Political Advertisers Complain About Problems with Facebook's Blocking

Facebook’s ban on new political ads got off to a rocky start, with some political advertisers saying their ads were blocked despite being submitted and approved before the Oct. 27 deadline. Biden campaign digital director Rob Flaherty tweeted his dissatisfaction of the initiative, saying it was “performative” and “immediately” broke.

Read the article: The Washington Post

Facebook Plans for Emergency Measures to Combat Election Conflict

Facebook Inc. teams have planned for the possibility of trying to calm election-related conflict in the U.S. by deploying internal tools designed for what it calls “at-risk” countries, according to people familiar with the matter. The emergency measures include slowing the spread of viral content and lowering the bar for suppressing potentially inflammatory posts, the people said.

Twitter to Alert Users About Inaccurate Voting Information, Results

Twitter announced a new effort to preemptively debunk, or “prebunk” in Twitter parlance, some of the most commonly circulated false and misleading information about the election. The company will, for the first time, pin information to the top of users’ timelines about how to vote, as well as a notice that voting results may not come immediately on Election Day — two common topics for misinformation across social media.

Big Tech Firms Urge EU to Provide Protections for Content Moderation

Big technology platforms are calling on the European Union to protect them from legal liabilities for removing hate speech and illegal content as government scrutiny over how platforms manage user posts grows worldwide. A safeguard protecting companies that actively manage user posts would result in “better quality content moderation,” by incentivizing platforms to remove bad content while protecting free expression, Edima, an association representing Facebook Inc., ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others, said in a paper.

Appeals Court Rejects U.S. Request to Immediately Ban WeChat

A U.S. appeals court rejected a Justice Department request that it allow the government to immediately ban Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc's Google from offering Tencent's WeChat for download in U.S. app stores. The three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said in a brief order the government had not demonstrated it would “suffer an imminent, irreparable injury during the pendency of this appeal, which is being expedited.”

Health Care Institutions Preparing for Coronavirus-Related Cyberattacks

Hospitals and health care institutions preparing for a fall wave of coronavirus cases are bracing for more cyberattacks after hackers seeking to take advantage of the pandemic launched several successful attacks this year that severely disrupted patient services. The attacks have been widespread around the world, hitting health care groups during the worst public health crisis in a century.

Trump Administration Tells Court It Has Authority to Ban Use of TikTok

The Trump administration said it has the authority to ban Americans' use of the TikTok, saying in a court filing that the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app poses a national security threat because of its relationship with the Chinese government. Trump administration lawyers said in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. that the U.S. government should be allowed to impose restrictions on the app that will make it unusable in the U.S. next month.

  • Read the article: CNET

Facebook Demands NYU Researchers Stop Collecting Data on Political Ads

Academics, journalists and First Amendment lawyers are rallying behind New York University researchers in a showdown with Facebook over its demand that they halt the collection of data showing who is being micro-targeted by political ads on the world’s dominant social media platform. The researchers say the disputed tool is vital to understanding how Facebook has been used as a conduit for disinformation and manipulation.

State, Federal Investigators May File Antitrust Suit Against Facebook Soon

State and federal investigators are expected to file antitrust charges against Facebook as soon as November, according to four people familiar with the matter, embarking on a massive legal challenge against the tech giant and its perceived ironclad grip over social media. The timing reflects a frenzy of recent activity on the part of the Federal Trade Commission, which met privately to discuss the probe, and state attorneys general, who under the leadership of New York’s Letitia James have been scrutinizing Facebook for potential threats to competition, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a law-enforcement matter.

Judge Refuses to Reverse Decision Allowing WeChat on Apple, Google Stores

A U.S. judge in San Francisco rejected a Justice Department request to reverse a decision that allowed Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to continue to offer Chinese-owned WeChat for download in U.S. app stores. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said the government’s new evidence did not change her opinion about the Tencent app.

Facebook Oversight Board Starts Accepting Cases from Some Users

Facebook’s much-anticipated independent decision-making body, the Facebook oversight board, announced it will start allowing people to submit cases for review. That means that if you post something on Facebook or Instagram and it’s taken down for violating any of Facebook’s ever-changing rules on things like hate speech, nudity, misinformation, or violence — you will soon have the ability to appeal that decision to someone besides Facebook.

Republicans OK Subpoenas for Twitter, Facebook CEOs Over Hunter Biden Story

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to authorize subpoenas to compel the testimony of the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook amid controversy over the social media companies' handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden. The Post published alleged contents of a computer hard drive purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business activities of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Intelligence Officials Say Russian Hackers Accessed State, Local Computers

While senior Trump administration officials said that Iran has been actively interfering in the presidential election, many intelligence officials said they remained far more concerned about Russia, which in recent days has hacked into state and local computer networks in breaches that could allow Moscow broader access to American voting infrastructure. The discovery of the hacks came as American intelligence agencies, infiltrating Russian networks themselves, have pieced together details of what they believe are Russia’s plans to interfere in the presidential race in its final days or immediately after the election on Nov. 3.

U.S. Intelligence Officials Blame Iran for Threatening Voter Emails

The nation’s top intelligence official accused Iran of orchestrating a spoofed email campaign threatening Democratic voters who did not vote for Trump. The disclosure by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe marked the first known effort by a foreign adversary this election cycle to reach specific voters in a bid to undermine democratic confidence.

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.