News-July-16-2026

July 16, 2026 — The United Kingdom's communications regulator opened an Online Safety Act investigation into TikTok's child-safety age-assurance systems, the European Commission issued Digital Markets Act guidance requiring Google to open Android AI-assistant interoperability and share certain Search data, xAI sued a Grok user over alleged nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes involving minors, and China said 29 countries had signed an agreement in Shanghai to establish a World AI Cooperation Organization.

Contents

1. Ofcom investigates TikTok over child-safety age inference
2. European Commission orders Google DMA access for rival AI assistants
3. xAI sues Grok user over alleged CSAM deepfakes
4. Twenty-nine countries sign agreement for World AI Cooperation Organization

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Ofcom investigates TikTok over child-safety age inference

The United Kingdom's communications regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into TikTok under the Online Safety Act over whether the platform's age-assurance approach adequately determines which users are children. Politico reported that Ofcom's concern focused on TikTok's use of age inference to estimate users' ages and decide whether child-safety protections should apply. The inquiry is significant for AI law because age-estimation and inference systems are becoming a central compliance mechanism in online-safety regulation, child-protection duties, and platform-risk governance.

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European Commission orders Google DMA access for rival AI assistants

The European Commission issued two specification decisions under the Digital Markets Act requiring Google to provide rival AI assistants comparable interoperability with Android features and to share certain Google Search ranking, query, click, and view data with competing search providers for free on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The Commission said the Android decision requires Google to give third-party AI assistants effective access to the same Android functionalities that Gemini can use, while the Search decision covers both real-time and historical search data access for eligible rivals. AP reported that the measures are part of the EU's effort to enforce DMA obligations against designated gatekeepers and to prevent dominant platforms from using mobile operating-system and search-control advantages to foreclose AI and search competition.

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xAI sues Grok user over alleged CSAM deepfakes

xAI filed suit against a South Carolina man alleging he used Grok to generate nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes involving minors. CNN reported that xAI alleged the defendant violated the platform's terms of service and that the company described the lawsuit as part of its response to misuse of generative-AI tools for child sexual-abuse imagery. Al Jazeera separately reported that the complaint concerned alleged exploitation of Grok to sexualize minors, making the dispute a notable example of an AI developer using civil litigation to police user misuse of image-generation systems.

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Twenty-nine countries sign agreement for World AI Cooperation Organization

Reuters reported that China, Russia, Brazil, and 26 other countries signed an agreement in Shanghai to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization as a forum for international cooperation on artificial intelligence governance. Reuters reported that the United States was not among the signatories, while China described the body as a response to what it called the Global South's need for fairer AI governance and broader participation in setting AI rules. The development is significant for AI law because it creates a China-hosted international governance venue alongside existing U.N., OECD, G7, and EU-centered AI governance processes.