Facebook Considering Ban on Political Advertising Before U.S. Election

Facebook executives are considering a temporary ban on political advertising in the final days before the U.S. election in November as the company continues to grapple with a large advertising boycott, employee unrest and other issues related to its policies on hate speech and misinformation, according to two people familiar with the company’s thinking. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions have not yet reached the senior executive levels of the company, and no final decision has been made amid intense internal debate.

iPhone User Sues LinkedIn for Reading Clipboard Content without Consent

Microsoft Corp’s LinkedIn was sued by a New York-based iPhone user for allegedly reading and diverting users’ sensitive content from Apple Inc’s Universal Clipboard application. According to Apple’s website, Universal Clipboard allows users to copy text, images, photos, and videos on one Apple device and then paste the content onto another Apple device.

Amazon to Pay $135,000 Settlement for Alleged U.S. Sanctions Violations

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department notes that Amazon has agreed to pay $134,523 to settle potential liability over alleged sanctions violations. The charges specifically pertain to goods and services sent to people located in Crimea, Iran and Syria, which are covered by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, between November 2011 and October 2018.

Google May Avoid Full EU Antitrust investigation of Fitbit Acquisition

Google may be able to stave off a full-scale EU antitrust investigation into its planned $2.1 billion bid for Fitbit by pledging not to use Fitbit’s health data to help it target ads, people familiar with the matter said. The deal has drawn heavy criticism from privacy advocates on both sides of the Atlantic, concerned that Google may use Fitbit’s trove of health data to boost its dominance in online advertising and search.

German Authorities Seize Server That Hosted Stolen U.S. Law Enforcement Files

At the behest of the U.S. government, German authorities have seized a computer server that hosted a huge cache of files from scores of U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies obtained in a Houston data breach last month. The server was being used by a WikiLeaks-like data transparency collective called Distributed Denial of Secrets to share documents — many tagged “For Official Use Only” — that shed light on U.S. police practices.

U.S. Announces Deferred Action Against France Over Digital Services Tax

The Trump administration will announce actions against France over its digital services tax but will defer them while France defers tax collections from U.S. technology firms, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. The actions, expected by industry to be announced on Friday, are tied to a U.S. Section 301 probe into France’s digital tax, which Washington says discriminates against U.S. tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Apple Inc.

FTC, Justice Dep't Probe TikTok for Violating Children's Privacy Agreement

The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Justice Department are looking into allegations that popular app TikTok failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy, according to two people interviewed by the agencies. A staffer in a Massachusetts tech policy group and another source said they took part in separate conference calls with FTC and Justice Department officials to discuss accusations that TikTok had failed to live up to an agreement announced in February 2019.

Read the article: Reuters

Security Operator at eBay Charged in Cyberstalking Campaign

A retired police captain who oversaw security operations at eBay Inc.’s European and Asian offices has been charged in a cyberstalking campaign that targeted a couple whom eBay executives viewed as critical of the company, the Justice Department said. Philip Cooke, 55 years old, is the seventh former eBay employee charged in the alleged cyberstalking campaign against a Massachusetts couple who publish an e-commerce blog, EcommerceBytes.

Auditors Criticize Facebook for 'Significant Setbacks for Civil Rights'

Auditors handpicked by Facebook to examine its policies said that the company had not done enough to protect people on the platform from discriminatory posts and ads and that its decisions to leave up President Trump’s inflammatory posts were “significant setbacks for civil rights.” The 89-page audit put Facebook in an awkward position as the presidential campaign heats up. The report gave fuel to the company’s detractors, who said the site had allowed hate speech and misinformation to flourish.

Facebook Takes Down Fake Accounts Linked to Roger Stone

Facebook took down a network of more than 100 pages and accounts it said was affiliated with felon and former Republican operative Roger Stone for “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” taking the company’s campaign against disinformation closer to the heart of the nation’s political establishment. The offending activity on Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram dated as far back as 2015 but was particularly active during the 2016 presidential election season, when Stone was advising Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and in 2017, as federal investigators were scrutinizing his activities.

Facebook Suspends Disguised Accounts Linked to Brazilian President

Facebook Inc. suspended a network of social media accounts it said were used to spread divisive political messages online by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and two of his sons. The company said that despite efforts to disguise who was behind the activity, it had found links to the staff of two Brazilian lawmakers, as well as the president and his sons, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

TikTok Leaves Hong Kong Amid New Security Rules Imposed by China

Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok announced it would pull out of Hong Kong within days, as global tech giants struggle to figure out how to operate in the city under sweeping new security rules imposed by Beijing. Major U.S. internet companies including Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Zoom have all announced they have suspended the processing of requests for user data from the Hong Kong authorities while they study the new law.

U.S. Tech Companies to Stop Reviewing Hong Kong Requests for User Data

Internet giants including Facebook and Google said they will stop reviewing requests from Hong Kong for user data while the companies evaluate a new national security law imposed on the city by the Chinese government. The new national security law was revealed at the end of June and has already had a chilling effect on the city that has long been a haven for more open free speech and Internet access than mainland China.

Federal Officials Warn of Cyber Criminals Targeting U.S. Workers at Home

Federal officials and experts are warning that foreign cyber criminals are targeting U.S. businesses and Americans who are working from home on less-secure networks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of Americans have shifted to working at home indefinitely to help halt the spread of COVID-19, placing them outside of more secure office networks and away from company IT professionals.

European Regulations Aim to Curb Tech Firms' Anticompetitive Behavior

Big tech companies including Google parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. face a swath of proposed European regulations aimed at curbing their alleged anticompetitive behavior, making them pay more taxes and compelling them to shoulder more responsibility for illegal content on their platforms, said a top European Union official. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s digital-policy and antitrust czar, detailed for the first time a comprehensive plan of how she aims to rein in U.S. tech giants, using a package of initiatives that the EU has begun to outline individually in recent weeks.

Subscribe

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.