Facebook, Biden Trade Barbs Over Misinformation About Vaccines Online

Facebook has levied additional criticism against President Biden and top administration officials over remarks that social media companies are not doing enough to combat coronavirus vaccine misinformation, accusing the White House of “looking for scapegoats for missing their vaccine goals.” The public fight between the administration and social media companies escalated after Biden told reporters that Facebook and other platforms were “killing people" by allowing vaccine misinformation to spread.

U.S. Restricts Trade with Russian Entities, Citing Digital Espionage Risks

The United States took a new stab at Russia's cybersecurity industry, restricting trade with four information technology firms and two other entities over "aggressive and harmful" activities — including digital espionage — that Washington blames on the Russian government. A Commerce Department posting said the six entities were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April, which targeted companies in the technology sector that support Russian intelligence services.

China Sends State Security Officials to Didi in Cybersecurity Investigation

China sent regulators including state security and police officials to Didi Global Inc.’s ride-hailing business as part of a cybersecurity investigation, the latest development in a regulatory saga that has gripped China’s tech industry. Regulators from government units including the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Natural Resources will be stationed at Didi for the investigation, the cyberspace administration said in an online statement.

British Court Lets Businessman Sue Law Firm Over Hacked Emails

A Missouri businessman can sue Dechert LLP over his claim that the international law firm helped mastermind the hack and leak of his emails, a British court ruled. The unusual lawsuit — which pits aviation mogul Farhad Azima against Philadelphia-based Dechert — centers on claims that the firm and its former London partner Neil Gerrard had Indian hackers steal and disseminate Azima's emails.

Two Appeals Courts Dismiss U.S. Legal Challenges to TikTok

Two U.S. appeals courts dismissed the Justice's Department's legal challenges to court rulings that barred a Trump-era effort to ban new downloads of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok. The Justice Department asked two appeals courts to dismiss its appeals after President Joe Biden in June withdrew a series of executive orders by then-President Donald Trump that sought to ban new downloads of WeChat, TikTok and other Chinese apps. Biden ordered a new review of the apps' impact on U.S. users' privacy.

Biden Administration Creates Interagency Task Force to Fight Ransomware

The Biden administration announced new cross-agency measures to address the recent major ransomware attacks on companies including Colonial Pipeline and software group Kaseya. A senior administration official told The Hill that an interagency task force, created as part of President Biden’s directive in April for federal agencies to address ransomware attacks, has made progress in identifying and coordinating action on a range of fronts regarding ransomware concerns.

Surgeon General Urges Social Media to Tackle Vaccine Misinformation

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a warning against health misinformation, saying that falsehoods spreading quickly online have subjected large numbers of Americans to avoidable illness and death. In remarks at the White House, Murthy called on social media companies to step up their efforts on the issue, arguing that technology firms “have enabled misinformation to poison our information environment with little accountability to their users.”

Facebook Takes Down Network of Accounts Connected to Iranian Hackers

Facebook Inc. said it took down a network of accounts connected to a group of Iranian hackers who were targeting employees of defense and aerospace companies in the U.S., UK and Europe. Facebook said it removed fewer than 200 accounts operated by a group known as Tortoiseshell, which used various social media platforms to pose as recruiters, journalists and workers in other industries to gain the trust of their targets and trick them into clicking on malicious links, the company said.

Israeli Group Accused of Selling Tool to Hack Into Microsoft Windows

An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said, shedding light on the growing business of finding and selling tools to hack widely used software. The hacking tool vendor, named Candiru, created and sold a software exploit that can penetrate Windows, one of many intelligence products sold by a secretive industry that finds flaws in common software platforms for their clients, said a report by Citizen Lab.

Plaintiffs Filing More Lawsuits Under Disabilities Act Over Websites, Apps

The number of U.S. lawsuits alleging that websites, apps and digital videos were inaccessible to people with disabilities rose 64% in the first half of 2021 from a year earlier, a new report says. Plaintiffs filed 1,661 lawsuits claiming digital violations of either the federal Americans with Disabilities Act or California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act between Jan. 1 and June 30, up from 1,012 in the comparable period of 2020, according to the report by UsableNet Inc., a technology firm that offers accessibility-compliance technology and services.

Twitter Says Governments Increasingly Demand Removal of News Content

Twitter has reported that it has seen an increase in the number of legal demands by governments to have journalists or news outlets take down content in the second half of 2020, according to the social media’s transparency report. The social media company noted that 199 accounts of verified news sites and journalists worldwide “were subject to 361 legal demands” by governments and individuals to remove or take down content.

Facebook Wants New FTC Chair to Recuse Herself in Antitrust Case

Facebook sought to block Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan from participating in decisions about the agency’s high-profile antitrust case against the social network, arguing that the prominent technology critic couldn’t be impartial. The social media company argues in a new recusal petition that Khan’s work before joining the commission shows that she “had already decided the material facts relevant to Facebook’s liability in the Commission’s pending antitrust lawsuit and already reached legal conclusions that Facebook was liable under the antitrust laws.”

EU Lawmaker Gets Support for Action Against Online Abuses

A key EU lawmaker at the European Parliament steering the debate on tough new rules aimed at Facebook, Google and other large online platforms, secured backing to beef up Europeans' fundamental rights in the draft rules. Proposed by the European Commission in December last year, the Digital Services Act (DSA) forces the tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content such as hate speech and child sexual abuse material on their platforms.

Biden Picks Consultant to Lead Bureau of Industry and Security

President Joe Biden will nominate a Deloitte LLP logistics consultant and former Defense Department official to lead a Commerce Department agency that’s a key player in the administration’s strategy to limit China’s access to cutting-edge technology. Alan Estevez is Biden’s pick as undersecretary to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security that oversees export control, the White House announced.

Lawmakers Question Amazon's Efforts to Win $10 Billion Pentagon Contract

As the Defense Department prepares to solicit bids for cloud-computing work that could yield billions of dollars for Amazon, members of Congress are raising new questions about the company’s efforts to win a $10 billion contract during the Trump administration. Previously unreleased emails show that Pentagon officials in 2017 and 2018 lavished praise on several of the tech executives whose companies expressed interest in the original contract, especially Amazon, while concerns about the company’s access appear to have been glossed over, according to the emails, other documents and interviews.

France Fines Google $593 Million for Violating News Copyright Order

France's antitrust watchdog slapped a 500 million euro ($593 million) fine on Alphabet's Google for failing to comply with the regulator's orders on how to conduct talks with the country's news publishers in a row over copyright. The fine comes amid increasing international pressure on online platforms such as Google and Facebook to share more revenue with news outlets.

Twitter Removes Tweets, Suspends Accounts Targeting Black Soccer Players

Twitter said it is taking action on the growing score of racist posts targeting Black players on the English national soccer team after it lost the UEFA European Championship final to Italy. In a statement to The Hill, the social media company condemned the “abhorrent racist abuse” directed at the players and said the attacks have “absolutely no place” on its platform.

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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.