Each day, New Digital Age gathers the most interesting digital marketing industry news from around the web…
SOCIAL MEDIA
The Guardian – Aisha Down, 18th August 2026 (also in The Times, BBC, Sky News, and The Telegraph)
Social media on trial as $200bn case against Facebook and Instagram begins
Twenty-nine US states are seeking huge damages, claiming Meta’s platforms were addictive by design.
YOUTUBE
Performance Marketing World – Bethany Lee, 18th August 2026
YouTube changes view count metric and doubles monetisation threshold
Adjustments are set to increase view counts, while raising the bar for creators.
Digiday – Tim Peterson, 19th August 2026
Future of TV Briefing: YouTube Shorts gains ad dollars but needs to crack social budgets
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at advertisers’ spending on YouTube Shorts inventory as the platform raises the revenue-sharing threshold for creators.
AI
WSJ – Isabella Simonetti and Meghan Bobrowsky, 18th August 2026
Inside Big Tech’s Frantic Race to Quell the Growing Backlash to AI
Tech companies are holding listening sessions, offering guaranteed jobs and writing big checks to win public support for the data centres they need.
Performance Marketing World – Robin Langford, 18th August 2026
Over half of UK consumers ‘would let AI buy for them without approval’
New research indicates that the more considered the purchase, the more brands need to win trust beyond the chatbot.
Performance Marketing World – Joseph Arthur, 18th August 2026
ChatGPT Ads to expand into EEA and Switzerland ‘later this month’
The initial rollout will see no personalised adverts to ensure GDPR compliance, with advertisers granted access to limited measurement capabilities.
Digiday – Krystal Scanlon, 19th August 2026
OpenAI’s ads business hits Europe at the six month mark
OpenAI will begin serving ads to people using ChatGPT across 31 European markets on Monday (August 24), including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Marketing Brew – Kristina Monllos, 18th August 2026
IAB updates AI disclosure recommendations as legislation evolves
The organization’s general perspective is that “if it’s not labeled, and it causes consumer deception,” it could pose a problem, Caroline Giegerich, VP of AI at the IAB, said.
INFLATION
Retail Week – George Arnett, 19th August 2026 (also in Retail Gazette, The Times, The Guardian, BBC, Financial Times, The Telegraph)
The CPI measure of inflation rose to 2.9% in July thanks to the largest rise in gas prices for almost four years.
ANTITRUST
Financial Times – Michael Acton, 18th August 2026
Apple’s $100bn services business starts to feel the cost of antitrust attacks
Court rulings and new App Store rules are beginning to weigh on one of the iPhone maker’s profitable growth engines
FT – FT Reporters, 19th August 2026
Virgin Atlantic and Trainline investigating over ‘drip pricing’
The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a probe into three companies over concerns.
RETAIL MEDIA
Adweek – Lauren Johnson, 18th August 2026
4 Challenges Holding Back Retailers’ Ambitious Advertising Plans, According to the ANA
New report finds lack of measurement standards is curbing incremental retail media investment from big brands
Internet Retailing – Michael Bürgi, 18th August 2026
ANA updates efforts to standardize retail media network measurement
Given how fast the world of retail media networks has exploded in the last five years, it’s little wonder than any marketer using it gets a major headache when trying to assess which platform worked best — in part because side-to-side comparisons are near impossible to pull off.
