France to Seek EU Retaliation if U.S. Imposes Sanctions Over Digital Tax

France will immediately seek European Union retaliation if Washington goes ahead in January with planned trade sanctions over a French tax on digital services, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. The Trump administration announced in July additional duties of 25% on French cosmetics, handbags and other imports valued at $1.3 billion in response to France’s digital services tax, but said it would hold off on implementing the move until January.

FCC Chair Pai to Leave Agency When Biden Becomes President

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Ajit Pai has announced that he will leave the agency on January 20, when Joe Biden is sworn in as president. Pai’s controversial tenure as FCC chair has been marked by business-friendly deregulation that helped media conglomerates get even bigger while doing little for lower-income people who couldn’t afford Internet access — which has become an even more essential service during the pandemic.

Federal, State Authorities Plan More Antitrust Suits Against Facebook, Google

Big Tech’s legal woes are expected to worsen in the coming weeks as federal and state antitrust authorities prepare to file new lawsuits against Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, people familiar with the matter said. The authorities are readying as many as four more cases targeting Google or Facebook by the end of January, these people said, following the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google last month.

Groups Tell Biden Big Tech Companies Hurt Consumers, U.S. Economy

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden was urged to reject the influence of Big Tech companies on his administration, by 32 antitrust, consumer advocacy, labor and related groups in a letter. The letter urged that the Biden administration exclude executives, lobbyists and consultants working for or with companies such as Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet-owned Google, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp . The groups argue that the companies’ business practices hurt consumers and the U.S. economy.

Canada Plans Tax Starting in 2022 on Companies Providing Digital Services

Canada plans to impose a tax on corporations providing digital services from 2022 that will stay in place until major nations come up with a coordinated approach on taxation, the Finance Department said. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is working on a common approach to ensure digital behemoths, such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, pay their share of taxes as the coronavirus hammers budgets.

Supreme Court Justices Express Concerns About Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

The Supreme Court indicated serious reservations about the ambiguity and scope of the nation’s only major cybercrime law, hinting it may narrow the law’s applicability to avoid criminalizing such acts as checking social media at work. During arguments in a case involving a Georgia police officer convicted of violating the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by accessing a license plate database, the justices pushed a Justice Department lawyer to explain how a ruling in the government’s favor wouldn’t open the door to prosecutions of innocuous behavior.

France's Finance Ministry Sends Notices to Tech Firms for Digital Services Tax

France’s finance ministry has sent out notices to big tech companies liable for its digital service tax to pay the levy as planned in December, the ministry said. France suspended collection of the tax, which will hit companies like Facebook and Amazon, early this year while negotiations were underway at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on an overhaul of international tax rules.

Ransomware Attack Shuts Down Baltimore County's School System

Three days after a ransomware attack shut down Baltimore County’s school system, there is no indication the problem will be resolved quickly, and the timeline for resuming classes remains uncertain. School officials issued a statement saying the district continues to address the “catastrophic attack on our technology system” but gave no specifics on when online learning might be back up and running.

Cyberattacks on Hospitals Increase But Often Go Unreported

Cyberattacks on America’s health systems have become their own kind of pandemic over the past year as Russian cybercriminals have shut down clinical trials and treatment studies for the coronavirus vaccine and cut off hospitals’ access to patient records, demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms for their return. The attacks have largely unfolded in private, as hospitals scramble to restore their systems — or to quietly pay the ransom — without releasing information that could compromise an FBI investigation.

South Korean Mastermind of Sex Videos Gets 40 Years in Prison

Cho Joo-bin, the South Korean mastermind of a scheme luring young women into making videos that he sold online through encrypted chat rooms, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The criminal acts by Mr. Cho “inflicted irreparable damage on the victims,” Judge Lee Hyun-woo of the Seoul Central District Court said in handing down the sentence.

Suspected North Korean Hackers Targeted Drugmaker AstraZeneca

Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said.

India Bans 43 Chinese Apps, Citing Concerns About Data Security

India banned 43 more Chinese apps in New Delhi’s latest move to pressure China in the online industry as tensions fester following a deadly border clash between the neighboring countries. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued an order citing growing concerns about data security in blocking the Chinese apps, effectively restricting China’s access to one of the largest and fastest-growing online markets in the world.

Senator Urges Facebook, Twitter to Prevent Misinformation About Senate Races

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal called on the heads of Facebook and Twitter for information on steps the social media firms are taking to prevent the spread of misinformation ahead of the runoff U.S. Senate elections in Georgia. The platforms “must expect an onslaught of the malign tactics of voter suppression and delegitimization seen in the Presidential election” said a group of five senators led by Blumenthal in separate letters to chief executives Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.

YouTube Suspends One America News Network for One Week

YouTube has barred One America News Network from posting new videos for a week and stripped it of its ability to make money off existing content after the Trump-friendly channel uploaded a video promoting a phony cure for COVID-19, YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi tells Axios. OANN's one-week suspension from posting new videos or livestreams is the result of a "strike" YouTube issued for violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits saying there is a guaranteed cure to the virus.

Seven States Planning to File Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

A bipartisan group of U.S. states plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google as early as next month, according to two people briefed on the matter, potentially beating a more widely anticipated lawsuit from a different group of states led by Texas. The pending legal actions follow an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department against Alphabet's Google in October.

Lawmakers Urge FCC to Help Telecoms Remove Suspected Equipment

The bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take action to ensure telecommunications providers could begin ripping out and replacing potentially suspect network equipment. The concerns come months after President Trump signed into law the Secure and Trusted Communications Act, which bans U.S. companies from using federal funds to purchase equipment from Chinese telecom groups Huawei and ZTE, citing national security concerns.

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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.