Senators Probing Whether Google Tried to Influence Critic at Hearing

Senators are probing whether Google tried to influence a top critic’s testimony at a high-profile hearing about the future of app stores. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are demanding more details about an alleged phone call between a Google employee and a Match Group employee on the eve of a key hearing before the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.

EU's Competition Chief Plans to Issue Charges Against Apple

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, will issue charges against Apple stating that its App Store rules break EU law, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. The charges relate to a complaint brought two years ago by Spotify, the music streaming app, that Apple takes 30 percent commission to distribute apps through its iPhone App Store and forbids apps from directing users to pay for subscriptions elsewhere.

Ransomware Gang Threatens to Leak Sensitive Files from D.C. Police Department

A ransomware gang is threatening to leak sensitive police files that may expose police investigations and informants unless the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia agrees to pay a ransom demand. “We are aware of unauthorized access on our server,” Sean Hickman, a public spokesperson for DC Police, told The Record in an email today after screenshots of the department’s internal files and servers were published on the website of the Babuk Locker ransomware gang.

German Advertising Federation Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple

The German Advertising Federation filed an antitrust complaint against Apple over the tech giant’s rollout of its App Tracking Transparency feature. The ZAW, the advertising federation, filed the complaint with a German competition regulator, arguing Apple is abusing its market power and violating antitrust law through the launch of its antitracking feature, according to the federation’s press release.

China's Internet Watchdog Releases New Rules to Regulate Live Streaming

China’s internet watchdog and six other regulators have jointly released new rules to regulate live streaming in the country’s booming e-commerce sector, set to go into effect on May 25, in Beijing’s latest move to tighten oversight of the powerful digital economy. Live-streaming service providers will be required to create a list specifying the categories of products and services that are either unlawful or unsuited for sales through live-streaming, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said on its official website.

Twitter Removes Tweets Critical of Indian Government's Pandemic Response

Twitter has removed more than 50 tweets critical of the Indian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and did so at the request of the Indian government. First reported by Indian news site MediaNama, the Indian government sent Twitter an emergency order to censor 52 tweets, according to a disclosure notice on the Lumen database.

U.S. Response to SolarWinds Hack Unlikely to Deter Russia, Official Says

The White House's top official on the response to the massive SolarWinds hack says the sweeping measures announced by the Biden administration against Russia are unlikely on their own to prevent Moscow's malicious cyber activity against the U.S. and did not dispute that the hackers responsible for the massive breach are still lurking on American networks. Expelling Russian hackers from U.S. government networks and getting them to re-consider their malign behavior is going to take time, more comprehensive dialogue and fundamental changes to American cybersecurity, deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told CNN in an interview.

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Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Executives to Testify on Social Media Algorithms

Executives from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on social media algorithms and amplification, the panel announced. The hearing will feature Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy, Alexandra Veitch, YouTube’s director of government affairs and public policy for the Americas and emerging markets, and Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s head of U.S. public policy.

Internal Facebook Report Says Company Failed to Shut 'Stop the Steal'

Less than a week after Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance in front of a House of Representatives committee, an internal company report concluded that Facebook failed to stop a highly influential movement from using its platform to delegitimize the election, encourage violence, and help incite the Capitol riot. Shared on Facebook’s employee communication platform last month, the report is a blunt assessment of how people connected to “Stop the Steal,” a far-right movement based on the conspiracy theory that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, used the social network to foment an attempted coup.

Fake Claims About George Floyd Still on Facebook, Human Rights Group Says

Fabricated claims targeting George Floyd remain on Facebook despite pledges by the social media giant to take them down, a new investigation by human rights group Avaaz has found. USA Today reported in January that Facebook had not removed racist falsehoods, stereotypes and tropes about Floyd and other victims of police brutality that had been debunked by fact-checkers.

London's High Court Allows Copyright Suit Against Bitcoin Website

London's High Court has paved the way for a case that could force its judges to take a view on who invented bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency which last week soared to all-time highs. The court has allowed Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who alleges he created bitcoin, to serve a copyright infringement lawsuit against the operator and publisher of the bitcoin.org website, which calls itself Cobra, over Twitter or a generic email address.

Senators Want FTC to Probe Google for Child Privacy Violations in App Store

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate if Google’s app store is misleadingly marketing children’s apps as compliant with a law aimed at protecting children’s privacy. The Democrats sent a letter to the FTC calling for the commission to launch an investigation into the Silicon Valley giant’s app store, citing recent studies that suggest apps that infringe on children's privacy, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), are “rampant on the Google Play Store.”

Apple Targeted in $50 Million Ransomware Attack as Leaked Images Posted

Apple has been targeted in a $50 million ransomware attack following the theft of a trove of engineering and manufacturing schematics of current and future products from Quanta, a Taiwan-based company that manufactures MacBooks and other products for Apple. The leak, first reported by The Record, was carried out by REvil, a Russian hacking group that’s also known by the name Sodinokibi.

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