Social Media Sites Refuse to Remove Trump's Comments on Disinfectants

After President Trump suggested that disinfectants and ultraviolet light were possible treatments for the virus, his remarks immediately found their way onto Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites, and people rushed to defend the president’s statements as well as mock them. But Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have declined to remove Mr. Trump’s statements posted online in video clips and transcriptions of the briefing, saying he did not specifically direct people to pursue the unproven treatments.

ADL Report Says 'Steam Platform Harbors Extremists'

The Anti-Defamation League, a 107-year-old nonprofit founded to fight identity-based discrimination, released its report on “how the Steam platform harbors extremists.” “It was disturbingly easy for ADL’s researchers to locate Steam users who espouse extremist beliefs, using language associated with white supremacist ideology and subcultures, including key terms, common numeric hate symbols, and acronyms,” the report reads.

In Antitrust Move, Facebook to Let Users Transfer Photos to Google

Facebook Inc. will allow users in the United States and Canada to transfer photos and videos to a rival tech platform for the first time — a step that could assuage antitrust concerns by giving users an option to easily leave the company’s services, the social media network said. The tool lets Facebook users transfer data stored on its servers directly to another photo storage service, in this case Google Photos — a feature known as data portability.

FBI Director Argued for WhatsApp Encryption in Prior Legal Practice

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has been pushing tech companies to give law-enforcement authorities access to encrypted messages, once advocated the opposite view when representing Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp in a legal case involving the messaging service’s use of such technology, according to a new court filing. Mr. Wray was involved in the legal matter, which remains under seal, before he took the top job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was employed as a partner at King & Spalding LLC, Facebook said in a court filing.

ICANN Rejects Plan to Transfer Control of .org Domain Names

The organization that oversees Internet domain names has rejected a proposal to transfer management of the .org top-level domain from a nonprofit to a private equity group. ICANN said it wouldn’t approve the sale of .org operator Public Interest Registry because it would create “unacceptable uncertainty” for the domain, citing concerns about debt and the intentions of the for-profit firm Ethos Capital.

Democrats Seek Funding for Affordable Internet Access in Stimulus Package

A group of Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups are teaming up to push for federal funding to ensure affordable Internet access nationwide in the next coronavirus stimulus package. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) joined a dozen of the groups, including Common Sense Media and Demand Progress, in a livestream Wednesday to make the case for new funding.

U.S. Patent Office Refuses to Allow Artificial Intelligence Systems as Inventors

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ruled that artificial intelligence systems cannot be credited as an inventor in a patent, the agency announced. The group behind the applications had argued that the law’s references to an inventor as an “individual” could be applied to a machine, but the USPTO said this interpretation was too broad.

U.S. Trade Regulator Cites Counterfeit Goods on Foreign Amazon Sites

Several of Amazon.com Inc.’s foreign websites have been added to the U.S. trade regulator’s “Notorious Markets” report on marketplaces known for counterfeiting and piracy concerns. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative cited allegations of counterfeit goods sold on the Seattle-based online retailer’s websites in Canada, Germany, France, India and the United Kingdom.

Appeals Court Judges Question Wiretap Act Ruling for Facebook

Federal appeals court judges asked prosecutors why a lower court could seal a ruling that absolved Facebook from having to wiretap a criminal suspect using one of the company’s encrypted services. All three members of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewing the matter had tough questions for the U.S. Justice Department’s support for secrecy in a rare higher-court examination of the government’s power to compel technical assistance.

Parents Group Asks Twitter CEO to Help Combat 'Zoombombings'

Thousands of parents across the country are calling for Twitter to take additional steps to combat online trolls, citing concerns that individuals are using the platform to organize major disruptions of online classes taking place on the video conferencing service Zoom. In a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey spearheaded by the group ParentsTogether, nearly 9,000 parents pointed to the recent spread of disruptions known as "Zoombombings," which have interrupted or hijacked a number of online classes taking place on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surveillance Firms Selling Repurposed Tools to Track Virus, Quarantines

At least eight surveillance and cyber-intelligence companies attempting to sell repurposed spy and law enforcement tools to track the virus and enforce quarantines, according to interviews with executives and non-public company promotional materials reviewed by Reuters. Executives at four of the companies said they are piloting or in the process of installing products to counter coronavirus in more than a dozen countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Phishing Emails, Fake Bank Sites Trick Recipients of Stimulus Checks

Stimulus checks to help Americans weather the COVID-19 pandemic are quickly becoming a favorite target of scammers, who see the newly rolled out funds as an easy way to profit during the ongoing crisis. IBM is among the cybersecurity and software groups tracking the spike in scams directed at gaining access to these payments, which often involve phishing emails that trick individuals into clicking on links to the fake websites.

Europe's Privacy Law, GDPR, Failing to Live Up to Its Promises

Europe’s two-year-old online privacy law, heralded as a model to crack down on the invasive, data-hungry practices of the world’s largest technology companies, is struggling to fulfill its promise. Europe’s rules have been a victim of a lack of enforcement, poor funding, limited staff resources and stalling tactics by the tech companies, according to budget and staffing figures and interviews with government officials. Even some of the law’s biggest supporters are frustrated with how it has worked.

Apple Finds No Evidence Hackers Exploited Flaw in Mail App

Apple Inc. said it found no evidence of cyber-attackers exploiting newly discovered vulnerabilities in the Mail app for iPhone and iPad, software potentially used by more than a billion people worldwide. The U.S. company is countering assertions by cybersecurity company ZecOps Inc. that software flaws may have allowed hackers to infiltrate iPhones and other iOS devices for more than a year.

Bipartisan Bill Expands Internet Freedoms, Limits Social Media Censorship

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation intended to expand global internet freedom and cut down on social media and news censorship by governments in countries such as China and Russia. The Open Technology Fund Authorization Act would authorize the existing nonprofit Open Technology Fund (OTF) as an independent group under the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which also includes media groups such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

French Appeals Court Rules Against Amazon on Delivering Non-Essentials

Amazon lost an appeal of a French court decision ordering the e-commerce giant to stop delivering nonessential items in France during the coronavirus crisis to protect workers, raising questions about the immediate future of its business in the country. The Versailles Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling from last week that prompted Amazon to shutter its six mammoth warehouses around France for a week and put its 10,000 workers on paid furlough.

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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.