in response. “We have reached out to ABC to inquire about how they plan to hold Terry accountable.” Vice President JD Vance called Moran’s post a “vile smear” and called for ABC to apologize. “Remember that every time you watch ABC’s coverage of the Trump administration,” Vance wrote.