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French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to enter into force at the start of the next school year in September, as the idea of setting a minimum age for use of the platforms gains momentum across Europe.The bill, which also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools, was adopted by a 130-21 vote late Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has requested that the legislation be fast-tracked and it will now be discussed by the Senate in the coming weeks.“Banning social media for those under 15: this is what scientists recommend, and this is what the French people are overwhelmingly calling for,” Macron said after the vote. “Because our children’s brains are not for sale neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.”The issue is one of the very few in a divided National Assembly to attract such broad support, despite critics from the hard left denouncing provisions of the bill as infringement on civil liberties. Weakened domestically since his decision to dissolve parliament plunged France into a prolonged political crisis, Macron has strongly supported the ban, which could become one of the final major measures adopted under his leadership before he leaves office next year.The French government had previously passed a law banning phone use in all primary and middle schools.The vote in the assembly came just days after the British government said it will consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.The French bill has been devised to be compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. In November, European lawmakers called for action at EU level to protect minors online, including a bloc-wide minimum age of 16 and bans on the most harmful practices.According to France’s health watchdog, one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. In a report published in December, it said that some 90% of children aged between 12 and 17 use smartphones daily to access the internet, with 58% of them using their devices for social networks.The report highlighted a range of harmful effects stemming from the use of social networks, including reduced self-esteem and increased exposure to content associated with risky behaviors such as self-harm, drug use and suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content.The French ban won’t cover online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, or platforms for the development and sharing of open-source software.In Australia, social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures. Samuel Petrequin, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Nike isnt the only household corporate name to announce significant layoffs this week. Just a day after the sporting goods giant announced layoffs, citing a further embrace of automation, social media giant Pinterest has announced it will cut jobs. The driving factor here? Artificial intelligence. Heres what you need to know about the Pinterest layoffs. Whats happened? On Tuesday, the image-sharing social media platform Pinterest announced it plans to lay off around 15% of its workforce. The company made the announcement in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In that filing, Pinterest said that its board of directors had approved a global restructuring plan for the company. As part of that plan, Pinterest will pare its workforce back by less than 15%. In addition, the company will also reduce its office space. When reached for comment, Pinterest told Fast Company that it had around 5,200 employees as of December 2025. A 15% reduction then would result in approximately 780 jobs being lost. The company says the restructuring charges resulting from its plans will cost the company between $35 million and $45 million. Pinterest said that its restructuring plan is expected to be completed by the end of its third quarter, which finishes on September 30. It is unknown whether the layoffs will take place immediately or be spread over the period from now until September. Why is Pinterest cutting jobs? When reached for comment, a Pinterest spokesperson told Fast Company that it was making organizational changes to further deliver on our AI-forward strategy, which includes hiring AI-proficient talent. As a result, weve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members. In its Form 8-K, the company elaborated on the AI shift that is occurring with the layoffs, stating that it plans to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles and teams that drive AI adoption and execution while prioritizing AIpowered products and capabilities. While Pinterest boasts 600 million monthly active users, that number is well below the billions its main competitor, Meta, has across Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok. Users now use all four platforms for shopping to some degree, making them all attractive to advertisers. However, while Facebook and TikTok wasted no time embracing AI to improve their user experience and the tools and technologies powering their ad business, Pinterest has been slower to adopt AI. Yet that began to change significantly last year with the rollout of its AI chatbot, Pinterest Assistant, which lets users get personalized style and shopping recommendations. With todays announcements, Pinterest is clearly signaling that it plans to accelerate its AI adoption going forward. How has Pinterests stock price reacted? Pinterest, Inc. shares (NYSE: PINS) are currently down heavily in early-morning trading. As of the time of this writing, PINS shares have fallen over 8.5% since the market opened, to $23.68. Todays fall means PINS stock is now negative around 8.2% for the year so far. Over the past 12 months, Pinterest shares have fallen by over 29%. In its Q3 2025 earnings report in November, Pinterest reported 17% year-over-year earnings growth of just over $1 billion.
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E-Commerce
Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti, the second person killed this month by a federal officer in Minneapolis, as responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon.The death produced no clear shifts in U.S. gun politics or policies, even as President Donald Trump shuffles the lieutenants in charge of his militarized immigration crackdown. But important voices in Trump’s coalition have called for a thorough investigation of Pretti’s death while also criticizing inconsistencies in some Republicans’ Second Amendment stances.If the dynamic persists, it could give Republicans problems as Trump heads into a midterm election year with voters already growing skeptical of his overall immigration approach. The concern is acute enough that Trump’s top spokeswoman sought Monday to reassert his brand as a staunch gun rights supporter.“The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens, absolutely,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.Leavitt qualified that “when you are bearing arms and confronted by law enforcement, you are raising the risk of force being used against you.” Videos contradict early statements from administration That still marked a retreat from the administration’s previous messages about the shooting of Pretti. It came the same day the president dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, seemingly elevating him over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who had been in charge in Minneapolis.Within hours of Pretti’s death on Saturday, Bovino suggested Pretti “wanted to massacre law enforcement,” and Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon and acted “violently” toward officers.“I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign,” Noem said.White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s mass deportation effort, went further on X, declaring Pretti “an assassin.”Bystander videos contradicted each claim, instead showing Pretti holding a cellphone and helping a woman who had been pepper sprayed by a federal officer. Within seconds, Pretti was sprayed, too, and taken to the ground by multiple officers. No video disclosed thus far has shown him unholstering his concealed weapon - which he had a Minnesota permit to carry. It appeared that one officer took Pretti’s gun and walked away with it just before shots began.As multiple videos went viral online and on television, Vice President JD Vance reposted Miller’s assessment, while Trump shared an alleged photo of “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!).” Swift reactions from gun rights advocates The National Rifle Association, which has backed Trump three times, released a statement that began by casting blame on Minnesota Democrats it accused of stoking protests. But the group lashed out after a federal prosecutor in California said on X that, “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”That analysis, the NRA said, is “dangerous and wrong.”FBI Director Kash Patel magnified the blowback Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” No one, Patel said, can “bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”Erich Pratt, vice president of Gun Owners of America, was incredulous.“I have attended protest rallies while armed, and no one got injured,” he said on CNN.Conservative officials around the country made the same connection between the First and Second amendments.“Showing up at a protest is very American. Showing up with a weapon is very American,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who leads the GOP caucus in Tennessee, said on X.Trump’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence, called for “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting.” A different response from the past Liberals, conservatives and nonpartisan experts noted how the administration’s response differed from past conservative positions involving protests and weapons.Multiple Trump supporters were found to have weapons during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump issued blanket pardons to all of them.Republicans were critical in 2020 when Mark and Patricia McCloskey had to pay fines after pointing guns at protesters who marched through their St. Louis neighborhood after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And then there’s Kyle Rittenhouse, a counter-protester acquitted after fatally shooting two men and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the post-Floyd protests.“You remember Kyle Rittenhouse and how he was made a hero on the right,” Trey Gowdy, a Republican former congressman and attorney for Trump during one of his first-term impeachments. “Alex Pretti’s firearm was being lawfully carried. He never brandished it.”Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who has studied the history of the gun debate, said the fallout “shows how tribal we’ve become.” Republicans spent years talking about the Second Amendment as a means to fight government tyranny, he said.“The moment someone who’s thought to be from the left, they abandon that principled stance,” Winkler said.Meanwhile, Democrats who have criticized open and concealed carry laws for years, Winkler added, are not amplifying that position after Pretti’s death. Uncertain effects in an election year The blowback against the administration from core Trump supporters comes as Republicans are trying to protect their threadbare majority in the U.S. House and face several competitive Senate races.Perhaps reflecting the stakes, GOP staff and campaign aides were reticent Monday to talk about the issue at all.The House Republican campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, is sponsoring the GOP’s most significant gun legislation of this congressional term, a proposal to make state concealed-carry permits reciprocal across all states.The bill cleared the House Judiciary Committee last fall. Asked Monday whether Pretti’s death and the Minneapolis protests might affect debate, an aide to Speaker Mike Johnson did not offer any update on the bill’s prospects.Gun rights advocates have notched many legislative victories in Republican-controlled statehouses in recent decades, from rolling back gun-free zones around schools and churches to expanding gun possession rights in schools, on university campuses and in other public spaces.William Sack, legal director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said he was surprised and disapointed by the administration’s initial statements following the Pretti shooting. Trump’s vacillating, he said, is “very likely to cost them dearly with the core of a constituency they count on.” Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report. Bill Barrow and Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press
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