Technology — Supreme Court to tackle age verification

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View Online Technology Technology The Big Story  Supreme Court will hear challenge to age verification law The Supreme Court has indicated it will take up a case next term involving the adult entertainment industry's challenge to a Texas law requiring pornography sites to implement age-verficiation measures. © AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing the industry, is asking the court to reinstate an order blocking the Lone Star State's enforcement of the law, which it argues violates the First Amendment.   "While purportedly seeking to limit minors' access to online sexual content, the Act imposes significant burdens on adults' access to constitutionally protected expression," the petition reads.    "Of central relevance here, it requires every user, including adults, to submit personally identifying information to access sensitive, intimate content over a medium—the Internet—that poses unique security and privacy concerns," it continues.   The law requires pornography sites to use age-verification measures to determine that visitors to the sites are at least 18 years old and to post warnings about the alleged harms of pornography.   A district judge blocked Texas from enforcing the law shortly before it was set to go into effect last September. However, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals partially reversed the lower court's ruling in March.   The federal appeals court overturned the order barring enforcement of the age-verification requirements but maintained that the pornography sites could not be forced to post warnings about their content.   Following the decision, Pornhub disabled its site in Texas, arguing that requiring people to provide identification every time they visit the site is "not an effective solution for protecting users online."   Read more in a full report at TheHill.com. Welcome to The Hill's Technology newsletter, we're Rebecca Klar and Julia Shapero — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads  How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future: Google emissions rose 13 percent from AI energy consumption Google's emissions rose 13 percent last year despite the tech giant's goals to become net-zero by the end of the decade as artificial intelligence (AI) drives an increase in energy consumption.  "As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical …  Full Story Musk accuses Harris of lying about Trump's stance on national abortion ban Elon Musk on Monday accused Vice President Harris of lying about former President Trump supporting a national abortion ban, after a community note was apparently added to a post from her campaign account. "When will politicians, or at least the intern who runs their account, learn that lying on this platform doesn't work anymore?" Musk wrote on his social platform X on Monday morning, attaching a screenshot of Harris's statement …  Full Story Supreme Court won't hear tech liability challenge from teen groomed on Snapchat The Supreme Court will not consider a challenge to the scope of a federal law immunizing tech companies from liability for their users' content brought by a teenager who was allegedly groomed by a teacher on Snapchat.  The anonymous Texas teen said his high school science teacher used the image-based instant messaging app to groom him, induce his drug abuse and then sexually assault him when he was 15 years old.  …  Full Story The Refresh  News we've flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics: Meta to bring AI to VR games  Meta signaled plans to add  artificial intelligence (AI) to its virtual reality games based on a job listing, TechCrunch reported.  NFL to offer 'Sunday Ticket' streaming to bars The NFL is partnering with the private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners to launch EventPass Media, which will offer a "SundayTicket" platform that offers commercial establishes the ability to stream live sports, CNBC reported.  In Other News  Branch out with other reads on The Hill: UN adopts Chinese resolution with US support on closing the gap in access to artificial intelligence UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly adopted a Chinese-sponsored resolution with U.S. support urging wealthy developed nations to close the widening gap with developing countries and ensure they have equal opportunities to use and benefit from artificial intelligence. The resolution approved … Full Story What Others are Reading  Two key stories on The Hill right now: Initial postdebate polls show Biden losing ground to Trump Polling has started to come out following last week's presidential debate between former President Trump and President Biden, showing some indications … Read more First House Democrat publicly calls on Biden to withdraw from 2024 race Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Tuesday became the first House Democrat to publicly urge President Biden to remove himself from the 2024 race following … Read more What Others are Reading  Opinions related to tech submitted to The Hill: A growing body of data is debunking myths about remote work   You're all caught up. 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