Biden Revokes Trump's Executive Order Banning TikTok, WeChat

President Biden revoked a Trump-era executive order that sought to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and replaced it with one that calls for a broader review of a number of foreign-controlled applications that could pose a security risk to Americans and their data. The Trump order had not been carried out “in the soundest fashion,” Biden administration officials said in a call with reporters, adding that the new directive would establish “clear intelligible criteria” to evaluate national security risks posed by software applications connected to foreign governments, particularly China.

UK's Competition Watchdog Plans Formal Investigation of Amazon

The UK’s competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into Amazon, mirroring a continuing investigation by the EU, according to three people familiar with the situation. The Competition and Markets Authority has been analyzing Amazon’s business for months, focusing on how the online retailer uses the data it collects on its platform.

Ohio Files Suit to Declare Google Public Utility, Subject to Regulation

Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, filed a lawsuit in pursuit of a novel effort to have Google declared a public utility and subject to government regulation. The lawsuit, which was filed in a Delaware County, Ohio court, seeks to use a law that’s over a century old to regulate Google by applying a legal designation historically used for railroads, electricity and the telephone to the search engine.

Colonial Pipeline Hackers Stole Single Password, CEO Tells Senate Committee

The head of Colonial Pipeline told U.S. senators that hackers who launched last month’s cyber attack against the company and disrupted fuel supplies to the U.S. Southeast were able to get into the system by stealing a single password. Colonial Pipeline Chief Executive Joseph Blount told a U.S. Senate committee that the attack occurred using a legacy Virtual Private Network (VPN) system that did not have multifactor authentication in place.

Senate Approves Bill to Boost U.S. Semiconductor Production Against China

The Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that aims to boost U.S. semiconductor production and the development of artificial intelligence and other technology in the face of growing international competition, most notably from China. The 68-32 vote for the bill demonstrates how confronting China economically is an issue that unites both parties in Congress.

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.

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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.