House Hearing Focuses on Tech Firms' Impact on News Organizations

Congress opened its antitrust investigation of big tech with a hearing focused on how platforms like Facebook and Google may have harmed publishers by siphoning off profits from news organizations. Lawmakers will hear testimony from executives at News Corp, the owner of The Wall Street Journal and other publications; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and the News Media Alliance, a trade group representing 2,000 news organizations, including The New York Times.

Despite Enforcement, Illegal Drug Markets Continue to Appear Online

Despite enforcement actions over the last six years that led to the shutdown of about half a dozen sites — including the most recent two — there are still close to 30 illegal online markets, according to DarknetLive, a news and information site for the dark web. That means the fight against online drug sales is starting to resemble the war on drugs in the physical world: There are raids. Sites are taken down; a few people are arrested. And after a while the trade and markets pop up somewhere else.

Top U.S. Antitrust Official Says He'll Protect High-Tech Competition

The Justice Department’s top antitrust official said he would act to protect competition in the digital marketplace, his first public remarks since news reports that the department was preparing to investigate Alphabet Inc.’s Google. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, in remarks delivered via video to a Tel Aviv University antitrust conference, didn’t specifically mention plans for an investigation of big tech firms, but he noted that a close examination of the digital economy is important in markets where one or two companies are dominant.

In Settlement, Infowars Agrees to Pay $15,000 to Create of Pepe the Frog

Infowars was forced to pay $15,000 in a settlement to the creator of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon amphibian who had been co-opted as a meme by right-wing Internet users, after selling a poster that featured the character on its website. Pepe’s creator, Matt Furie, had brought a copyright lawsuit against Alex Jones’s website after it began selling posters that featured Pepe alongside personalities such as Milo Yiannopoulos, Roger Stone and Diamond and Silk.

Virus Shuts Down Philadelphia's Online Court System for Weeks

As Baltimore deals with a devastating malware attack, the Philadelphia court shutdown is raising similar questions about how cities can respond when crucial services are suddenly lost. The outage has now stretched on for weeks, forcing attorneys to use paperwork filed in person and raising difficult questions about who is slipping through the cracks of the broken system.

103 Public Interest Groups Urge McConnell to Restore Net Neutrality

A coalition of more than 100 activist groups is urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to take up a bill in the upper chamber to restore net neutrality after the House voted overwhelmingly for the legislation earlier this year. The 103 public interest groups are urging McConnell in a letter to immediately bring the Save the Internet Act, which would reinstate Obama-era net neutrality rules, to a vote in the Senate.

Lawmakers Ramping Up Antitrust Scrutiny of Big Tech Companies

Legislation and more regulation of technology companies such as Google and Facebook is possible, but lawmakers are approaching scrutiny with an open mind, the federal lawmaker leading an antitrust investigation of the industry said. “This is an investigation to collect the best data and best information,” said Rep. David Cicilline, the Rhode Island Democrat who leads the House Antitrust, Commercial & Administrative Law Subcommittee.

U.S. Tech Firms Say Huawei Ban Will Hurt Their Finances, Innovation

U.S. technology companies have told the Commerce Department that the Trump administration’s ban on selling to the Chinese tech giant Huawei could significantly harm their bottom lines and might damage their ability to develop new technological innovations, including those needed by the U.S. military. The companies are making the claims in applications for licenses that would let them do business with Huawei after the prohibition goes into effect in August, according to people familiar with the licensing process.

G20 Finance Ministers to Cooperate on Rules for Closing Tech Tax Loopholes

Group of 20 finance ministers agreed to compile common rules to close loopholes used by global tech giants such as Facebook to reduce their corporate taxes, a copy of the bloc’s draft communique obtained by Reuters showed. Facebook, Google, Amazon, and other large technology firms face criticism for cutting their tax bills by booking profits in low-tax countries regardless of the location of the end customer.

FTC, FDA Tell Vaping Companies to Include Warnings on Social Media

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned a handful of "e-liquid," or vape, companies that they -- and their social media influencers -- must follow the same advertising rules as everyone else. Specifically, ads for vaping products that contain nicotine must include warning labels, as nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Local Governments Fighting 'Pandemic' from Ransomware, FBI Agent Says

Local governments across the country are facing a growing threat of cyberattacks and escalating ransom demands, as an attack in Baltimore has crippled thousands of computers for a month. “Ransomware is a pandemic in the United States,” said Joel DeCapua, supervisory special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cyber division, referring to a particularly devastating form of malicious software.

Hackers May Be Able to Intercept Typing Sounds on Smartphones

Thanks to the increasing sophistication of smartphone technology, hackers soon may be able to intercept and analyze the sounds of typing — and figure out exactly what people are writing on their devices. A growing body of academic research suggests that acoustic signals, or sound waves, produced when we type on our phones could be used by hackers to glean text messages, passwords, PINs and other private information.

Laws Hamper Presidential Candidates from Getting Cyberattack Assistance

One year out from the 2020 elections, presidential candidates face legal roadblocks to acquiring the tools and assistance necessary to defend against the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns that plagued the 2016 presidential campaign. Federal laws prohibit corporations from offering free or discounted cybersecurity services to federal candidates. The same law also blocks political parties from offering candidates cybersecurity assistance because it is considered an “in-kind donation.”

Maine Governor Signs Bill Banning ISPs from Using Consumer Data Without Consent

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed into law one of the nation's strongest privacy bills, banning Internet service providers (ISPs) from using, selling or distributing consumer data without their consent. The Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Consumer Information would prohibit any ISPs in Maine from refusing to serve a customer, penalizing them or offering a discount in order to pressure consumers into allowing the ISP to sell their data.

Senator Seeks Information from Healthcare Companies After Breaches

A hack of health-care data involving a medical bill collector and two major diagnostics companies has grown to almost 20 million people, and is now attracting more questions from a key member of Congress. U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who is a leading cybersecurity advocate in Congress, wrote Quest Diagnostics Inc. asking about the breach, saying that contractors like the American Medical Collection Agency, an Elmsford, New York-based collections firm,were a frequent target.

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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.