Amid U.K. Antitrust Probe, Facebook Delays Integration with Giphy

Facebook paused the integration of animated search engine Giphy into its services after United Kingdom regulators opened an antirust investigation into the recent acquisition, according to a source familiar with the matter. The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it was looking into whether Facebook's move "may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services."

California, Washington Investigating Amazon's Business Practices

State investigators in California and Washington have been looking into whether Amazon abuses its power over sellers on the tech giant’s site, according to people involved with the inquiry. In the last several months, California has asked about the company’s private label products and whether it uses data from sellers to inform which products it sells, according to two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution by the company.

EU Planning to File Formal Antitrust Charges Against Amazon

The European Union is planning formal antitrust charges against Amazon.com Inc. over its treatment of third-party sellers, according to people familiar with the matter, expanding the bloc’s efforts to rein in the alleged abuses of power by a handful of large U.S. technology companies. The charges — the EU’s first set of formal antitrust accusations against the company — would be the commission’s latest step in a nearly two-year probe into Amazon’s alleged mistreatment of sellers that use its platform.

Zoom Says China Targets Meetings on Tiananmen Square Anniversary

Zoom Video Communications Inc. said the Chinese government demanded the termination of four public meetings held on its video conferencing platform on June 4 to commemorate the 31st anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown. Zoom said it did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese government and that it would not allow further requests from China to impact users outside the country.

Google Limits Some Ads to Reduce Discrimination in Housing, Jobs, Credit

Alphabet Inc.’s Google said it was tackling unlawful discrimination by barring housing, employment and credit ads from being targeted to its users based on their postal code, gender, age, parental status or marital status. The new policy, which will take effect by the end of the year in the United States and Canada, comes more than a year after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) charged Facebook Inc. for selling discriminatory housing ads and said it was looking into similar concerns about Google and Twitter Inc.

Biden Pushes Facebook to Take Action on Trump's Controversial Posts

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee in November, urged his supporters to petition Facebook to stop disinformation and hold politicians, including President Donald Trump, accountable for spreading lies. The plea from the former vice president marks an escalation of already taut tensions over the company's refusal to remove controversial statements made by Trump that referred to violence against protesters.

Europol Breaks Up Illegal Video Streaming Ring That Served 2 Million People

European police busted an illegal streaming ring that provided service to 2 million people and was so sophisticated that it had its own customer-service team. The criminal network operated for over five years and offered more than 40,000 channels, movies, documentaries and other content, according to European police coordination agency Europol.

Senator Wants FTC to Probe TikTok Clone Zynn for Predatory Pricing

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Zynn, a clone of short-form video app TikTok that pays users to watch videos and has rocketed up app store charts. Zynn's layout is nearly identical to that of TikTok, an app from rival Beijing-based company ByteDance that has well over 100 million downloads in the United States.

European Data Protection Board to Probe TikTok's Data Collection Practices

Chinese video app TikTok’s practices are to be examined by an EU task force, the bloc’s privacy watchdog said, which also warned EU police forces against using facial recognition software from U.S. company Clearview AI. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said it would set up a task force to assess TikTok’s activities across the bloc after a request from an EU lawmaker concerned about its data collection methods and security and privacy risks.

Four Republican Senators Urge FCC to Review Section 230 of CDA

Four Republican senators urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review whether to revise liability protections for internet companies after U.S. President Donald Trump urged action. Trump said last month he wants to “remove or change” a provision of a law that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and directed a U.S. Commerce Department agency to petition the FCC to take action within 60 days.

3M Sues Amazon Merchant for Selling Masks at 18 Times List Price

3M Co. filed a lawsuit against a merchant selling masks on Amazon. com Inc. for more than 18 times their list price, the manufacturer’s latest attempt to help bring some order to the chaotic market for protective equipment. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in California, 3M said Mao Yu and his affiliated companies sold what he described as 3M masks for an average price of $23.21 each on Amazon.

Indian IT Firm Offers Hacking Services to Spy on 10,000 Email Accounts

A little-known Indian IT firm offered its hacking services to help clients spy on more than 10,000 email accounts over a period of seven years. New Delhi-based BellTroX InfoTech Services targeted government officials in Europe, gambling tycoons in the Bahamas, and well-known investors in the United States including private equity giant KKR and short seller Muddy Waters, according to three former employees, outside researchers, and a trail of online evidence.

Twitch Users Report Flurry of Copyright Notices for Music Clips

Twitch has acknowledged a “sudden influx” of DMCA takedown requests against streamers for allegedly violating music copyright in clips captured by viewers between 2017 and 2019. As each request potentially represents a strike against an account, this raises the threat of permanent bans for streamers who might get three strikes with relatively little warning — and for clips they didn’t even choose to create.

Homeland Security Warns Windows 10 Users About 'Wormable' Bug

Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory unit is warning Windows 10 users to make sure that their systems are fully patched, after exploit code for a “wormable” bug was published online. The code takes advantage of a security vulnerability patched by Microsoft back in March. The bug caused confusion and concern after details of the “critical”-rated bug were initially published but quickly pulled offline.

Facebook Updates Group Recommendations on Race Discussions

Facebook published new recommendations for group admins evening in an attempt to help them facilitate conversations about race and inequality. Groups, which are essential to Facebook’s business strategy, have struggled to moderate discussions about the Black Lives Matter movement and injustice in the US, with many admins and moderators deleting posts they consider “political.”

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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.