Judge Tells Trump Administration to Defend or Delay TikTok Ban

A U.S. judge said the Trump administration must either delay a ban on U.S. app stores offering TikTok for download or file legal papers defending the decision by Friday. The U.S. Commerce Department order banning Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc's Google app stores from offering the short video sharing app for new downloads is set to take effect late Sunday.

Justice Department Unveils Proposal to Limit Immunity for Internet Companies

President Donald Trump met with nine Republican state attorneys general to discuss the fate of a legal immunity for Internet companies after the Justice Department unveiled a legislative proposal aimed at reforming the same law. The White House said the legal immunity discussion involved how the attorneys general can utilize existing legal recourses at the state level - in an effort to weaken the law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet companies from liability over content posted by users.

TikTok Seeks Preliminary Injunction Against Ban by Trump Administration

TikTok, the short-form viral video app, asked for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration, a legal maneuver aimed at protecting the company’s service in the United States against a potential ban. The request, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, is in response to Commerce Department rules that Apple and Google remove the TikTok app from their respective app stores by Sunday for American users, and cease to provide further software updates to people who have downloaded the app in the United States.

Senators Introduce Bill Requiring Apps to Label Country of Origin

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced a bill that would mandate digital apps to list their country of origin. The legislation, titled the American Privacy Protection (APP) Act, would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to direct companies to release where the app was created and where data collected by the app is stored.

Election Day Simulations Demonstrate Struggle to Combat Hackers

U.S. election day exercises simulating attacks ranging from hackers to anthrax to disrupt voting show state and local officials will struggle to quickly counter falsehoods flooding social media, according to five people familiar with the tests. The assessments come as U.S. intelligence officials and security analysts expect an onslaught of digital misinformation surrounding the election on November 3.

Facebook Reportedly Plans to Limit Content Amid Election Chaos, Unrest

Facebook Inc. will take aggressive measures to “restrict the circulation of content” on its platform if November’s presidential election descends into chaos or violent civic unrest, the Financial Times reported citing a company executive. The company had drawn up plans for how to handle a range of outcomes, including widespread civic unrest or “the political dilemmas” of having in-person votes counted more rapidly than mail-in ballots, the report said, citing an interview with Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs.

FBI, DHS Warn About Foreign Hackers Spreading Election Misinformation

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned that foreign malicious hackers will likely attempt to spread disinformation around election results later this year. The agencies put out a public service announcement warning that delays in final tallies caused by a larger number of mail-in ballots and other factors could fuel the disinformation efforts online.

Trump Administration to Urge States to Probe Social Media Censorship

The Trump administration is expected to urge Republican state attorneys general to investigate social media sites over allegations that they censor conservatives online, escalating the White House’s war with Silicon Valley as tech giants are increasingly taking action against the president’s most controversial posts. The administration plans to raise the issue at a gathering with at least eight top Republican officials, encouraging them to use their existing state laws to probe and potentially punish perceived acts of political bias, according to two people familiar with the White House’s thinking.

Chinese Operations Interfering in U.S. Election, Facebook Says

Facebook has detected limited Chinese operations intended to both help and hurt President Trump’s re-election chances, the company announced, the first public disclosure of Chinese efforts to influence the presidential election in November. The Chinese activity, while modest and not directly attributed to the government in Beijing, could undercut Mr. Trump’s repeated contention that China is intervening in the election to support former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic candidate.

Global Law Enforcement Agencies Arrest 179 People on Dark Web

Law enforcement agencies around the world have arrested 179 people involved in buying and selling illicit goods and services on the dark web as part of a coordinated international take down operation involving agencies in nine countries — and police have warned cyber criminals that “the golden age of the dark web is over.” The coordinated campaign was led by the German Federal Criminal Police, with support from the Dutch National Police, the UK's National Crime Agency, US government agencies including the Department of Justice and FBI, Europol and others.

House Approves Bill Criminalizing Hacking of Voting Systems

The House unanimously approved legislation that would make hacking federal voting systems a federal crime. The Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, approved by the Senate last year, would make hacking federal voting infrastructure a crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which is commonly used by the Justice Department to take action against malicious hackers.

Justice Department to Brief State Attorneys General on Google Lawsuit

The Justice Department is expected to brief state attorneys general about its imminent plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google, setting in motion a landmark legal clash between the U.S. government and the search and advertising behemoth. The timeline puts federal competition watchdogs on track to file a case against Google potentially next week, capping off a wide-ranging inquiry into the tech giant and the extent to which its sprawling corporate footprint harms rivals and consumers.

TikTok Deal Complicated by Disagreement Over U.S. Ownership

A deal intended to address the Trump administration’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China was complicated by a disagreement over whether a U.S. company would control the social media app and the president’s threat to block any agreement that leaves the service in the hands of a Chinese company. Mr. Trump had said he had given his “blessing” to a transaction that he said would result in non-Chinese investors, including Oracle and Walmart, owning TikTok.

Facebook Says It Might Leave European Union if It Can't Transfer Data

Facebook has told Ireland’s High Court it cannot see how its services could operate in the European Union if regulators freeze its data transfer mechanism, the Sunday Business Post reported, citing court documents seen by the paper. The U.S. social media giant last week said that the Irish Data Protection Commission, its lead EU regulator, had made a preliminary decision that the mechanism it uses to transfer data from the EU to the United States “cannot in practice be used”.

Homeland Security Issues Critical Security Warning for Windows Servers

Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory unit has issued a rare emergency alert to government departments after the recent disclosure of a “critical”-rated security vulnerability in server versions of Microsoft Windows. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, better known as CISA, issued an alert late on Friday requiring all federal departments and agencies to “immediately” patch any Windows servers vulnerable to the so-called Zerologon attack by Monday, citing an “unacceptable risk” to government networks.

Court Blocks Trump Administration's Plan to Ban WeChat, Citing First Amendment

A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration’s planned ban of Chinese app WeChat, in response to a plaintiff lawsuit saying the ban would harm their First Amendment rights. In an order, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco said the plaintiffs, a group of WeChat users, had shown there are “serious questions” related to their First Amendment claim.

Trump Approves TikTok Deal with Oracle, Walmart, Averting U.S. Shutdown

President Trump said that he had approved a deal between the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and major American companies, an agreement that will delay the U.S. government’s threat to block the popular app in the United States over national security concerns. The deal, which must still gain formal U.S. approval, would create a new U.S.-based company, TikTok Global, in which Oracle, an American software maker, and Walmart would own 20 percent, placing more equity in the service into the hands of American companies and investors.

Germany Investigating Woman's Death After Ransomware Attack on Hospital

German authorities are investigating the death of a patient following a ransomware attack on a hospital in Duesseldorf. The patient, identified only as a woman who needed urgent medical care, died after being re-routed to a hospital in the city of Wuppertal, more than 30 km away from her initial intended destination, the Duesseldorf University Hospital.

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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.