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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is suing X (formerly Twitter) in French courts for enabling the spread of disinformation, identity theft and defamation. 

The lawsuit stems from X’s refusal to remove a deceptive video, falsely attributed to the BBC, claiming RSF authored a study accusing Ukrainian soldiers of Nazi affiliations. Widely shared on X and Telegram, the video used RSF’s logo and images, and had 500,000 views by mid-September.

Despite filing 10 formal complaints under the EU’s Digital Services Act, RSF’s requests were either rejected or ignored, and X took no action to remove the content, RSF said. RSF argues X’s refusal to act makes it complicit in spreading false information and undermining public debate. 

The NGO also shared its findings with the European Commission, which has opened formal proceedings against X for failing to comply with EU regulations.

X did not respond to Context's request for comment before time of publication.

The lawsuit comes amid an exodus of users following the U.S. presidential election campaign, during which X owner Elon Musk vocally supported the successful Republican candidate, Donald Trump. 

The Guardian newspaper, among others, said it would no longer post on X. Many users moved to competitor app BlueSky - founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey - which claimed to have added half a million users in one day.

Asia

Annie Banerji, South Asia Correspondent

Indian news agency ANI has sued OpenAI in a New Delhi court, accusing the ChatGPT creator of using its published content without permission to help train the artificial intelligence chatbot to provide information to users.

ANI is the latest news organisation globally to take OpenAI to court following lawsuits in the United States by newspapers including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

The first hearing in the case took place in a New Delhi High Court on Tuesday, where the judge issued a notice to OpenAI to provide a detailed response to ANI's accusations.

ANI also accused OpenAI's services of attributing fabricated news stories to the publication, according to its court submission dated Monday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters.

Asked about the ANI lawsuit, a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement: "We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by long-standing and widely accepted legal precedents."

OpenAI and other tech companies have faced a wave of lawsuits by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners for allegedly exploiting their work without permission. OpenAI has denied copyright infringement.

Africa

Kim Harrisberg, South Africa Correspondent

Mozambique's post-election violence is ongoing with small businesses now feeling the economic shocks of internet blackouts.

From Uber drivers to software developers, local residents say their businesses are buckling under the internet cuts that the government has rolled out in an attempt to stifle dissent.

"You always have to separate the internet, which is key to our economic life, from political matters," said Edson Chiado, a real estate business manager from Maputo told Context News.

Latin America

Diana Baptista, Data Journalist

El Salvador’s Congress approved a “right to be forgotten law” that will allow “inadequate, inaccurate, impertinent, outdated or excessive” data to be removed from social media platforms, search engines and journalism websites.

This legislation could allow the removal of information on public officials and public figures involved in wrongdoing and limit journalists’ reporting, El Faro reported.

This legislation, which also enables the removal of judicial and historical information, leaves it to the newly created Cybersecurity State Agency to determine which data can be erased from the Internet.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has warned that “right to be forgotten” laws should not be used to restrict information published by the media, as this goes against freedom of speech.

USA

Avi Asher-Schapiro, US Tech Correspondent

Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go and other apps, is developing a "Large Geospatial Model" (LGM) using millions of smartphone scans from its games. 

Built on its Visual Positioning System, the LGM offers spatial intelligence by mapping 3D geometry and semantic data from a pedestrian perspective. 

This AI aims to enhance how machines understand the world, but critics noted that users likely did not foresee their data driving such an advanced AI product.