Proposed British Law Would Hold Social Media Executives Personally Liable

Social media executives could be held personally liable for harmful content distributed on their platforms, leaked plans for a long-awaited government crackdown obtained by the Guardian reveal. Under plans expected to be published soon, the government will legislate for a new statutory duty of care, to be policed by an independent regulator and likely to be funded through a levy on media companies.

Twitter Stops Blocking French Government Ads Encouraging Voting

Twitter said it has stopped blocking French government ads calling on people to vote after it came under fire from authorities for being overzealous in applying a law aimed at banning fake news. The social media company modified its policy after executives met with French government officials, saying it has now decided to authorize such ads “after many exchanges.”

House Hearing to Focus on Facebook, Google, White Nationalist Groups

House Democrats plan to grill Facebook and Google on their efforts to stop the spread of white nationalism and hate speech online, a hearing that comes in response to a series of violent, racially motivated attacks around the world, including a mass shooting in New Zealand last month. The scheduled April 9 hearing by the House Judiciary Committee seeks to probe “the impact white nationalist groups have on American communities and the spread of white identity ideology,” the panel announced, along with “what social media companies can do” to stop the spread of extremist content on the web.

SEC Issues Guidelines on Initial Coin Offerings as Securities

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidelines to help market participants determine whether a digital asset qualifies as a security under federal securities laws and needs to be registered with the regulator. The SEC has ramped up enforcement actions related to digital assets and initial coin offerings, which work much like initial public offerings for companies, but instead of selling shares, they raise capital by selling digital tokens or cryptocurrencies.

Apple Employee Files Complaint Against Customs Agents Over Device Search

Andreas Gal, the former CTO of Mozilla and a current employee of Apple, is filing a complaint against U.S. customs agents who allegedly tried to intimidate him into handing over his phone and laptop passcodes. Gal and the American Civil Liberties Union are asking the Department of Homeland Security for an investigation of an incident last year, which Gal recounted in a blog post titled “No one should have to travel in fear.”

Singapore Laws Would Hold Internet Outlets Responsible for Fake News

Singapore plans to introduce tough new laws to hold online outlets accountable for the spread of fake news, joining countries around the world in putting pressure on companies like Facebook Inc. to address the issue. The new measures will require online sites to show corrections to false or misleading claims and take down falsehoods, according to a bill put forward in Parliament by the government.

Justice Department Issues Antitrust Warning Over Oscars, Streaming Services

The Justice Department has warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that its potential rule changes limiting the eligibility of Netflix and other streaming services for the Oscars could raise antitrust concerns and violate competition law. According to a letter obtained by Variety, the chief of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, wrote to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson on March 21 to express concerns that new rules would be written “in a way that tends to suppress competition.”

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

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.