House Democrats Push Facebook on Power of Oversight Board

A group of House Democrats questioned whether Facebook's independent oversight board will be fully empowered to moderate harmful content on the social media platform, including battling voter suppression and racist content. In letters to the 20 members of Facebook’s oversight board — an independent group established by Facebook to help review content moderation decisions — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) raised concerns that the group was not doing enough to moderate harmful content on the platform.

Read the article: The Hill

Facebook Reports Deleting 7 Million Misleading Posts About COVID-19

Facebook said it took down 7 million posts pushing COVID-19 misinformation from its main social media site and Instagram between April and June as the company tried to combat the rapid spread of dangerous information about the novel coronavirus. The company also put warning notes on 98 million covid-19 misinformation posts on Facebook during that period — labeling posts that were misleading but not deemed harmful enough to remove.

TikTok Avoided Privacy Safeguard in Android to Collect Identifying Data

TikTok skirted a privacy safeguard in Google’s Android operating system to collect unique identifiers from millions of mobile devices, data that allows the app to track users online without allowing them to opt out, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found. The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies limiting how apps track people and wasn’t disclosed to TikTok users.

Russian Ruling Says Apple Abused Dominant Position in Mobile Apps Market

Russian competition watchdog FAS said that Apple Inc. has abused its dominant position in the mobile apps market through its App Store for iOS devices and will issue an order demanding that the company resolve regulations breaches. The Russian ruling comes against the backdrop of European Commission investigations into Apple and the App Store’s rules, including requirements that app developers use its own in-app purchase system.

EU Looks at Gaming App Concerns from Facebook, Microsoft in Apple Probe

Facebook and Microsoft's grievances over how their gaming apps appear on Apple's App Store may feed into an EU investigation into the iPhone maker's business as EU antitrust regulators said such concerns are on their radar. The European Commission in June opened four probes into Apple, three of which are into its App Store and its restrictive rules, including requirements that app developers use its own in-app purchasing system.

Denmark Seeks Talks with Google After Removal of Artists on YouTube

Denmark, angry at Google's censorship of some Danish content over an argument over copyright, said it was seeking talks with the Alphabet-owned tech giant. Google removed all music by Danish artists on the Danish site of video streaming platform YouTube in early August, following failed negotiations on copyright with music licensing organisation Koda.

Senators Pushing for National Cybersecurity Coordinator in Defense Act

Sen. Angus King of Maine and his allies are trying to push the idea of a cybersecurity coordinator into the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 now snaking through Congress, where it faces GOP officials skeptical of bureaucracy. Under the proposal, this cyber official would lead as many as 75 staffers in a new office, advising the president and molding U.S. cybersecurity strategy.

Apple Opposes Prepear's Pear Logo at U.S. Trademark Office

Apple claims the “minimalistic fruit design” of Prepear’s pear logo and its “right-angled leaf … readily calls to mind Apple’s famous Apple Logo and creates a similar commercial impression,” according to Apple’s notice of opposition before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, obtained by MacRumours. Prepear is a meal-planning app that lets users store and organise recipes and it relies on Apple’s mobile App Store to deliver its app.

TikTok Planning Lawsuit Over Trump's Executive Order Banning App

TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration, challenging the president's executive order banning the service from the United States. NPR has learned that the lawsuit will argue that President Trump's far-reaching action is unconstitutional because it failed to give the company a chance to respond. It also alleges that the administration's national security justification for the order is baseless, according to the source.

  • Read the article: NPR

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Working to Stop Hate Speech, False Info on Facebook

Prince Harry revealed that he and his wife, Meghan Markle, have been working behind the scenes to support a movement to stop Facebook and other social media companies from allowing hate speech and misinformation to flourish on their platforms. In an essay for Fast Company, the Duke of Sussex also praised “humane tech leaders” he met at Stanford University earlier this year, along with others, for wanting to rebuild “a more compassionate digital world.”

Trump's Decision to Ban WeChat Could Hurt U.S. Businesses Using It

As Tencent assesses how its business might be impacted by a U.S. decision to ban its messenger app WeChat in the country, American companies in China may become unintended casualties due to their heavy reliance on the app, experts said. If the ban covers U.S. companies doing businesses on WeChat, it would do more harm to U.S. firms such as Walmart and Starbucks than to Tencent, said Chengdong Li, a Beijing-based tech analyst.

Trump Issues Executive Orders Banning TikTok, WeChat in 45 Days

President Trump made good on his threat to ban TikTok, issuing an executive order that will bar the wildly popular video app’s parent company, ByteDance, from conducting business transactions with other American companies beginning in 45 days. A separate order bans business transactions involving WeChat, a popular communications and commerce app owned by the Chinese internet giant Tencent.

Twitter Adds Label to Identify Government-Affiliated Accounts, Tweets

To help its users identify state-affiliated media accounts, Twitter said it's now adding a label that'll appear on the profile page of those and government-affiliated accounts, and on the tweets sent and shared by such accounts. Twitter said that it's already using the labels for accounts associated with China, France, Russia, Britain and the US, and that it intends to expand the labels to other countries over time.

  • Read the article: CNET

Online Interruptions Appear in Hearing for Accused Twitter Hacker

The online bond hearing for a Florida teen accused of hacking prominent Twitter accounts was interrupted by rap music and pornographic videos from users who apparently disguised their names. The interruptions — including one by a user who shared a screen and took over the hearing with a porn video — forced Hillsborough County Judge Christopher C. Nash to temporarily halt the session for Graham Ivan Clark, 17.

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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.