Executives from TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube Testify About Child Protections

TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, all social media sites popular with teens and young adults, faced a barrage of questions and accusations from lawmakers who want the companies to do more to protect children online. Executives from all three companies committed to sharing internal research on how their products affect kids — an issue that has come to the forefront in the past several weeks as tens of thousands of pages of Facebook’s internal documents have been revealed by a whistleblower.

Zuckerberg Says Leaked Documents 'Paint a False Picture of Our Company'

CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off Facebook's quarterly earnings call by addressing the latest wave of coverage based on a trove of leaked internal documents. "Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company," Zuckerberg said.

  • Read the article: CNN

TikTok, Snapchat Executives to Testify About Precautions for Children

TikTok and Snapchat executives will make their debut on Capitol Hill, testifying for the first time before a Senate panel about safety precautions for young users. Members of the Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee are expected to grill executives from the social media companies, along with a representative for YouTube, about their platforms’ effects on kids and teens.

Justice Department Accelerates Antitrust Investigation of Apple

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has accelerated its two-year-old antitrust probe on Apple Inc. in the last several months, increasing the likelihood of a lawsuit, the Information reported. Lawyers for the DOJ have asked Apple, its customers and competitors questions about how the company maintains its strict control over the iPhone, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of the investigation.

YouTube Says It Removed 7 Million Children's Accounts This Year

YouTube plans to tell Congress that it removed 7 million accounts believed to belong to young children and preteens on the sly in the first nine months of this year, with 3 million of those removals coming in the third quarter as the company has "ramped up our automated removal efforts." The stat is an excerpt from prepared testimony set to be delivered at a Senate hearing on online child protections.

  • Read the article: CNET

Russia Launches Attack to Gather Cloud Data from U.S. Gov't, Companies

Russia’s premier intelligence agency has launched another campaign to pierce thousands of U.S. government, corporate and think-tank computer networks, Microsoft officials and cybersecurity experts warned, only months after President Biden imposed sanctions on Moscow in response to a series of sophisticated spy operations it had conducted around the world. The new effort is “very large, and it is ongoing,” Tom Burt, one of Microsoft’s top security officers, said in an interview.

Facebook Documents Show Content Moderation Woes Outside U.S.

For all of Facebook’s troubles in North America, its problems with hate speech and disinformation are dramatically worse in the developing world. Internal company documents reveal that Facebook has meticulously studied its approach abroad — and was well aware that weaker moderation in non-English-speaking countries leaves the platform vulnerable to abuse by bad actors and authoritarian regimes.

Global Trade Union Pushes Europe to Broaden Amazon Antitrust Probe

A global trade union for the services sector urged European authorities to widen their antitrust investigation of Amazon.com Inc.to assess if the company engaged in creating knockoff goods and rigging search results on its platform. The demand by the UNI Global Union was triggered by a Reuters report based on internal Amazon documents that showed the e-commerce company ran a systematic campaign of copying products and manipulating search results to boost its own private brands such as AmazonBasics in India, a key growth market.

Twitter's Timeline Algorithm Found to Amplify Right-Leaning Politicians

Twitter’s timeline algorithm tends to amplify right-leaning politicians and news outlets more than their counterparts on the left, a study conducted by the platform found. The company analyzed millions of tweets from elected officials in seven countries — the United Kingdom, U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Japan — and hundreds of millions of tweets from news outlets between April 1 and Aug. 15, 2020.

Epic Games Asks Judge to Deny Apple's Request for Injunction Delay

"Fortnite" creator Epic Games opposed Apple Inc's efforts to put on hold orders handed down in an antitrust trial as a potentially lengthy appeals process plays out. U.S. district Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in September struck down some of the iPhone maker's App Store rules, including a prohibition on developers directing their users to other payment options beside Apple's in-app payment system, in a partial win for Epic and other app makers.

Facebook Sues Ukrainian Programmer for Scraping, Selling User Data

Facebook is suing a Ukrainian programmer for allegedly scraping and selling publicly accessible information from millions of Facebook users. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California federal court, accuses freelance programmer Alexander Alexandrovich Solonchenko of using automated means to scrape phone numbers and Facebook user IDs off roughly 178 million accounts in 2018 and 2019.

Advertisers Hurt by Apple's New Privacy Policy for App Users

Apple’s privacy change, rolled out in April, is beginning to disrupt the online ad market, hurting e-commerce players and creating challenges for tech companies including Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc. Advertisers are finding it harder to reach potential customers, according to the executives, and ad prices—which were already rising—are going up further because of Apple’s change.

FTC Staff Report Accuses ISPs of 'Troubling Data Collection Practices'

A new Federal Trade Commission staff report points the finger at six of the largest internet service providers in the U.S., calling each out for amassing troves of personal data from their customers and failing to offer meaningful disclosures or options to control the collection of that data. The six ISPs in question -- Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, AT&T and Google Fiber -- account for roughly 98% of the mobile internet market in the U.S., notes the report.

  • Read the article: CNET

Facebook to Compensate French News Publishers for Shared Content

Facebook agreed to compensate French news publishers for content shared on the social media platform, the company announced. Facebook said the deal with Alliance de la presse d'Information générale, which represents papers across France, will allow users to “continue to freely share news within their communities, while ensuring the protections of neighboring rights of our publishing partners.”

Facebook’s Oversight Board Calls Lack of Info on VIP Program Unacceptable

Facebook’s Oversight Board issued a strong reprimand against the company in a set of quarterly reports, accusing it of not being “fully forthcoming” about a key program. The reports highlight the tense negotiations between the two entities, as the board tries to force greater transparency from the social media giant, despite its limited power.

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.