Social media companies face backlash over safety of youth on their platforms

To find real kids in danger, law enforcement must sift through a surge of AI-generated sex imagery.

Snap Inc. is laying off roughly 1,000 full-time employees, or 16% of its global workforce, as part of an effort by Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel to reduce costs and achieve profitability.

Meta and YouTube try to redefine themselves in light of increasing criticism

TikTok advertising leader Khartoon Weiss is leaving the short-form video company, joining a wave of American executives stepping down over the past year.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is facing demands from child development experts to prohibit videos created with artificial intelligence from being shown or recommended to young viewers across YouTube and YouTube Kids.

The threat of a US ban no longer overshadows the app

Merve Lapus’s 13-year-old daughter told her dad she was horrified: This month, whenever her teacher stepped out of the room, kids in the class used their devices to play a new online game called Five Nights at Epstein’s.

A landmark jury verdict holding Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google liable for harming a young user with products designed to be addictive threatens to put the social networking companies in the same category as Big Tobacco and opioid makers — a potential crack in their shield from legal responsibility for what happens on their platforms.

Google is investing in an artificial intelligence content studio focused on making videos for children on YouTube, part of an effort to seed the platform with high quality viewing for the site’s youngest users.

Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd. is hiring in the US for nearly 100 open roles within its artificial intelligence division, an effort to compete with the world’s leading US-based AI companies despite years of national security concerns from American lawmakers and regulators.

Move to restrict teens more likely to damage reputation than sales

Snap Inc. shares fell by the most in six months after the company reported a decline in daily users, partly driven by Australia’s ban on social media for children.

TikTok’s newly established US entity is working to resolve a major infrastructure failure triggered by a data center power disruption, marking a rocky start for the venture just days after its historic spinoff.

TikTok picked an insider to lead its newly created US business, choosing an executive with deep ties to the entertainment world and history reporting up to ByteDance Ltd.’s leadership.

After almost seven years, three US presidencies and a near-total ban, ByteDance Ltd. has secured a definitive victory in its standoff with Washington.

The yearslong saga over the future of TikTok’s American operations has finally reached a conclusion. The social media platform said on Jan. 23 that its US arm has been bought by a consortium led by Oracle Corp., formalizing the deal outlined by the Trump administration in September.

TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. have closed a long-awaited deal to transfer parts of their US operations to American investors, securing the popular video app’s future in the US and avoiding a nationwide ban.

Welcome to Tech In Depth, our daily newsletter about the business of tech from Bloomberg’s journalists around the world. Today, in our series that looks at themes to watch in 2026, Alexandra S. Levine reports that Australia’s law to ban minors from social media is unlikely to trigger a global wave of similar restrictions sought by child-safety advocates.

The yearslong saga over the future of TikTok’s American operations could finally be nearing a conclusion. The social media platform says its US arm is being bought by a consortium led by Oracle Corp., aligning with the deal outlined by the Trump administration in September.