YouTube Ignored Internal Warnings as Disturbing Content Flourished

In recent years, scores of people inside YouTube and Google, its owner, raised concerns about the mass of false, incendiary and toxic content that the world’s largest video site surfaced and spread. Conversations with over twenty people who work at, or recently left, YouTube reveal a corporate leadership unable or unwilling to act on these internal alarms for fear of throttling engagement.

China to Require Shot-Video Apps to Include 'Youth Mode'

China is stepping up controls over the country’s popular short-video apps as it seeks to cap the amount of time children spend on their screens. From June, all such apps will have to install a “youth mode” feature for parents that can limit what children watch and for how long, according to a note published on the website of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Privacy Advocates Question Zuckerberg's Call for Regulation

Mark Zuckerberg’s call for stepped up government oversight of the internet met a skeptical response from privacy advocates and other critics who are frustrated with Facebook Inc.’s repeated missteps and say that its billionaire chief executive officer shouldn’t get to make the rules. "I don’t think it’s ultimately for Mark Zuckerberg to decide how much regulation Mark Zuckerberg is prepared to accept," said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has lodged numerous complaints about the company’s handling of personal data.

Facebook Deletes Hundreds of Misleading Accounts Ahead of Indian Election

Facebook Inc. said it has taken down hundreds of pages and accounts that it said were working together to spread misleading content or spam ahead of elections in India set to begin April 11. The company said those it had removed included accounts it traced to employees of the Pakistani military’s public-relations wing and others linked to the opposition Indian National Congress party.

Zuckerberg Encourages 'More Active Role' for Internet Regulators

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg called for regulators to play a “more active role” in establishing rules that govern the internet, as the world’s largest social media network struggles to defuse criticism. Zuckerberg, whose company is under pressure for failing to adequately police content and protect user privacy on its platform, wrote in a Washington Post article that a “standardized approach” for removing content would help keep internet companies “accountable.”

U.S. Trade Negotiators Want China to Loosen Cybersecurity Law

U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators haggled over how to get Beijing to walk back China’s tough cybersecurity law as both sides push to resolve deep-seated irritants and settle a yearlong tariff fight. During discussions, issues related to Chinese regulations of information security and cross-border data flows, as well as high-tech sectors such as cloud computing, crowded the negotiation agenda, said people briefed on the matter.

Facebook Considers Restrictions on Live Videos After New Zealand Shootings

Facebook is considering putting restrictions on who can post live videos on the social network following the deadly shootings at two mosques in New Zealand that were broadcast by the gunman, the company's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said. The social media giant will monitor who can use its "Live" feature depending on such factors as prior violations of Facebook's community standards, Sandberg wrote in a blog post.

Tesla Hacker Claims to Extract Driver Data from Crashed Vehicles

The computers on Tesla vehicles keep everything that drivers have voluntarily stored on their cars, plus tons of other information generated by the vehicles including video, location and navigational data showing exactly what happened leading up to a crash, according to two security researchers. One researcher, who calls himself GreenTheOnly, describes himself as a “white hat hacker” and has extracted this kind of data from the computers in a salvaged Tesla Model S, Model X and two Model 3 vehicles, while also making tens of thousands of dollars cashing in on Tesla bug bounties in recent years.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Office Depot, Supplier Pay $35 Million FTC Fine for Unneeded Computer Repairs

Office Depot and its software supplier, Support.com, have paid $35 million to the FTC over allegations of faked malware reports that tricked customers into paying millions of dollars in computer repairs. According to the FTC, Office Depot (and Office Max, which merged with Office Depot in 2013) used a program called “PC Health Check,” which claimed to be a free tool offering a check-up to help diagnose if there were any problems or malware plaguing a device.

Microsoft Takes Control of 99 Websites Used by Group Linked to Iranian Hackers

Microsoft Corp. said that it has taken control of 99 web sites used by a malicious group connected to Iranian hackers who attacked targets including government agencies and businesses in order to steal confidential information. The group, which Microsoft refers to as Phosphorus, but is also known as APT 35, Charming Kitten, and Ajax Security Team, used spear-phishing attacks launched from web sites made to look like they belong to companies like Microsoft and Yahoo, according to the post.

British Spy Agency Finds 'New Risks' in Using Huawei's Telecom Equipment

The British government released a scathing assessment of the security risks posed by the Chinese telecom company Huawei to Britain’s telecom networks, as London weighs whether to heed U.S. calls to bar the firm from the next-generation 5G network over fears it will enable spying by the Chinese government and potential cyberattacks. This is the second consecutive year the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ — the British spy agency equivalent to the U.S. National Security Agency — has identified serious problems. This

HUD Sues Facebook, Says Ads Violated Federal Fair Housing Act

The Department of Housing and Urban Development sued Facebook for engaging in housing discrimination by allowing advertisers to restrict who is able to see ads on the platform based on characteristics like race, religion and national origin. In addition to targeting Facebook’s advertising practices, the housing department, known as HUD, claims in its lawsuit that the company uses its data-mining practices to determine which of its users are able to view housing-related ads.

U.S. National Security Officials Order Chinese Company to Sell Gay Dating App Grindr

U.S. national-security officials have ordered a Chinese company to sell gay-dating app Grindr, citing the risk that the personal data it collects could be exploited by Beijing to blackmail individuals with security clearances, according to people familiar with the situation. The move by U.S. officials signals that a range of social-media companies and apps will now be off limits to Chinese buyers, alongside deals involving sensitive technology such as chips and weapons.

Appeals Court Rules for Gay Dating App Grindr in Lawsuit Over Fake Profiles

A U.S. federal appeals court refused to hold Grindr liable to a New York man who said his former boyfriend used the gay dating app to post fake profiles, in a harassment campaign that caused more than 1,000 men to approach the victim for sex. The 3-0 decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against Matthew Herrick came in a closely watched case over how far the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 federal law meant to restrict pornography while allowing other speech online, should shield Internet-based companies from user abuses.

U.S. Census Bureau Seeks Help from Tech Giants to Combat 'Fake News'

The U.S. Census Bureau has asked tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter to help it fend off “fake news” campaigns it fears could disrupt the upcoming 2020 count, according to Census officials and multiple sources briefed on the matter. The push, the details of which have not been previously reported, follows warnings from data and cybersecurity experts dating back to 2016 that right-wing groups and foreign actors may borrow the “fake news” playbook from the last presidential election to dissuade immigrants from participating in the decennial count, the officials and sources told Reuters.

Facebook Says White Nationalist Content Has 'No Place on Our Services'

Facebook said that it would ban white nationalist content from its platforms, a significant policy change that bows to longstanding demands from civil rights groups who said the tech giant was failing to confront the powerful reach of white extremism on social media. The threat posed by white nationalism on Facebook was violently underlined this month when a racist gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand, using the platform to post live video of the attack. Facebook removed the video and the gunman’s account on Facebook and Instagram but the footage was widely shared on YouTube, Twitter and Reddit.

EU Countries Required to Start Sharing 5G Cybersecurity Risks

EU nations will be required to share data on 5G cybersecurity risks and produce measures to tackle them by the end of the year, the European Commission said, shunning U.S. calls to ban China’s Huawei Technologies across the bloc. The aim is to use tools available under existing security rules plus cross-border cooperation, the bloc’s executive body said, leaving it to individual EU countries to decide whether they want to ban any company on national security grounds.

Subscribe

The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.