Zuckerberg Says Facebook Has 'Different Policy' from Twitter on Free Speech

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg took pains to distance his company from Twitter and its fight with U.S. President Donald Trump, as the White House moved to scrap a law protecting social media companies. Republican Trump, who accuses social media firms of bias against conservatives, without evidence, stepped up his attacks on Twitter after the company put a fact-checking label on two of his tweets about mail-in ballots for the first time.

Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Protections for Social Media Services

President Trump signed an executive order that could open the door for the U.S. government to assume oversight of political speech on the Internet, a broadside against Silicon Valley that a wide array of critics derided as a threat to free speech. The new directive seeks to change a federal law that has spared tech companies from being sued or held liable for most posts, photos and videos shared by users on their sites.

Arizona Sues Google for Collecting Information on Android Users

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sued Google, alleging the tech giant violated its users’ privacy by collecting information about their whereabouts even if they had turned off such digital tracking. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages in arguing that Google, the maker of the Android smartphone operating system, set up its mobile software in a way that enriched its advertising empire and deceived device owners about the protections actually afforded to their personal data, running afoul of Arizona consumer-protection laws that prohibit companies from misrepresenting their business practices.

Trump Threatens to Regulate or Shut Down Social Media Companies

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies for stifling conservative voices, a day after Twitter attached a warning to some of his tweets prompting readers to fact check the president’s claims. Without offering evidence, Trump again accused such platforms of bias, tweeting: “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”

Whistleblower Complaint Says Facebook Aware of Illegal Drug Activity

A consortium of Facebook insiders and critics filed a confidential whistleblower’s complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the social media giant is aware of illegal activity on its platform, such as the sale of opioids, and has failed to properly police it. The complaint, which was obtained by The Washington Post, includes dozens of pages of screenshots of opioids and other drugs for sale on Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram, with some having seemingly obvious tags such as “#buydrugsonline.”

Appeals Court Rejects Claims of Conservative Suppression on Social Media

A federal appeals court is rejecting claims that tech companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and Apple have conspired to suppress conservative viewpoints on their platforms. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed by the conservative legal organization Freedom Watch and far-right activist Laura Loomer.

Twitter Refuses to Remove Trump Posts Linking Scarborough to Murder

Twitter hasn't removed tweets by President Donald Trump that falsely suggest Joe Scarborough, a former U.S. congressman, may have murdered a staffer even as calls for the company to remove the posts mount. The tweets, which Trump shared with his more than 80 million followers, suggest without evidence that the staffer Lori Klausutis could have been killed by the lawmaker in 2001.

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China's Health-Tracking QR Codes Expand Role, Raising Concerns

China’s health-tracking QR codes, which have played a key part in the country’s successful containment of the coronavirus, now look set to play a much broader role in daily life as local authorities dream up new uses for the technology. Embedded in the popular WeChat and Alipay smartphone apps, the codes use self-reported and automatically collected travel and medical data to give people a red, yellow or green rating indicating the likelihood of having the virus.

Irish Data Protection Commission Criticized for Slow Facebook Probe

Silicon Valley’s main data-protection watchdog in Europe came under attack from one of the region’s leading privacy advocates for taking too long to wrap up probes into Facebook Inc. and its Instagram and WhatsApp units. Max Schrems’s group Noyb in an open letter called on European Union authorities to “take action” against the Irish Data Protection Commission, which has yet to issue any significant fines exactly two years after strict EU rules empowered the regulator to levy hefty penalties for serious privacy violations.

Trump Considers Creating Panel to Review Anticonservative Bias on Social Media

President Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anticonservative bias on social media, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others. The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine allegations of online bias and censorship, these people said.

Lawmakers Question TikTok Founder About Children, Links to China

Two leading Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a letter to the founder of the popular video sharing app TikTok, asking about potentially illegal use of data about children and ties to the Chinese government. Representatives Greg Walden, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the ranking member of a consumer subcommittee, asked what information was collected about American users, what data is shared with the Chinese Communist Party or other state-owned entities and whether information on Americans is stored in China.

Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Probing Apple Over User Recordings

Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Apple’s main regulator in the European Union, said it was in contact with the company after a whistleblower called for action over a program that listens to users’ recordings. he regulator acted after Thomas Le Bonniec, a former Apple contractor, wrote to European data protection regulators on May 20 to push for investigations into these practices.

Apple, Google Launch Coronavirus 'Exposure Notification' Tool

Apple and Google launched software that will allow public health authorities around the world to create mobile applications that notify people when they may have come in contact with someone who’s been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The effort, which the two tech giants call an “exposure notification” tool and which utilizes Bluetooth radios within smartphones, will be part of a new software update the companies are pushing out.

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