U.S. Carried Out Secret Cyber Operation Against Iran After Saudi Attack

The United States carried out a secret cyber operation against Iran in the wake of the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, which Washington and Riyadh blame on Tehran, two U.S. officials have told Reuters. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation took place in late September and took aim at Tehran’s ability to spread “propaganda.”

Federal Reserve Governor Says Facebook's Libra Faces Challenges

U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said that Facebook’s efforts to launch a Libra cryptocurrency must overcome a “core set of legal and regulatory challenges” before facilitating a single payment. Brainard added that central banks’ efforts to conduct monetary policy could be “complicated” by widespread adoption of an external stablecoin like Libra.

Twitter Says 'World Leaders Not Above Our Policies Entirely'

Facing a request to boot President Trump from its platform, Twitter affirmed that world leaders are not above its rules but defended its discretion to preserve some tweets that violate its policies. The update, detailed in a blog post, seemed unlikely to quiet increasingly forceful appeals for technology giants to regulate Trump’s use of social media, which is central to his political strategy.

Prosecutors Charge South Korean Man with Operating Child Porn Network

Federal prosecutors have filed multiple charges against a 23-year-old South Korean man accused of running what they call the world's "largest dark web child porn marketplace." The now-shuttered English-language site, called "Welcome to Video," contained more than 200,000 unique videos or almost 8 terabytes of data showing sex acts involving children, toddlers and infants, according to the 18-page criminal indictment, and processed 7,300 Bitcoin transactions worth more than $730,000.

Trump to Discuss Retaliation Against Italy for Tax on Digital Companies

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to raise the possibility of U.S. retaliation against an Italian tax on digital companies when he meets with President Sergio Mattarella, a senior administration official said. Speaking with reporters on Tuesday ahead of the White House visit, the official said Trump would likely express the desire that the tax disagreement be resolved at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD), but noted that the United States was prepared to counter any such levy.

YouTube Allows Violent Parody Video of Trump Shooting Journalists

A violent parody depicting President Trump shooting journalists and attacking political opponents (both Democrats and Republicans) — which had been available on YouTube for more than a year — saw a spike in traffic after it aired over the weekend during a conference hosted by the pro-Trump group American Priority at the president's Miami-area golf resort. Critics warned the video could incite real-world violence, but YouTube said the video does not violate its policies because it is "clearly fictional." The company added an age restriction to the video requiring viewers to confirm they are adults before they can watch it.

France Pushes for Creation of European-Wide Regulator of Digital Platforms

France is pushing for the creation of a European-wide regulator of digital platforms such as Google to sanction possible abuse of power, a French presidency official said, citing a dispute over EU copyright law as an example. Google said last month it would stop showing news snippets from European publishers on search results for its French users to comply with a new European copyright law, prompting anger in Paris.

Zuckerberg Defends Meetings with Conservative Politicians, Pundits

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended himself after receiving pushback over a report that he has recently held a string of private meetings with conservative politicians, pundits and journalists. Behind closed doors over the past several months, Politico reported, Zuckerberg has been meeting with top GOP figures, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Fox News host Tucker Carlson and conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt.

Apple Disputes Reports That It Shares Browsing Data with Chinese Firm

Apple is refuting press reports that it sends some users' private browsing data to Google and the Chinese tech company Tencent, saying it safeguards people's information in its own systems and doesn't send most easily identifiable website information to other companies. The concerns stemmed from reports that focused on Apple's "fraudulent website warning" system.

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European Court to Hear Arguments in Google Antitrust Case in February

Alphabet unit Google’s fight against a 2.4-billion-euro ($2.64 billion) EU antitrust fine will be played out over three days in February 2020 at Europe’s second-highest court, according to parties involved in the case. The Luxembourg-based General Court will hear arguments from Google and a tech lobbying group backing its appeal while the European Commission will be supported by Germany and eight companies.

Online Bank Files Trademark Suit Against Facebook Over Calibra Logo

Online bank Current has filed a trademark infringement suit against Facebook over the logo of the social media company’s new financial services subsidiary, Calibra. The complaint, filed October 10 at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, said Facebook’s Calibra logo design is “nearly identical” to Current’s logo.

Lawmakers Study Bot-Generated Social-Media Messages About E-cigarettes

A congressional committee and the Massachusetts attorney general are investigating whether millions of bot-generated social-media messages about e-cigarettes have been misleading consumers about safety and health issues. In information requests to five big manufacturers of vaping products in August, House investigators asked each of the firms whether it had used social media bots to market its products.

U.S. Financial Regulators Issue Warnings About Registering Digital Assets

Three U.S. financial regulators issued a warning to firms with registered digital assets that they have an obligation to follow securities laws prohibiting money laundering and requiring disclosure of suspicious activity. The notice, from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, seeks to clarify firms’ obligations under antimoney laundering, bank secrecy and counter terrorist-financing laws when using digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Chinese Communist Party Has Access to Data on 100 Million Cellphones

The Chinese Communist Party appears to have “superuser” access to all the data on more than 100 million cellphones, owing to a back door in a propaganda app that the government has been promoting aggressively this year. An examination of the code in the app shows it enables authorities to retrieve every message and photo from a user’s phone, browse their contacts and Internet history, and activate an audio recorder inside the device, according to a U.S.-funded analysis.

SEC Stops Telegram's $1.7 Billion Unregistered Digital Token Offering

U.S. authorities said they have halted a $1.7 billion unregistered digital token offering by the messaging service Telegram Group Inc and its TON Issuer subsidiary. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it had received a temporary restraining order against the two offshore entities, which the regulator said had failed to register to sell 2.9 billion digital tokens called “Grams” to initial investors globally, including 1 billion to U.S. buyers.

Civil Liberties, Tech Groups Criticize Bill on Online Extremism

Civil liberties and technology groups have been sharply critical of a draft bill from House Homeland Security Committee Democrats on dealing with online extremism, saying it would violate First Amendment rights and could result in the surveillance of vulnerable communities. Over the summer, Democrats circulated an early draft of the bill seeking input from stakeholders, but the proposal received almost immediate pushback.

Warren Buys Ad with Deliberate Lies to Test Facebook's Response

Elizabeth Warren bought a political ad on Facebook that purposefully includes false claims about Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and President Trump to goad the social network to remove misinformation in political ads ahead of the 2020 presidential election. In a series of tweets, the Democratic presidential candidate said she had deliberately made an ad with lies because Facebook had previously allowed politicians to place ads with false claims.

Apple, Google Remove Apps After Criticism from Chinese Government

Less than a day after Apple found itself the subject of harsh criticism by an outlet of the Chinese government, the tech giant appeared to bow to pressure from Beijing as it pulled an app from its App Store that was being used by pro-democracy protesters to track police activity against demonstrators in Hong Kong. But, Apple wasn’t alone, as Google said it also removed a mobile game app from its Google Play store that had raised the hackles of Chinese officials.

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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.