In today’s Digest, we discuss Minute Media buying VideoVerse, Europe mulling an under-16 social media ban as Meta faces claims of burying child safety research, and Meta and TikTok winning a challenge to EU tech fees.

Minute Media buys VideoVerse

Minute Media has acquired VideoVerse, a software platform powering real-time sports highlights, Minute Media’s CEO and founder Asaf Peled told Axios. The deal is Minute Media’s largest acquisition to date, marking its seventh in 14 years and underscoring its pivot toward sports tech and video as core growth areas. While financial terms for the VideoVerse acquisition were not disclosed, Peled confirmed it surpasses all previous transactions.

Europe Mulls Under-16 Social Media Ban as Meta Faces Claims of Burying Child Safety Research

The European Commission is considering restrictions that would bar children under 16 from using social media, echoing similar measures being introduced in Australia. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced during her annual State of the Union speech that she will convene a panel by year-end to advise on how to make platforms safer for children, while monitoring Australia’s approach.

Von der Leyen said in her annual State of the Union speech: “In my days, we as a society taught our children that they could not smoke, drink and watch adult content until a certain age. I believe it’s time we consider doing the same for social media.”

Meanwhile, a group of whistleblowers, made up of  current and former Meta employees, have accused Meta of suppressing allegations of how its virtual reality (VR) devices and apps are endangering  children’s safety, according to documents disclosed to Congress and reported by The Washington Post. It’s claimed that Meta has manipulated research and even erased data which paints it in a negative light. 

The allegations suggest that Meta altered its policies on researching sensitive topics, including children’s well-being, in order to hide serious issues which were being uncovered.The company allegedly advised researchers to involve lawyers in their projects to shield communications under attorney-client privilege and to avoid using explicit terms like “not compliant” or “illegal” in their findings.

Meta & TikTok win challenge to EU tech fees

Meta and TikTok have successfully challenged how EU regulators calculate a supervisory fee under the Digital Services Act (DSA), though they won’t get refunds for payments already made. The fee, set at 0.05% of a company’s worldwide net income, is meant to cover the EU executive’s costs of monitoring compliance with the Digital Services Act. Both Meta and TikTok argued the formula was flawed and resulted in disproportionate charges.

The Luxembourg-based General Court ruled that the European Commission had used the wrong legal mechanism to set the levy, giving officials 12 months to fix the methodology through a delegated act instead of implementing decisions. Judges said, "That methodology... should have been adopted not in the context of implementing decisions but in a delegated act, in accordance with the rules laid down in the DSA."