In today’s ExchangeWire Digest: Netflix expands EMEA programmatic offering; Donald Trump considers tariffs to counter digital service taxes; and Meta employees discussed using copyrighted works to train AI models.

Netflix Expands EMEA Programmatic Offering

Netflix has expanded its programmatic offering within the EMEA region, and intends to rollout the revised package to APAC within the next few months. The revised offering is being released in conjunction with multiple third-party providers, specifically Google DV360, The Trade Desk, Innovid, DoubleVerify, and Integral Ad Science. Additionally, Netflix is in the process of rolling out its in-house advertising stack, with a proposed US launch in April following an initial release in Canada in November last year.

In a statement provided to The Media Leader, Damien Bernet, VP of EMEA Ad Sales at Netflix, commented, “We need programmatic to enable us to scale. We’ve heard loud and clear from advertisers for the past two years that they need this capability on programmatic.”

Donald Trump considers tariffs to counter digital service taxes

US President Donald Trump has signed a memo ordering the US trade representative to explore tariffs against countries that levy digital service taxes against American companies. These taxes were ostensibly designed to ensure US tech giants such as Google and Meta pay taxes appropriate to the revenue they generate in the country. Digital service taxes implemented by France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, are under scrutiny, while further probes are proposed against markets such as Canada.

The memo reads, “My administration will not allow American companies and workers and American economic and national security interests to be compromised by one-sided, anti-competitive policies and practices of foreign governments”

Meta employees discussed using copyrighted works to train AI models

Meta employees internally discussed using copyrighted works, without full permission, to train their AI models, according to court filings released in the ongoing Kadrey v Meta trial. In the discussions, Meta employees referenced the potential use of links aggregator that provides access to copyrighted works as an alternative to licenced data sources. Meta research engineer, Xavier Martinet, previously stated in the released email thread, “my opinion would be (in the line of ‘ask forgiveness, not for permission’): we try to acquire the books and escalate it to execs so they make the call.”

In further news on generative AI, Digiday reports that executives at digital media companies are observing increases in referral traffic generated from AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, even in circumstances where these publishers are actively blocking the spiders used by AI platforms to crawl their sites.