Court rules Mississippi's social media age verification law can go into effect
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overruled a decision by a federal district judge to block the 2024 law from going into effect. It's the latest legal development as court challenges play out against similar laws in states across the country.
Parents — and even some teens themselves — are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media use on young people. Supporters of the new laws have said they are needed to help curb the explosive use of social media among young people, and what researchers say is an associated increase in depression and anxiety.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued in a court filing defending the law that steps such as age verification for digital sites could mitigate harm caused by 'sex trafficking, sexual abuse, child pornography, targeted harassment, sextortion, incitement to suicide and self-harm, and other harmful and often illegal conduct against children.'
Attorneys for NetChoice, which brought the lawsuit, have pledged to continue their court challenge, arguing the law threatens privacy rights and unconstitutionally restricts the free expression of users of all ages.
The industry group, which has filed similar lawsuits in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Utah, represents some of the country's most high-profile technology companies, including Google, which owns YouTube; Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat; and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
In a written statement, Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said the group is 'very disappointed' in the decision to let Mississippi's law go into effect and is 'considering all available options.'
Wednesdays
Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture.
'NetChoice will continue to fight against this egregious infringement on access to fully protected speech online,' Taske said. 'Parents — not the government — should determine what is right for their families.'
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
11 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Alphabet to Report Q2 Earnings: What's in Store for the Stock?
Alphabet 's GOOGL second-quarter 2025 results, scheduled to be released on July 23, are expected to benefit from solid momentum in Search, Cloud, and advertising businesses. In first-quarter 2025, Google advertising revenues rose 8.5% year over year to $66.885 billion and accounted for 74.1% of total revenues. Search and other (75.8% of advertising revenues) revenues grew 9.8% year over year to $50.702 billion. YouTube's advertising revenues improved 10.3% year over year to $8.972 billion. Google Cloud revenues increased 28.1% year over year to $12.26 billion. The top-line momentum is expected to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for advertising revenues is currently pegged at $69.023 billion, suggesting 6.8% growth over the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Alphabet has an impressive earnings surprise history. GOOGL's earnings outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 14.64%. Alphabet Inc. Revenue (TTM) Click here to know how Alphabet's overall second-quarter 2025 results are likely to be. GOOGL's AI Push to Boost Search Business Alphabet's initiatives to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) in search are noteworthy. The integration of Generative AI (Gen AI) technology into the search engine has been benefiting Google Search. AI-powered Circle to Search is now available on more than 300 million Android devices, with people using it to shop, translate text, and learn more about the world around them. AI Mode in Search is now available in the United States. AI Overviews is driving a more than 10% increase in usage of Google for queries that support AI Overviews in Google's biggest markets, like India and the United States. The addition of AI mode expands AI Overview's advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities. Alphabet expanded AI Overviews in Google Search to new countries during the to-be-reported quarter, which is now available in more than 200 countries and territories and in more than 40 languages. AI Overviews now support Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Urdu and more. The AI infusion bodes well for Alphabet's Search business which is facing stiff competition from Microsoft MSFT Bing, YANDEX, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo and Baidu BIDU apart from OpenAI's ChatGPT. According to Google had market share of 89.54% for the June 2024-June 2025 timeframe, trailed by Microsoft Bing's 3.95%, YANDEX's 2.45%, Yahoo!'s 1.37%, DuckDuckGo's 0.86% and Baidu's 0.73%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Search and other revenues is currently pegged at $52.4 billion, suggesting 8% growth over the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Google Cloud Revenues to Grow Y/Y Alphabet has been growing rapidly in the booming cloud-computing market. Google Cloud has solidified its position as the third-largest provider in the highly competitive cloud infrastructure market against the likes of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. In Cloud, Alphabet is benefiting from its partnership with NVIDIA NVDA. Google Cloud was the first cloud provider to offer NVIDIA's B200 and GB200 Blackwell GPUs and will be offering its next-generation Vera Rubin GPUs. The introduction of 2.5 flash, Imagen 3 and Veo 2 are noteworthy developments. Google Cloud is becoming a preferred choice for enterprises planning to deploy AI agents thanks to the Agent Development Kit and a low-code tool offering Agent Designer. The addition of Wiz to Google Cloud will boost competitive prowess against the likes of Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud computing space. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloud revenues is currently pegged at $13.04 billion, suggesting 26% growth over the figure reported in the year-ago quarter. Alphabet currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. One Big Gain, Every Trading Day To help you take full advantage of this market, you're invited to access every stock recommendation in all our private portfolios - for just $1. Zacks private portfolio services that closed 256 double and triple-digit winners in 2024 alone. That's about one big gain every day the market was open. Of course, not all our picks are winners, but members have seen recent gains as high as +627% +1,340%, and +1,708%. Imagine how much you could profit with a steady stream of real-time picks from all our services that cover a number of strategies to suit a variety of investing and trading styles. See Stocks Now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report Baidu, Inc. (BIDU): Free Stock Analysis Report Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Court rules Mississippi's social media age verification law can go into effect
A Mississippi law that requires social media users to verify their ages can go into effect, a federal court has ruled. A tech industry group has pledged to continue challenging the law, arguing it infringes on users' rights to privacy and free expression. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overruled a decision by a federal district judge to block the 2024 law from going into effect. It's the latest legal development as court challenges play out against similar laws in states across the country. Parents — and even some teens themselves — are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media use on young people. Supporters of the new laws have said they are needed to help curb the explosive use of social media among young people, and what researchers say is an associated increase in depression and anxiety. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued in a court filing defending the law that steps such as age verification for digital sites could mitigate harm caused by 'sex trafficking, sexual abuse, child pornography, targeted harassment, sextortion, incitement to suicide and self-harm, and other harmful and often illegal conduct against children.' Attorneys for NetChoice, which brought the lawsuit, have pledged to continue their court challenge, arguing the law threatens privacy rights and unconstitutionally restricts the free expression of users of all ages. The industry group, which has filed similar lawsuits in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Utah, represents some of the country's most high-profile technology companies, including Google, which owns YouTube; Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat; and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In a written statement, Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said the group is 'very disappointed' in the decision to let Mississippi's law go into effect and is 'considering all available options.' Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'NetChoice will continue to fight against this egregious infringement on access to fully protected speech online,' Taske said. 'Parents — not the government — should determine what is right for their families.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Globe and Mail
2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Be Too Cheap to Ignore Right Now
Key Points Investors are pessimistic about Google Search's odds of survival. Taiwan Semiconductor's management projects monster growth over the next five years. 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet › Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks and "cheap" aren't often placed in the same sentence, but I think that's true of two stocks in particular. Both Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) appear to be cheap, but for two separate reasons. In a market that's growing increasingly expensive, I think taking a hard look at these two stocks is worthwhile, as the value they provide investors is near the best available. 1. Alphabet Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube, Waymo, and the Android operating system. However, Alphabet derives the majority of its revenue from one source: advertisements. This is also the major concern from the market, as Alphabet's primary revenue source, the Google Search engine, is under attack from generative AI. Google Search accounted for 56% of revenue in the first quarter. While we don't have an individualized breakdown of Google Search's operating margin, the Google Services division generated an operating margin of 42%, accounting for over 100% of Alphabet's total operating profits. That's because this division funds various Alphabet investments that don't generate any profits, so this segment needs to continue performing well for Alphabet to remain attractive to investors. However, there are some signs of Google's dominance slipping, as its market share has fallen below 90% for the first time since 2015. Furthermore, many Wall Street analysts and other tech-savvy people have replaced Google Search with generative AI. As a result, many are forecasting the downfall of Google, which is why the stock trades at a huge discount to the market. GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts. PE Ratio = price-to-earnings ratio. At 19 times forward earnings, Alphabet's stock is far cheaper than the broader market, as measured by the S&P 500. The S&P 500 trades for 23.7 times forward earnings, so there is a tangible difference in valuation between these two securities. However, I think this bearish sentiment is unwarranted. In Q1, Google Search's revenue increased 10% year over year -- not a sign of a company that's failing. Additionally, I think the majority of the population could do without the capabilities of a generative AI web browser or search capabilities and are perfectly fine with the AI Overview Google offers at the top of every search result. We'll receive more information from Alphabet on July 23 when it reports its Q2 results, but I expect Google Search revenue to remain healthy, which could lead to the stock rising. 2. Taiwan Semiconductor Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) is the world's leading chip foundry, producing chips for giants such as Apple and Nvidia. TSMC has beaten out other chip foundries for multiple reasons, but chief among them is that it doesn't market any chips directly to consumers. Taiwan Semiconductor is a chip fab facility only, so its clients don't have to worry about it stealing their technology to produce a product that rivals their own. Additionally, Taiwan Semiconductor is always at the forefront of new chip technology. This remains true, as they are launching their 2-nanometer (nm) chip node later this year and a 1.6 nm offering in 2026. This dominance has enabled it to establish itself firmly at the forefront of the chip fabrication industry, and its services are in high demand. As a result, clients often place chip orders years in advance, which gives TSMC unparalleled insight into the direction the market is heading. Over the next five years, management projects a 45% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in AI-related revenue and a nearly 20% CAGR in total revenue. That's market-crushing growth, and if it pans out, Taiwan Semiconductor stock will be a must-own. Despite management's strong track record and the obvious tailwinds in the chip industry, TSMC's stock trades at only 24.9 times forward earnings. TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts. PE Ratio = price-to-earnings ratio. While this is technically more expensive than the broader market, the difference is only slight. Furthermore, with the market's long-term growth rate hovering at around 10%, TSMC's projected 20% growth rate significantly outpaces it. As a result, TSMC appears undervalued for its growth and should be acquired before the stock rises further. Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now? Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $652,133!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,056,790!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
