Facebook Updates Policy After Oversight Board's Ruling on Blackface

As the company has done a handful of times in the past, Facebook has agreed to change one of its policies following a ruling from the Oversight Board. In response to a decision the panel came to on a video involving two individuals wearing blackface, the company says it will tweak the policy rationale section of its community guidelines on hate speech to add more context on why it prohibits harmful stereotypes.

U.S. Government Has No Cybersecurity Protocols for Liquid Pipelines

The U.S. government has had robust, compulsory cybersecurity protocols for most of the power grid for about 10 years to prevent debilitating hacks by criminals or state actors. But the country's 2.7 million miles (4.3 million km) of oil, natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines have only voluntary measures, which leaves security up to the individual operators, experts said.

Chief Information Security Officers Say They're Unprepared for Cyberattack

A majority of global chief information security officers (CISOs) surveyed as part of a report released said they feel their organizations are unprepared to face a cyberattack, despite many believing they will face an attack in the next year. The report, compiled by cybersecurity group Proofpoint, was based on a survey of 1,400 CISOs in 14 different countries including the United States.

EU Court Annuls Decision Ordering Amazon to Pay $300 Million Tax Bill

Amazon.com Inc. struck a new blow to European Union efforts to wring more tax from big tech companies when the bloc’s second-highest court sided with the company over a $300 million tax bill. The EU court annulled a 2017 decision from the European Commission, the EU’s top antitrust authority, that had ordered Amazon to pay 250 million euros in taxes to Luxembourg, the latest of several big EU tax decisions to be overturned.

Biden Signs Executive Order to Strengthen U.S. Cybersecurity Defenses

President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. cybersecurity defenses, a move that follows a series of sweeping cyber attacks on private companies and federal government networks, a senior administration official said. The action comes as Colonial Pipeline continues to grapple with a crippling ransomware attack, which has led to widespread fuel shortages along the East Coast and prompted an “all-of-government response” from the Biden administration.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Apple Defends AppStore Policies in Epic Case by Citing Anti-Fraud Efforts

Apple Inc. provided in-depth detail on how many apps it rejected last year and why its iPhone payment system keeps customers secure, seeking to deflect claims from Epic Games Inc. that its review process and purchase system is a deterrent to competition. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said in a statement that it prevented more than $1.5 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions” last year, underscoring the need for its proprietary payment system at the heart of the on-going antitrust trial with Epic.

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.

  • Read the article: CNET

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."

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