Apple and Meta Fined | Week in Tech | FAO Flash Appeal
Under Articles for The Brief from April 27th 2025
European Commission Fines Apple and Meta for Violating the Digital Markets Act
This past Wednesday the 23rd April, the European Commission imposed a 500 million euro fine on Apple and a 200 million fine on Meta, as Apple’s rules for its App Store and Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ advertising model both violate the Digital Markets Act (DMA), while threatening consumer’s rights.
Despite earlier warnings made by the European Commission on the 24th of June 2024 and on the first of July 2024, Apple and Meta still managed to be in breach of the DMA. Now, the Commission has put on a tighter grip: giving Apple and Meta 60 days to comply with their decisions- where failure to do so could result in additional penalties.
“The DMA is a crucial instrument to unlock potential, choice, and growth by ensuring digital players can operate in contestable and fair markets: protecting European consumers and levels in the playing field,” said Teresa Ribera- the Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.
It does not only protect the business, but its consumers, ensuring that citizens have full control of how and when their data is used online. “The decisions adopted today find that both Apple and Meta have taken away this free choice from their users and are required to change their behaviour,” noted Henna Virkkunnen- the Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.
It is a regulatory tool which establishes a set of clearly defined criteria which digital platforms must comply- these include, obligations and prohibitions- the European Commission is its sole enforcer.
While Apple has been found breaching its anti-steering obligation under the DMA, Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data.
For Apple, the violation was thus found in their App Store, as they found that instead of informing their customers- free of charge- of alternative offers outside the App Store, Apple has set a number of restrictions on these. This causes app developers not to be fully able to benefit from the advantages of alternative distribution channels outside the App Store. Additionally, consumers cannot fully benefit from alternative and cheaper offers as Apple prevents app developers from directly informing consumers of such offers.
Because Apple has failed to demonstrate that these restrictions are objectively necessary and proportionate, the Commission has ordered Apple to remove the technical and commercial restrictions on steering.
While for Meta, their ‘Consent or Pay’ advertising model, was found not to be compliant with the DMA. Introduced in 2023, this advertising model gives EU users of Facebook and Instagram a choice between consenting to personal data combination for personalised advertising or paying a monthly subscription for an ad-free service.
The Week in Tech
Researchers, like Anthropic, are beginning to question and explore whether AI chatbots can one day become conscious and consider moral and ethical questions: growing the debate on the potential of AI’s humanlike behaviour, writes Kevin Roose of the New York Times.
Governments and companies around the world are increasingly seeing the potential technology of AI in modernizing aging legacy systems- yet, there are concerns about the over-reliance on AI, as human input avoids costly errors, says Bloomberg’s Anna Irrera.
The Financial Times’ Louise Lucas reports that Generative AI’s data centres have been reducing their energy usage and consumption bringing some optimism to the climate cause - only sucking up to 1.5 percent of total energy consumption last year.
How much electricity do your chatbot messages consume? Hugging Face engineer Julien Delevande has built a tool to track this- aiming to bring attention and awareness of the negative effects AI models have on the environment, reports TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers.
The European Commission has fined Apple with €500 and Meta with €200 million as they have breached the Digital Markets Act, who must act within 60 days otherwise they risk periodic penalty payments.
Jaspreet Singh from Reuteur’s reports that Meta’s AI Ray-Ban smart glasses - which will allow for real time responses of what people are seeing from AI - will expand its access to Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Open AI’s plan to change from nonprofit to profit-driven is now facing legal and public opposition as Elon Musk and other former employees say that it threatens Open AI’s mission to benefit humanity, writes Gerrit de Vynck, of the Washington Post.
Expanding AI business in India: San Francisco AI company, Databricks, will invest more than $250 million and increase its headcount by over 50% in India, writes Reuters' Shivani Tanna from Bengaluru.
FAO Increases Emergency Aid in Myanmar Following the Aftermath of the Earthquake
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has called for emergency aid following the aftermath of the earthquake on March 28th, requiring $8.3 million to reach nearly 71 000 people - approximately 14,400 households.
OHCHR reports that as of April 2025, more than 19.9 million people in Myanmar- over a third of the population- are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.
The earthquake severely affected and destroyed livelihoods, infrastructure, agricultural equipment and inputs, and food production. Many farmers lost their homes and are now facing critical shortages.
“The United Nations preliminary analysis shows that over nine million people were affected by this earthquake,” said FAO Representative in Myanmar Yuka Makino. “Farmers lost their fields. Families are without homes and entire communities are struggling to rebuild.”
Farmers are now facing shortages on seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs, making this issue ever so pressing and FAO’s mission urgent since the monsoon planting season is coming ahead, in June 2025.
FAO is scaling up aid to support and help their rural communities recover between April and September 2025. Providing agricultural inputs, and financial and infrastructure support to rural families, their goals are to restore food production, provide rapid income support, and rebuild essential infrastructure.
Its vision is to protect lives, the economy, heritage, and environment, through inclusive approach, towards sustainable development in Myanmar.
To add, the disaster caused widespread destruction across Myanmar’s key agricultural regions, such as Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, and Shan. Specifically, over 3.7 million hectares of croplands in these regions were exposed to the earthquake and suffered from its effects. This destruction severely affects Myanmar's food production as these regions account for a significant share of the country’s livestock, and produces one-third of Myanmar’s cereals and nearly 80% of its maize.
The earthquake also triggered landslides, tremors and cracks, hitting townships such as Tanguoo, Sagaing, Shwebo, Oktwin, and Nyaungshwe. These destroyed and wiped out rice, oilseeds, and vegetables standing crops. Livestock shelters, feedstock supplies, and fishponds were also severely destroyed.
Among other purposes, they outline response plans under the Flash Appeal- a rapid request for humanitarian response after a sudden crisis. These include; distribution of seeds and fertilizers for monsoon and winter planting, providing vegetable kits for quick food access within 4-6 weeks, and cash-for-work schemes to rebuild infrastructures such as irrigation canals, farm roads, and markets.
Makino further notes that these issues related to food insecurity are exacerbated with the compound crises that Myanmar has been facing - regarding challenges from ongoing instability, disrupted supply chains, limited labour, and difficulties in accessing agricultural inputs. These overlapping challenges and issues make FAO’s mission even more critical.
“No farmer must be left behind in the recovery process,” highlights FAO. Their response aims to reach 400,000 people and is part of the broader Humanitarian efforts under the UN Myanmar Earthquake Flash Appeal and the 2025 Humanitarian Needs Response Plan, in which they require $28.5 million in total funding.