Judge Refuses to Dismiss Shareholder Lawsuit Against BlackBerry

A U.S. judge rejected BlackBerry Ltd's bid to dismiss a long-running lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by inflating the success and profitability of its BlackBerry 10 smartphones, and said the class-action case could go to trial this fall. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan said "genuine issues of material fact" remained in dispute in the more than eight-year-old case, including over BlackBerry's accounting, and that "battle-of-the-experts" issues precluded her from ruling for one side or the other.

Right-Wing Provocateurs Turning on Each Other Over Online Tactics

After months of failing to disprove the reality of Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss, some of the Internet’s most popular right-wing provocateurs are grappling with the pressures of restless audiences, saturated markets, ongoing investigations and millions of dollars in legal bills. The result is a chaotic melodrama, playing out via secretly recorded phone calls, personal attacks in podcasts, and a seemingly endless stream of posts on Twitter, Gab and Telegram calling their rivals Satanists, communists, pedophiles or “pay-triots” — money-grubbing grifters exploiting the cause.

Websites of Portuguese Newspaper, Broadcaster Down After Hacking

The websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and of a major broadcaster, both owned by the country's largest media conglomerate Impresa, were down after being hit by a hacker attack. Expresso newspaper and SIC TV station both said they reported the incident to the criminal investigation police agency PJ and the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) and would file a complaint.

Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene's Personal Account

Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, after the company said she had violated its Covid-19 misinformation policies. Twitter suspended Ms. Greene’s account after she tweeted on Saturday, falsely, about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.”

India's Competition Watchdog Orders Probe of Apple's Business Practices

India's competition watchdog ordered an investigation into Apple Inc.'s business practices in the country, saying it was of the initial view that the iPhone maker had violated certain antitrust laws. The order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) comes after a non-profit group alleged this year that Apple was abusing its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system.

T-Mobile Reportedly Suffers Data Breach Targeting Small Group of Customers

T-Mobile has reportedly suffered another data breach, a few months after a huge breach in August. The new breach seems to have affected a smaller group of customers, who received notifications of "unauthorized activity" that consisted of hackers checking out customer proprietary network information, pulling off a physical SIM swap, or both, says a post by blog The T-Mo Report.

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TikTok Content Moderator Sues Company for Psychological Trauma

A content moderator who reviewed videos for TikTok is suing the social media company, alleging that it did not protect her from suffering psychological trauma after “constant” exposure to violent videos that showed sexual assault, beheadings, suicide and other graphic scenes. For as long as 12 hours each day, Candie Frazier and other moderators reviewed “extreme and graphic violence,” including videos of “genocide in Myanmar, mass shootings, children being raped, and animals being mutilated” in an effort to filter out such content from being viewed by TikTok users, according to the lawsuit.

Judge Allows Plaintiffs to Depose Alphabet CEO in Chrome 'Private' Mode Case

Plaintiffs who accused Alphabet Inc's Google of unlawfully tracking their internet use while on "Incognito" browsing mode can question Chief Executive Sundar Pichai for up to two hours, a California federal judge has ruled. In the lawsuit filed in June 2020, users accused Google of illegally invading their privacy by tracking internet use while Google Chrome browsers were set in "private" mode.

Appeals Court Upholds $13M Google Street View Settlement Over Wi-Fi Data

A federal appeals court upheld Google’s settlement in a class action case over allegations that it collected Wi-Fi data illegally with its Street View program. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument that the $13 million settlement was unfair because it only distributed money to privacy groups and did not pay the class members.

Lawmakers from Both Parties Pushing Biden on Internet Regulations

Lawmakers say 2022 is shaping up as a pivotal year in their efforts to tighten regulations on social media and other internet platforms — and are pushing President Biden to come off the sidelines. Democrats and Republicans are working on half a dozen or more major categories of legislation dealing with online privacy and children’s safety, the transparency of companies’ data-collection practices, accountability for content posted on social media and market dominance by a handful of major players.

As Privacy Rules Grow, More Companies Arrive to Help Navigate Them

In an attempt to rein in tech giants like Facebook and Google, governments around the world in recent years have approved new laws governing how websites must handle consumer data, treat their competitors and protect young people. Out of those regulations has arisen something else: An industry to help companies navigate the increasingly fragmented rules of the global internet.

Some of Shutterfly's Services Hit by Ransomware Attack

Photography company Shutterfly announced that it had been hit by a ransomware attack that had impacted some services, making it the latest in a string of companies to be targeted by hackers looking for a payout. The company announced the attack in a statement posted to its website, noting the incident had impacted portions of the Lifetouch and BorrowLenses business, along with Groovebook, manufacturing and some corporate systems.

White House Officials Invite Developers to Discuss Software Security

White House officials are asking major software companies and developers to work with them to improve the security of open-source software, according to an administration official. The invitation follows the disclosure of a vulnerability in popular open-source Apache software that cybersecurity officials have described as one of the most serious in recent memory.

Netherlands Says Apple's App Store Payment Policies Violate Law

The Netherlands' top competition regulator said Apple Inc. broke the country's competition laws and ordered changes to the iPhone maker's App Store payment policies. Apple's practice of requiring app developers to use its in-app payment system and pay commissions of 15% to 30% on digital goods purchases has come under scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers around the world.

Russian Court Fines Google $100 Million for Not Removing 'Banned Content'

A Russian court fined Google nearly $100 million for “systematic failure to remove banned content” — the largest such penalty yet in the country as Moscow attempts to rein in Western tech giants. The fine was calculated based on Google’s annual revenue, the court said. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Internet regulator, told the court that Google’s 2020 turnover in the country exceeded 85 billion rubles, or about $1.15 billion.

China's Cyber Regulator Launches Campaign to Target Fake Accounts

China will scrutinize online platforms such as social media networks and video-sharing sites to clamp down on fake accounts and information as part of its drive to "clean up" the internet, the country's cyber regulator said. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it would launch a two-month special operation to target deceptive online behaviors, ranging from boosting engagement figures to paying for fake fans and reviews.

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.