TikTok to Require Verification of Government Accounts, Ban Fundraising

TikTok will begin requiring accounts belonging to U.S. government departments, politicians and political parties to be verified and will ban videos aimed at campaign fundraising, the short-form video app said. The move comes as TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, and other social media platforms are working to clamp down on political misinformation ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November, after years of being criticized for allowing such content to flourish on their services.

Florida Asks Supreme Court to Rule on State Regulation of Social Media

Florida’s attorney general asked the Supreme Court to decide whether states have the right to regulate how social media companies moderate content on their services. At stake is the constitutionality of state laws in Florida and Texas that would bar social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from blocking or limiting certain types of political speech.

Pentagon to Review Efforts to Spread Pro-American Messages on Social Media

White House officials told the military that they were concerned about its efforts to spread pro-American messaging on social media, prompting the Pentagon to order a review of secretive operations to influence populations overseas, U.S. officials said. The review follows a decision by Twitter and Facebook over the summer to shut down misleading accounts that they determined were sending messages about U.S. foreign policy interests abroad.

46 States Ask Appeals Court to Reinstate Antitrust Suit Against Meta

A big group of U.S. states, led by New York, argued to an appeals court that it should reinstate an antitrust lawsuit against Meta's Facebook because of ongoing harm from the company's actions and because the states had not waited too long to file their complaint. Barbara Underwood, solicitor general of New York which led the group that consists of 46 states, Guam and District of Columbia, said that it was wrong to treat states like a class action and put a limit on when they can sue.

Passwords Hacked from Kiwi Farms, Internet Forum Used to Organize Harassment

The head of Kiwi Farms, the Internet forum best known for organizing harassment campaigns against trans and non-binary people, said the site experienced a breach that allowed hackers to access his administrator account and possibly the accounts of all other users. Creator Joshua Moons aid that the unknown individual or individuals behind the hack gained access to his admin account by using a technique known as session hijacking, in which an attacker obtains the authentication cookies a site sets after an account holder enters valid credentials and successfully completes any two-factor authentication requirements.

Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Limiting Social Media Content Policies

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a controversial Texas social media law that bars companies from removing posts based on a person’s political ideology, overturning a lower court’s decision to block the law and likely setting up a Supreme Court showdown over the future of online speech. The ruling could have wide-ranging effects on the future of tech regulation, giving fresh ammunition to conservative politicians who have alleged that major tech companies are silencing their political speech.

Uber Investigating Hack That Seems to Compromise Internal Systems

Uber discovered its computer network had been breached, leading the company to take several of its internal communications and engineering systems offline as it investigated the extent of the hack. The breach appeared to have compromised many of Uber’s internal systems, and a person claiming responsibility for the hack sent images of email, cloud storage and code repositories to cybersecurity researchers and The New York Times.

Justice Department Indicts Three Iranians for Hacking, Extortion

The Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment of three Iranian nationals alleged to have hacked hundreds of computer systems of organizations in the U.S. and around the world. U.S. officials accused the defendants of exfiltrating data from the organizations’ computer systems and attempting to extort money from them by either threatening to release the stolen data or keeping the data encrypted unless the hackers were paid.

Senators Question TikTok's COO About Company's Data-Sharing with China

Senators grilled a top TikTok executive about whether the viral video app could leak data to the Chinese government, the first time a leader at the company has had to answer to lawmakers in public about recent reports on its ties to Beijing. Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee repeatedly asked TikTok’s chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, about whether the company would ever provide data about Americans to Chinese officials or delete content at their request. TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, is based in China.

Calif. Governor Signs Law Requiring Disclosures from Social Media Companies

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a controversial bill into law that aims to force greater transparency of social media companies, setting up a potential battle over whether such measures violate free-speech protections. The law, known as A.B. 587, requires tech companies to file semiannual reports with the state’s attorney general that publicly disclose their content moderation policies regarding hate speech, disinformation and extremism.

EU Judges Uphold Most of Record $4.3 Billion Google Fine in Antitrust Case

Google lost most of the first round of its battle to topple a record 4.3 billion-euro ($4.3 billion) European Union antitrust fine that struck at the heart of the U.S. tech giant’s power over the Android mobile-phone ecosystem. In a boost for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, judges upheld the vast majority of the European Commission’s arguments, but cut the penalty to 4.1 billion euros after finding faults in some of the regulator’s analysis and that Google’s right to a fair hearing had partly been infringed.

California Files Lawsuit Against Amazon Alleging Antitrust Violations

California sued Amazon.com. Inc., the state attorney general said, alleging the online retail giant’s contracts with third-party sellers and wholesalers inflate prices, stifle competition and violate the state’s antitrust and unfair competition laws. Attorney General Rob Bonta announced his office had filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court seeking to halt Amazon policies he said prevent merchants from offering lower prices through competitors’ websites.

Iranian State-Sponsored Hacking Group Reportedly Aims at Western Targets

Cybersecurity researchers say they've identified what's likely an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group that's targeting opponents of that country's regime including Western think tanks, researchers, journalists, government officials and members of the Iranian diaspora. In a report, researchers for the cybersecurity firm Mandiant say the advanced persistent threat group, which they refer to as "APT42," has conducted information gathering and surveillance operations going back to at least 2015.

  • Read the article: CNET

'Criminal' Cyberattack Disables Computer Systems at Los Angeles Schools

The massive cyberattack that disabled computer systems across the Los Angeles Unified School District school over the weekend is “criminal in nature,” but most all online services — including key emergency systems — were operating safely, no ransom demands were made and schools opened with only a few glitches, Supt. Alberto Carvalho said. Besides taking the district’s website offline, the attack resulted in staff and students losing access to email.

Brazil Fines Apple, Says iPhone Sales Must Include Battery Chargers

Brazil's government ordered Apple Inc. to stop selling iPhones without a battery charger in the country, claiming that the company provides an incomplete product to consumers. The Justice Ministry fined Apple 12.275 million reais ($2.38 million) and ordered the cancellation of the sale of the iPhone 12 and newer models, in addition to suspending the sale of any iPhone model that does not come with a power charger.

Cloudflare Drops Support for Kiwi Farms Message Board, Citing 'Imminent Threats'

Cloudflare, a major American internet services company, pulled its support for Kiwi Farms, a controversial online message board, citing “imminent threats to human life.” The move temporarily forced Kiwi Farms offline. Cloudflare’s decision came as Kiwi Farms was linked to a campaign of harassment and violent threats targeting Clara Sorrenti, a Canadian trans woman who is a streamer on Twitch, a platform popular among video gamers.

  • Read the article: CNN

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