Google Agrees to Pay $270 Million Fine to Settle French Antitrust Accusations

Google agreed to pay roughly $270 million in fines and change some of its business practices as part of a settlement announced with French antitrust regulators who had accused the company of abusing its dominance of the online advertising market. The agreement was one of the first times an antitrust regulator had taken direct aim at Google’s online advertising infrastructure, a platform that scores of websites worldwide rely on to sell ads.

Chinese Regulators Increasingly Target Tech Companies for Violations

What started out as a government crackdown on anticompetitive practices among Chinese internet giants has grown into a broader effort to clean up how the country’s fast-growing — and, until recently, freewheeling — tech sector operates. Not a week seems to go by without Chinese regulators calling out tech companies for alleged offenses ranging from inconsistent pricing to imperiling user privacy to difficult working conditions.

Twitter Blocks Four Accounts in India to Comply with Government Request

Twitter disclosed that it blocked four accounts in India to comply with a new legal request from the Indian government. The American social network disclosed on Lumen Database, a Harvard University project, that it took action on four accounts — including those of hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and singer and song-writer Jazzy B — to comply with a legal request from the Indian government it received over the weekend.

FTC Charges, Settles with MoviePass Executives Over Fraud Allegations

The Federal Trade Commission charged the executives of the long-defunct MoviePass app over allegations that they fraudulently blocked customers from using the service as advertised while failing to protect their data privacy. The FTC also announced that it had reached a settlement with MoviePass and its executives as a result of the investigation.

Federal Authorities Recover More Than $2 Million from Pipeline Ransom

Federal authorities have recovered more than $2 million in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to foreign hackers whose attack last month led to the shutdown of a major pipeline that provides nearly half the East Coast’s fuel, according to officials. The seizure of funds paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian hacker ring, DarkSide, marks the first recovery by a new ransomware Justice Department task force.

U.S. Tech Giants Could Benefit from Group of Seven Tax Agreement

U.S. tech giants could benefit from the agreement of the Group of Seven rich countries’ agreement to create a global minimum 15% corporate tax rate if the final deal also scraps increasingly popular digital services taxes, according to industry lobbyists. The deal was designed to reduce companies’ incentives to shift profits to low-tax offshore havens and could bring hundreds of billions of dollars into government coffers.

FBI, Australian Federal Police Ran Encrypted Chat Platform to Identify Criminals

The FBI and Australian Federal Police ran an encrypted chat platform and intercepted secret messages between criminal gang members from all over the world for more than three years. Named Operation Ironside, law enforcement agencies from Australia, Europe, and the U.S. conducted house searches and arrested hundreds of suspects across a wide spectrum of criminal groups, from biker gangs in Australia to drug cartels across Asia and South America, and weapons and human traffickers in Europe.

High-Profile Ransomware Attacks Highlight Risk to Everyday Activities

The recent spate of high-profile ransomware incidents is exactly what cybersecurity professionals have been warning about for years. But it’s partially the impact on everyday people — far from the executive suites, cybersecurity companies, or government agencies that regularly fret about the criminal enterprise — that has made the risk more visible.

Nigeria Suspends Twitter After Company Deletes President's Tweet

Nigeria's government said it was suspending Twitter indefinitely in Africa's most populous nation, a day after the company deleted a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement. It was not immediately clear when the suspension would go into effect as users could still access Twitter late Friday, and many said they would simply use VPNs to maintain access to the platform.

Chinese Social Media Startup Shut Down After Post About Tiananmen Square

A buzzy Chinese Instagram-like startup backed by the country’s two biggest technology giants had its domestic social-media account shut down amid an investigation by Beijing’s cyber watchdog into a post it shared on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to people familiar with the situation. Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu — which means “Little Red Book” in Chinese and is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. — wrote in a post on China’s Twitter -like Weibo platform on June 4, “Tell me loudly, what is the date today?”

EU, UK Launch New Antitrust Probes Against Facebook Over Ads

The European Union and the United Kingdom hit Facebook with new antitrust probes over the platform’s use of data from advertisers. The European Commission said in a statement that it was looking into whether Facebook violated competition rules by using data gathered from advertisers to compete with them in markets where Facebook is active — particularly classified ads.

Facebook Says Trump's Suspension to Last at Least Two Years

Facebook said that Donald J. Trump’s suspension from the service would last at least two years, keeping the former president off mainstream social media for the 2022 midterm elections, as the company also said it would end a policy of treating posts from politicians differently from those of other users. The social network said Mr. Trump would be eligible for reinstatement in January 2023, before the next presidential election.

U.S. Cybersecurity Adviser Urges Businesses to Increase Security Measures

The White House warned corporate executives and business leaders to step up security measures to protect against ransomware attacks after intrusions disrupted operations at a major meatpacking company and the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline. There has been a significant hike in the frequency and size of ransomware attacks, Anne Neuberger, cybersecurity adviser at the National Security Council, said in a letter.

Biden Executive Order Expands Ban on U.S. Investment in Chinese Companies

The Biden administration is expanding a Trump-era order that banned U.S. investment in Chinese companies that support China’s military to include those selling surveillance technology, calling the entities a threat to U.S. interests and values. A new executive order broadens prohibitions that Donald Trump’s administration enacted and moves authority for the ban to the Treasury Department from the Defense Department, to give it stronger legal grounding, senior administration officials said.

Apple Updates AirTags to Address Some Privacy Concerns

Apple said it's adjusting its approach to its AirTags sensors, changing the time they play an alert when separated from their owner, and also creating new ways to warn people an unexpected AirTag or Find My network-enabled device is nearby. The tech giant said it's begun sending out updates to its AirTags, changing the window of time they'll make noises when potentially being used to track another person.

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Google Removes Head of Diversity Strategy After Anti-Semitic Remarks

Google removed a senior member of its diversity team over anti-Semitic remarks in a 2007 blog post, marking the second time in a month that a big tech company has been forced to make a staffing change in the wake of public outcry over an executive’s previous writing. The subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. hired Kamau Bobb in 2018 as global lead of diversity strategy and research, a decade after he published a blog post titled “If I Were a Jew.”

Facebook to End Policy Shielding Politicians from Content Moderation Rules

Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that mostly shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users, a sharp reversal that could have global ramifications for how elected officials use the social network. The change comes after the Oversight Board — an independent group funded by Facebook to review its thorniest content rulings — affirmed its decision to suspend former President Donald Trump but critiqued the special treatment it gives politicians, stating that the “same rules should apply to all users.”

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.