“A court in Germany on Tuesday ordered Elon Musk’s social media site X to hand over data related to the upcoming election in Hungary to researchers for scrutiny. The court in Berlin ruled in favor of rights group Democracy Reporting International in its bid to access data to research influence campaigns and disinformation in the election. The group took its case to court after X in November refused its data access requests. The European Union’s rules for social media platforms, the Digital Services Act, obliges big online platforms like X to grant external researchers access to data to scrutinize how platforms handle risks, including election interference.” (02/18/26)
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, & Noel Sims
“CBS forbade Late Show host Stephen Colbert from interviewing Texas State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat running to unseat Republican Senator John Cornyn. The incident is a chilling example of how the Trump administration and allied media organizations are colluding to suppress critical coverage of the administration. Addressing the incident on Monday night’s show, Colbert said he was also told by CBS’ lawyers not to discuss the decision to spike the Talarico interview. But Colbert, whose show is being canceled in May, ignored that directive.” (02/18/26)
“Even setting aside the decimation of the Post’s metro desk, the suite of local news options available to Washington, DC residents has shrunk dramatically in last decade as the portion of the digital ad-share pie not gobbled up by tech monopolies has grown smaller. Washington City Paper ended its print circulation in 2022 and, in February of 2024, DCist was shut down by its owner, the NPR-affiliate station WAMU. Luckily for DC residents, several of the staffers laid off in the closure of DCist decided that the service they provided to the community was too important to abandon.” (02/18/26)
“Tesla has stopped using the term ‘Autopilot’ to sell its cars in California, thereby avoiding a 30-day sales and manufacturing ban in the state. If you’ll recall, a California administrative law judge ruled in December that the automaker misled consumers by using the terms ‘Autopilot’ and ‘Full Self-Driving.’ The judge recommended the suspension, but the California DMV gave Tesla 60 days to remove any untrue and misleading language in its marketing materials. In its announcement, the DMV said Tesla has taken corrective action and has stopped using Autopilot for marketing. Prior to that, the automaker has already clarified that driver supervision is still needed with Full Self-Driving.” (02/18/26)
“Historian Gadi Taub discusses media leaks, military censorship, and the Sde Teiman controversy in Israel — and his defamation suit against Ronen Bergman.” (02/18/26)
