Reporters Without Borders Sues Facebook for Letting Hate Speech 'Flourish'

Reporters Without Borders said on it had filed a lawsuit against Facebook in France, citing a proliferation of hate speech against media and falsehoods about COVID-19. In the latest of a slew of battles governments and campaigners are waging with Big Tech around the world, the media watchdog noted large amounts of coronavirus misinformation on Facebook including vaccine conspiracy theories.

Biden to Nominate Columbia Law Professor as Commissioner of FTC

U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he would nominate antitrust advocate and monopoly critic Lina Khan for commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Khan will be the third Democratic commissioner with the FTC overseeing privacy, data security and more. Khan has previously provided counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, aiding in the investigation into digital markets like Google, Apple and others.

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Thousands of Attacks Target Microsoft Exchange Flaws Daily, Report Says

There are still thousands of cyber attacks targeting zero-day security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server every single day as cyber criminals attempt to target organizations which have yet to apply the security patches released to mitigate them, according to a tech security company. Microsoft released critical updates to secure Microsoft Exchange Servers against the four vulnerabilities on March 2 with organizations urged to apply them as a matter of urgency to prevent cyber attacks to their email servers.

Judge Certifies Class-Action Case Against Apple Over Butterfly Keyboards

A federal judge in California certified an ongoing class action case against Apple earlier this month, clearing another hurdle for customers who say the company failed to address problems with the "butterfly" keyboards on its MacBook laptops. In a ruling handed down on March 8, but made publicly available last week, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila granted class action status to the case, which was filed in 2018.

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Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Facebook's Appeal in $15B Privacy Suit

The U.S. Supreme Court on turned away Facebook Inc.’s bid to pare back a $15 billion class action lawsuit accusing the company of illegally tracking the activities of internet users even when they are logged out of the social media platform. The justices declined to hear Facebook’s appeal of a lower court ruling that revived the proposed nationwide litigation accusing the company of violating a federal law called the Wiretap Act by secretly tracking the visits of users to websites that use Facebook features such as the “like” button.

Report Finds No Evidence of 'Overtly Malicious Behavior' in TikTok Code

The computer code underlying TikTok doesn’t pose a national security threat to the U.S., according to a new study by university cybersecurity researchers. Released by the University of Toronto cybersecurity group Citizen Lab, the report comes after government officials in multiple countries, including in the administration of former President Donald Trump, suggested the popular Chinese-owned short-video app could aid Beijing in spying overseas.

Apple Plans to Call Top Executives to Testify in Trial with Epic Games

Apple plans to call some of its highest profile executives to testify as part of its upcoming trial with Fortnite maker Epic Games. Apple said it plans to call its CEO, Tim Cook, software head Craig Federighi, and Apple fellow Phil Schiller, as well as employees who help combat fraud, manage payment processing and those who build developer tools for iPhone apps.

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Twitter to Establish Legal Representative in Turkey to Comply with Law

Twitter announced that it plans to establish a legal representative in Turkey, making it the latest social media company to do so to ensure compliance with a new internet law in the country. Twitter said in a statement that upon reviewing the new law, which requires representatives for social media platforms to review content flagged for privacy violations, it had decided to “establish a legal entity” in order to “ensure that Twitter remains available for all who use it in Turkey.”

Justice Department Accuses Google of Failing to Provide Documents

The U.S. Department of Justice accused Google of dragging its feet in providing documents in preparation for a trial on allegations that it broke antitrust law while the search and advertising giant said the government was being unreasonable. In a joint filing, the Justice Department said that Alphabet’s Google had balked at some search terms that the government wanted it to use to locate relevant documents.

Creator of Keyboard Interface Sues Apple for Delay in App Store

Apple Inc. was sued by the creator of a mobile-device keyboard interface for the blind who says the company’s failure to police fraudulent knockoffs sold in the App Store penalizes honest developers. Kosta Eleftheriou, who cites a long history of developing successful applications acquired by Google and Pinterest, says that after struggling with the iPhone maker to get permission to sell his FlickType in the App Store, competitors quickly surfaced with products that were slickly marketed but didn’t really work -- stealing 80% of his revenue.

Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Eliminate Protections for Unlawful Material Online

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced legislation targeting a decades-old law that gives internet platforms legal liability protection from content posted by third parties. The bill — the Stop Shielding Culpable Platforms Act — would yank those protections from companies that “knowingly peddle unlawful material” such as child pornography on their sites.

China's Internet Regulator Punishes LinkedIn for Not Controlling Political Content

China’s internet regulator rebuked LinkedIn executives this month for failing to control political content, according to three people briefed on the matter. Though it isn’t clear precisely what material got the company into trouble, the regulator said it had found objectionable posts circulating in the period around an annual meeting of China’s lawmakers, said these people, who asked for anonymity because the issue isn’t public.

Twitter Seeks Public Input on New Policies for Accounts of Public Officials

Twitter is putting out a call for public input as to how it should handle world leaders on the platform -- particularly ones who violate the site's rules. "Politicians and government officials are constantly evolving how they use our service, and we want our policies to remain relevant to the ever-changing nature of political discourse on Twitter and protect the health of the public conversation," reads a new blog post from Twitter posted.

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Justice Department Investigating Google's Decision to Block Cookies

Google’s plan to block a popular web tracking tool called “cookies” is a source of concern for U.S. Justice Department investigators who have been asking advertising industry executives whether the move by the search giant will hobble its smaller rivals, people familiar with the situation said. Alphabet Inc’s Google a year ago announced it would ban some cookies in its Chrome browser to increase user privacy.

New YouTube Tool Lets Creators Check Copyright Issues Before Uploading

In an effort to make the process of uploading a video and receiving ad revenue easier, YouTube is rolling out a new tool called “Checks” that tells a creator ahead of time if their video contains copyrighted material and complies with advertising guidelines. Prior to Checks, creators uploaded their videos to YouTube and hoped everything went off without a hitch.

Georgia Shootings Highlight Spike in Online Hate Against Asians

The fatal shootings of six Asian women in Georgia have turned a spotlight on a disturbing trend of the past year: Crimes against people of Asian descent have risen sharply in the United States, along with online slurs blaming them for the coronavirus pandemic. Although authorities say the alleged shooter, Robert Aaron Long, 21, does not appear to have been motivated by ethnic hatred, the broader trend of hateful words and deeds against Asians and Asian Americans is clear, researchers say, and appears to have spiked since the November presidential election and the contentious months that followed.

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.