GME3: Florida Man Upsets Casinos, (Dis)Information Wars, and Write on for Writers, Game On for Actors

(Dis)Information Wars

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has come into effect and is expected to face some backlash from social media companies in the coming weeks. The DSA aims to force social media companies to enact stricter policies around the dissemination of inaccurate or otherwise harmful content on their platforms. 

This sets the stage for a conflict with Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), who has been especially litigious since taking over the social media brand. While X withdrew from the EU’s code of conduct earlier this year, they have no choice but to comply with the DSA if they want to continue operating in the European market.

This law came into effect at an interesting time, with upcoming elections in several European countries, including Slovakia, Luxembourg, and Poland. European elections, like ours in North America, have become bombarded with disinformation. It will be interesting to see if the DSA can slow the proliferation of fake news on social media. This comes after the EU released a report showing the efforts to stop the spread of Russian disinformation on social media in the year after the 2022 Ukrainian invasion were insufficient.

This is substantially different from the American approach to the subject, where a federal appeals court ruled that the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment by urging social media companies to remove harmful content. If the EU is successful in enforcing the DSA it could set a precedent for how social media companies should treat harmful content across the globe.

Entertainment

Write on for Writers, Game On for Actors

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is finally over as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning. A deal was reached between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Sticking points in the negotiations included the use of generative AI in the creative process, minimum staffing requirements for writers’ rooms, and streaming residuals for writers.

Some of the specifics of the use of AI include:

• AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the MBA.

• A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services if the company consents and provides that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.

• The Company must disclose to the writer if any materials given to the writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.

• The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited by MBA or other law.

However, despite this victory for writers, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA) remains on the picket line as their strike continues.

In fact, the actors have voted to expand their strike to the video game industry, prohibiting members from contributing any voice work, motion capture, or stunts. Actors face similar issues in the games industry as they do in the movie industry – wages, safety issues, and the use of AI. This is the first strike we’ve seen extended to video game studios since 2016 when actors struck over residuals from voice acting work. The 2016 strike lasted 340 days, and to this day is the longest SAG-AFTRA strike in history. 

Now that the WGA strike is settled, we’ll likely see studios wanting to return to the negotiating table with actors, so it’s hard to say how video game studios will be affected by this development.