Court Says Meta Violated Washington State's Campaign-Ad Transparency Law

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, repeatedly and intentionally violated Washington campaign-ad transparency law and must pay penalties yet to be determined, a judge ruled. The court also denied Meta’s attempt to invalidate Washington’s decades-old transparency law, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office has repeatedly sued Meta over its failure to abide by the law.

Google, YouTube Disclose Plans to Limit Misinformation in Midterm Elections

Google and its video sharing app YouTube outlined plans for handling the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, highlighting tools at its disposal to limit the effort to limit the spread of political misinformation. When users search for election content on either Google or YouTube, recommendation systems are in place to highlight journalism or video content from authoritative national and local news sources such as The Wall Street Journal, Univision, PBS NewsHour and local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates.

Montenegro Blames 'Cuba Ransomware' Group for Infrastructure Attacks

Montenegro blamed a criminal group called Cuba ransomware for cyber attacks that have hit its government digital infrastructure since last week, described by officials as unprecedented. Public Administration Minister Maras Dukaj told state television the group had created a special virus for the attack called Zerodate, with 150 work stations in 10 state institutions becoming infected.

App Developer Settles Lawsuit with Apple Over App Store Rejection

An app developer’s lawsuit over App Store rejections, scams and fraud has ended in a settlement agreement after court filings show a request to dismiss the suit earlier this summer. The plaintiff, app developer and former Pinterest engineer Kosta Eleftheriou, made a name for himself in recent months calling out some of the most egregious App Store scams.

California Lawmakers Approve 'Age-Appropriate Design Code Act'

California state lawmakers passed a major children’s online safety measure that would require digital platforms to vet whether new products may pose harm to kids and teens before rolling them out and to offer privacy guardrails to younger users by default. Children’s safety advocates say the legislation, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, would make the state a national leader in setting protections for kids and teens online.

Biden Administration Imposes New Restrictions on Chip Sales to Russia, China

The Biden administration has imposed new restrictions on sales of some sophisticated computer chips to China and Russia, the U.S. government’s latest attempt to use semiconductors as a tool to hobble rivals’ advances in fields such as high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. The new limits affect high-end models of chips known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are sold by the Silicon Valley companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

UK Plans Enforcement Rules to Ensure Porn Sites Blocked from Children

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has pledged to crack down on porn sites and other adult-only services to ensure they are taking steps, such as verifying users’ ages, to prevent children’s access, the regulator said. The new enforcement plans are a reversal for the ICO, which had previously maintained that services aimed at adults weren’t subject to the Children’s Code or Age Appropriate Design Code, a set of rules that guide how the UK Data Protection Act should be applied to digital services for children.

Court Rules for Apple, HTC, ZTE in Dispute Over Former Panasonic Patents

A U.S. appeals court affirmed a win for Apple Inc., HTC Corp. and ZTE Corp. against allegations that imports of their devices infringe wireless-technology patents. The companies' smartphones, smart watches, tablets and other LTE-capable devices do not violate INVT SPE LLC's rights in two patents originally owned by Panasonic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said.

Justice Department Lawyers Drafting Antitrust Complaint Against Apple

Justice Department lawyers are in the early stages of drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter — a sign that a long-running investigation may be nearing a decision point and a suit could be coming soon. Various groups of prosecutors inside DOJ are assembling the pieces for a potential lawsuit, the individual said, adding that the department’s antitrust division hopes to file suit by the end of the year.

Twitter Mistakenly Labeled Factual Information About Covid-19 as False

Over the past week, Twitter has flagged dozens of tweets with factual information about covid-19 as misinformation and in some cases has suspended the accounts of doctors, scientists, and patient advocates in response to their posts warning people about the illness’s dangers. Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored.

Twitter Executives Call Accusations in Security Complaint 'Inaccurate'

Executives at Twitter pushed back against what they said was a “false” narrative being created around a former executive’s allegations about the company’s security practices. At its weekly companywide meeting, Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, addressed a whistle-blower complaint made by Peiter Zatko, the former head of security, who was fired in January.

Dell Says It Has Ceased All Russian Operations Following Ukraine Invasion

Dell Technologies Inc. said it had ceased all Russian operations after closing its offices in mid-August, the latest in a growing list of Western firms to exit Russia. The U.S. computer firm, a vital supplier of servers in Russia, has joined others in curtailing operations since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

FBI Says It 'Routinely Notifies' Social Media, Others About Potential Threats

The FBI said that it “routinely notifies” private sector entities, including social media companies, of information related to potential threats after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook limited the distribution of a controversial story leading up to the 2020 presidential election because of an FBI warning. The statement followed Zuckerberg’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Thursday in which Zuckerberg said Facebook limited stories on the news feed related to the New York Post’s article about President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his laptop after the FBI warned the company to be aware of potentially polarizing content.

Google Maps to Label Abortion Providers After Misleading Complaints

Google will begin specifically labeling medical clinics and hospitals that provide abortion care in its Maps app and websites. The move comes in response to years of complaints from users and abortion advocates that its search results for abortion care often return links to crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions and sometimes actively try to dissuade people from getting them.

Social Media Remove Operation Promoting U.S. Foreign Policy Interests Abroad

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter have removed an influence operation from their networks that promoted U.S. foreign policy interests abroad, according to a report by researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory and the research company Graphika. It was the first time that an influence campaign pushing U.S. interests abroad had been discovered and taken down from the social media platforms.

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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.