Republican Senator Asks Disk Drive Companies About Supplying Huawei

A senior Republican U.S. senator asked the chief executives of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Seagate Technology, and Western Digital Corp. if the companies are improperly supplying Huawei with foreign-produced hard disk drives. Senator Roger Wicker, the ranking member of the Commerce Committee, said a 2020 U.S. Commerce Department regulation sought to "tighten Huawei's ability to procure items that are the direct product of specified U.S. technology or software, such as hard disk drives."

Judge Dismisses Twitter's Suit Against Texas Attorney General as Premature

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit brought by Twitter that had sought to block Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's (R) office from allegedly retaliating against the company for its decision to ban former President Trump from the platform. In a 7-page ruling, the judge said Twitter's lawsuit was premature because Paxton has not sought to enforce his January records request related to the company’s content moderation policies.

Facebook CTO Says Company Creating 'Long Term Plan' Around Suspensions

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said that the social media giant will know in the coming weeks and months what the "long term plan" is around how it'll handle the indefinite suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump from its platform. "That's a lot of what we're trying to figure out, is laying that sort of rules and guidelines for, you know, what is allowed and isn't allowed and making that clear wherever possible," Schroepfer said at The Wall Street Journal's virtual Future of Everything Festival.

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Judge Says Facebook's Antitrust Motion 'Raises Serious Challenges'

The judge in the U.S. government's antitrust case against Facebook Inc. said the social media company's motion to dismiss the lawsuit "raises a number of serious challenges" and put the discovery process on hold. In a brief order, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he expected to rule on the motion to dismiss next month.

GLADD Calls Top Social Media Sites 'Categorically Unsafe' for LGBTQ

The leading social media sites — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube — are all "categorically unsafe" for LGBTQ people, according to a new study from GLAAD. The big picture: GLAAD had planned to give each of the sites a grade as part of its inaugural social media index, but opted not to give individual grades this year after determining all the leading sites would receive a failing grade.

State Attorneys General Want Congress to Fund Antitrust Investigations

Dozens of state attorneys general wrote to U.S. lawmakers to urge Congress to fund their antitrust probes, which have resulted in big lawsuits filed against Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc. Attorneys general from 45 states and territories cited calls from Republicans and Democrats for a "more robust antitrust enforcement across a multitude of markets."

Texas Attorney General Unblocks Twitter Users Who Sued Him

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unblocked on Twitter the nine Texans who sued him after they say they were unconstitutionally blocked for criticizing him or his policies on the social media platform. In a lawsuit filed in April, a group of Texans said being blocked from viewing Paxton’s tweets from his @KenPaxtonTX account was a violation of the First Amendment because it limited the rights of people to participate in a public forum and access statements made by the public official.

Russian State-Sponsored Hackers Exploited Microsoft Server App, Officials Say

Russian state-sponsored hackers were among those to exploit recently uncovered vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Exchange Server email application, which potentially compromised thousands of organizations, a coalition of American and British federal agencies warned. The finding was part of a joint advisory released by the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre that detailed cybersecurity tactics and techniques Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, uses to hack global organizations.

SolarWinds Says Hackers Probably Stole Data from Email Accounts

The Russia-linked hackers that compromised popular software by the Texas-based firm SolarWinds Corp. last year broke into email accounts and likely took data from the firm. SolarWinds said it “found evidence that causes us to believe the threat actor exfiltrated certain information as part of its research and surveillance,” according to a regulatory filing on Friday. The hackers “accessed email accounts of certain personnel, some of which contained information related to current or former employees and customers,” the company said.

Ransomware Attack Shuts Down U.S. Fuel Pipeline Operator

A ransomware attack led one of the nation’s biggest fuel pipeline operators to shut down its entire network, according to the company and two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. While it is not expected to have an immediate impact on fuel supply or prices, the attack on Colonial Pipeline, which carries almost half of the gasoline, diesel and other fuels used on the East Coast, underscores the potential vulnerability of industrial sectors to the expanding threat of ransomware strikes.

Twitter Suspends Accounts Created to Share Statements from Trump

Twitter Inc. suspended several accounts that were set up to share statements from a new part of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s website, saying they broke its rules against evading an account ban. Trump was banned from Twitter, where he had more than 88 million followers, and multiple other social media platforms following the deadly Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

ISPs Funded Fake Accounts for Net Neutrality Comments, New York AG Says

Internet service providers funded an effort that yielded millions of fake comments supporting the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of so-called net neutrality rules in 2017, the New York attorney general said. Internet providers, working through a group called Broadband for America, spent $4.2 million on the project, Attorney General Letitia James said.

Facebook Removes Accounts Linked to Deceptive Campaign at Ukraine

Facebook Inc. has taken down a network of hundreds of fake accounts and pages targeting people in Ukraine and linked to individuals previously sanctioned by the United States for efforts to interfere in U.S. elections, the company said. Facebook said the network managed a long-running deceptive campaign across multiple social media platforms and other websites, posing as independent news outlets and promoting favorable content about Ukrainian politicians, including activity that was likely for hire.

Twitter Encourages Users to Review Potentially Offensive Tweets

Twitter released an improved version of its "prompts" feature discouraging users from sending "potentially harmful or offensive” replies, encouraging them to think twice before sending any mean tweets. Mean tweets like those seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady read on Kimmel's show in January. "Want to review this before Tweeting?" the prompt asks Twitter users about that not-so-nice tweet and presents three choices: send the tweet as is, edit it or delete it.

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.