iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 03/06/2026

🚨 We’re proud to represent Jess Asato MP in the claim she filed today in against xAI in the English High Court. Ms Asato MP was one of the many women who were subjected earlier this year to the appalling manipulation of their image on X by Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot. awo.agency/articles/fir...

awo.agency

First claim in the UK against Grok’s nonconsensual deepfakes

Jess Asato MP launches legal claim against Elon Musk's company xAI for AI chatbot Grok creation of sexual deepfakes

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Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 28/05/2026

[🔍] AWO is conducting an External Perceptions Survey! If you’ve worked with us in the past, could interested in working with us, or work in the same field, we’d love to know what you think about us. 📝 The survey is fully anonymous and takes 2mins to complete! forms.awo.agency/r/Me6v0p?ref...

forms.awo.agency

Perceptions Survey

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

In an other report, we highlight how this risk is linked to how Gen AI is sometimes advertised using dubious health claims, potentially justifying the need for Responsible Advertising Standards. learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1drdec...

Excerpt from the study: "Responsible advertising standards are a means of ensuring that Generative AI systems are not marketed in a way that is misleading. Standards could include restrictions on the claims that deployers can make about their systems, particularly regarding their mental health benefits. They could also include a requirement to substantiate such claims. The use of standards would improve the understanding of children, and of adults who use AI systems within child-facing services (e.g. schools). Participants suggested that responsible advertising standards should be adopted and be made as broad as possible, covering all the ways in which Generative AI models and systems are anthropomorphised
including framing them as ‘friends’ or romantic partners. They should include consumer protection provisions linked to deceptive business models sometimes associated with Generative AI. Advertising
for illegal models, on the other hand, should be banned outright (as in the case of models designed to produce CSAM and nudification models).

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Really interesting to see how China regulates Gen AI anthropomorphism. This is actually a child safety risk featured in research @awo.agency did for the @nspcc.bsky.social learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/ikxlpz...

Exerpt from the study: Anthropomorphisation refers to the attribution of human traits to Gen AI models and systems. This happens when Gen AI systems produce human-like responses or are marketed as “digital friends”. The perceived humanity of these systems means that children are more likely to trust the information that the system provides to them and are more at ease sharing highly sensitive information with chatbots.

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Our paper on the Open Source Challenge, which argues in favour of responsible release standards (with a focus on open source, but applicable to Gen AI as a whole): awo.cdn.ngo/media/docume... Politico's reporting on Anthropic: www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...

awo.cdn.ngo

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Anthropic postponing Mythos demonstrates how responsible release will be increasingly important as Gen AI gets more capable. Cybersecurity risks is just one of Gen AI issue that can mitigated with staged release and external input into development (as we argue in a 2024 paper)

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 02/04/2026

The cool folks from the Eurosky team just brought you a new site: eurosky.tech, portal to the Atmosphere. I'd say it's the crispest explanation so far of what the Atmosphere brings: 1. one account 2. that works with a bunch of apps, and 3. your data from all apps is yours, portable, interoperable.

eurosky.tech

Eurosky - Building a thriving open social web for Europe

Eurosky is a European initiative to build and operate sovereign social web infrastructure

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Agreed! Though to be fair to the legislators in question, drafting on DSA, OSA and AI Act all began before 2023, i.e., before the Gen AI boom

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

We hope that this can be useful in informing ongoing work on the protection of minors in the EU and UK, including the upcoming DFA and the AI Omnibus, and the enforcement of the DSA, AI Act and OSA. 8/8

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Beyond that we identified gaps around issues such as child rights impact assessments, model repository moderation, the standardisation of AI-CSAM content reports, and child safety experts’ involvement in model development. 7/8

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Even adults can be poorly equipped to understand and talk about Gen AI risks with children. The research also informed the creation of NSPCC resources for parents and teachers: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-chil... 6/8

nspcc.org.uk

Talking to children about AI

Learn how to talk to children about artificial intelligence (AI) while empowering and protecting them.

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

This is something AWO also discussed in a separate paper, titled “Generative AI’s Open Source Challenge.” awo.cdn.ngo/media/docume... 5/8

awo.cdn.ngo

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Open source AI is indeed a major gap we identified, given its use in the creation of AI-CSAM, and the barriers linked to enforcing solutions on non-commercial model developers. 4/8

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Importantly, that means that these laws’ content moderation, risk assessment and risk mitigation provisions don’t apply to standalone Gen AI systems, including downloadable/“open source” models. 3/8

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Current online safety laws only partially apply to Gen AI. To fall in-scope of the DSA, Gen AI systems must qualify as search engines. For the OSA, they must be imbedded with user-to-user services. 2/8

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

New paper alert 🚨: “Generative AI and Child Safety: What are the risks and how can we solve them?”, an NSPCC/AWO study, has just been published! It describes some important gaps in EU and UK legislation relating to risks that children face from Gen AI. learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1drdec... 1/8

learning.nspcc.org.uk

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Reposted by Nick Botton

⛧ Mother Suspiria ⛧ (Stina Marie) @stinasdemons.com · 07/03/2026

Welp. The internet had a nice run. Some outlets have lost over 90% of their traffic since the "AI" summaries rolled out. "...the four worst-hit publications [now] get less monthly web traffic combined than the r/ChatGPT subreddit gets on its own."

futurism.com

Evidence Grows That Google's AI Overviews Have Eviscerated the Media Industry

Google's AI overviews have eviscerated the media landscape, with some top publications losing up to 97 percent of their web traffic.

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Jeff Horwitz @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

We got Meta’s “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta’s ad library through targeted scrubbing. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

reuters.com

Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

As regulators pressure Meta to verify the identity of advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. A Reuters investigation examines its tactics...

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Jeff Horwitz @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

To grow its ad biz in China, Meta has relied on ad agency partners given the power to create special enforcement-protected ad accounts and share them with resellers. The system produces so much fraud that Meta internally calls China its top “scam exporting nation.” www.reuters.com/investigatio...

reuters.com

Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue

A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to mini...

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Can't imagine why this would be a problem at all

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Max von Thun @maxvonthun.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

New @lobbycontrol.bsky.social @corporateeurope.org data highlights tech lobbyists' tightening grip on EU policymaking: 📈 Total lobbying spend up by a third in 2 years 💼 There are now more tech lobbyists than MEPs 🗣️ Big Tech meets EU officials every single day corporateeurope.org/en/2025/10/b...

corporateeurope.org

Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory

New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Is it legal for publishers to force you to "consent" to a data free-for-all as payment for entering their sites & apps? No. Over the summer we have been talking to EU data watchdogs, detailing the case law and enforcement decisions. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

iccl.ie

Pay or ok? Why Europe's data watchdogs must reject "forced consent"

Case law and enforcement decisions show that Europe's data watchdogs already have all the evidence they need to reject Pay or OK

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Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 29/09/2025

We'll be at #PrivacyCamp25 tomorrow! Join our colleague @lutecia.bsky.social at 9:55 to discuss all things strategic litigation. Our colleagues @nickbotton.bsky.social and @laurelinelmn.bsky.social will also be around, come chat with us!

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

More Google news. EC making itself clear here. "The Commission has already signalled its preliminary view that only the divestment by Google of part of its services would address the situation of inherent conflicts of interest, but it first wishes to hear and assess Google's proposal." 1/2

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

since Google rolled out AI Overviews in your search results, median year-over-year referral traffic from Google Search to premium publishers down 10% - Non-news brands down 14% - News brands down 7% - Yr/yr declines outnumber gains two-to-one 1/2

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Sonia Livingstone @sonialivingstone.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

⚠️ Child Rights Impact Assessment: A Policy Tool for a Rights‐Respecting Digital Environment - just published o/a by @Livingstone_S @Kruakae_Noony #DigitalFutures4Children @5RightsFound @MediaLSE #CRIA #DigitalEnvironment #ChildRights #GeneralComment25 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Luca Bertuzzi @lucabertuzzi.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

BREAKING: The EU Commission has released a mandatory template for AI developers to disclose training data. Unlike the Code of Practice, this is not optional. It could have global fallout, as rights holders abroad might use it to sue over copyright. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e...

digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu

Explanatory Notice and Template for the Public Summary of Training Content for general-purpose AI models

The Template annexed to this Explanatory Notice aims to provide a common minimal baseline for the information to be made publicly available in the Summary of Training Content for general-purpose AI mo...

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

If you're going to #CPDP, don't miss the most important panel on online ads regulation that you'll ever attend! We'll talk about gaps that remain and how to fill them, covering privacy, transparency, DMA and DSA issues, and more!

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Mathias Vermeulen @mathver.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Great to see @kzenner.bsky.social here, who just co-authored (co-inspired?) a great paper on a blueprint for European digital sovereignty. Added him here bsky.app/starter-pack...

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Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 17/04/2025

The Algorithm Governance Roundup is out! This month we interviewed Aarushi Sahore a barrister @brickcourt about RTM v Bonne Terre Ltd and Hestview Ltd, a landmark case on consent under UK data protection in the context of online gambling.👇 eocampaign1.com/web-version?...

eocampaign1.com

Algorithm Governance Roundup #22

Community Spotlight: Aarushi Sahore, Brick Court Chambers | DSA Investigations and Enforcement

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

nice to see advertisers' adtech middlemen spending a bit more time on avoiding monetizing harmful content as opposed to suffocating high-value journalism brands due to politicized topics. 1/2

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 08/02/2025

An Adalytics report shows how ad systems run by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others inadvertently placed ads on a website that hosts CSAM (Thomas Germain/BBC) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

"The probe by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will examine alleged monopolistic practices by the U.S. tech giant, which has had its search and internet services blocked in China since 2010 but maintains operations there primarily focused on advertising."

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Nick Botton @nickbotton.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

"The Will to Change" is even tougher! Both of them hit right in the feels

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Open Future @openfuture.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Our latest report explores 20 years of EU policies supporting #digitalcommons and the shift from open access to collective governance of key digital infrastructures. 🛋️ Read more here: openfuture.eu/publication/... Cc: @ngicommons.bsky.social @jankrewer.bsky.social

From Open Access to Collective Governance, report cover with branded Open Future background

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Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 23/01/2025

1/ In a groundbreaking ruling, the High Court today found that an online gambling company had unlawfully processed our client’s data. A 🧵 and analysis 👇 on the major implications for data processing in the gambling and AdTech industries. buff.ly/3EiOvQX

awo.agency

Landmark High Court ruling on GDPR consent to profiling and targeting in RTM v Bonne Terre - Analysis

A new data rights agency

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Reposted by Nick Botton

awo.agency @awo.agency · 23/01/2025

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Landmark ruling in AWO case – the High Court just ruled in favour of our client against Sky Betting & Gaming (Sky Bet), who profiled him for marketing without a lawful basis. Our press release: buff.ly/40J9FR2

awo.agency

Press Release - AWO win in RTM v Bonne Terre et al

A new data rights agency

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 13/01/2025

It’s time to reclaim social media! ✊🔥 Billionaires & monopolies shouldn’t control our digital lives. Project @freeourfeeds.com is raising an initial $4m to build a public-interest alternative for social media, on the AT Protocol. It's an ambitious, challenging project. Read more: freeourfeeds.com

freeourfeeds.com

Free Our Feeds

Let's take social media away from billionaire capture.

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Wolfie Christl @wchr.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Remember Google's great 'we will end third-party cookies in Chrome' swindle: - Jan 2020: we will 'phase out' third-party cookies 'within 2 years' - Jun 2021: we will 'end' doing so in late 2023 - Jul 2022: we may 'begin' doing so in late 2024 - Jul 2024: third-party cookies are staying in Chrome

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Reposted by Nick Botton

tante @tante.cc · 03/12/2024

Digital sovereignty is kind of a buzzword at the moment that's sometimes filled with whatever digital policy the user wants to push. That's why I am a happy signatory of this report that connects those terms to actual political demands for a digital future that put people in the center.

ucl.ac.uk

Reclaiming digital sovereignty

Authored by Cecilia Rikap, Cédric Durand, Paolo Gerbaudo, Paris Marx and Edemilson Paraná

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Reposted by Nick Botton

Mathias Vermeulen @mathver.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

How X assesses the risks of its own platform, in one handy overview. (From its own DSA risk assessment released today) transparency.x.com/content/dam/...

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