Publishers Sue Internet Archive for Copying 1.3 Million Books

A group of publishers sued Internet Archive, saying that the nonprofit group’s trove of free electronic copies of books is robbing authors and publishers of revenue at a moment when it is desperately needed. Internet Archive has made more than 1.3 million books available for free online, according to the complaint, which were scanned and available to one borrower at a time for a period of 14 days.

Amazon Removes Racist Language from Some Listings for Headphones

Amazon says it has removed images with racist language from some listings for headphones on its UK site, The Financial Times reported. Users posted screenshots to Twitter of search results for “AirPods” and “bluetooth headphones” that appeared on the e-commerce site. Instead of photos of headphones, the search results showed images that contained the N-word.

Conservatives Divided Over Trump's Moves to Regulate Social Media

Conservatives are deeply divided over President Trump’s executive order directing the federal government to consider stripping some of the legal protections afforded to the social media platforms. Some conservatives are appalled by Trump’s executive order, viewing it as an authoritarian power grab that will lead to government censorship, an explosion of frivolous lawsuits and a massive expansion of the regulatory state.

Trump's Action Against Social Media Services Prompts Free Speech Concerns

President Trump has threatened to shut down Twitter, regulate social media and expand the government’s power to oversee the Web — all part of an assault against Silicon Valley tech giants that he has long accused of trying to undermine his reelection. But what began this week as a verbal spat has since evolved into a simmering legal battle in the digital age, leading experts across the political spectrum to fear for the future of free expression on the Internet.

Lawmakers Want FCC to Speed Up Broadband Access for Rural Areas

Two House lawmakers are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to speed up broadband infrastructure funding to rural parts of the U.S., in a bid to close gaps in high-speed Internet service exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. A bill introduced by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) and Fred Upton (R., Mich.), former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would tap $16 billion in funding the FCC is planning to start doling out this fall.

House Democrats Want FTC to Investigate TikTok's Child Privacy Agreement

A group of House Democrats called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate allegations that social media platform TikTok had violated a child privacy agreement. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), and a dozen other Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, asking that the FTC look into a complaint submitted earlier this month that alleged child privacy violations by TikTok.

Tile Urges European Regulators to Open Anticompetitive Probe of Apple

Tile, the maker of Bluetooth trackers that help find lost keys and other items, is urging European regulators to open an investigation into Apple for alleged anticompetitive behavior. In a letter sent to Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief, Tile said Apple made changes to its operating system that hurt the small California start-up and gave Apple an advantage as it plans to launch a product that is similar to Tile’s.

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.

  • Read the article: CNET

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.

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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.