Cambodia Prime Minister's Facebook Account Offline After Suspension Ruling

The usually very active Facebook account for Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia appeared to have been deleted, a day after the oversight board for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, recommended that he be suspended from the platform for threatening political opponents with violence. The showdown pits the social media behemoth against one of Asia’s longest-ruling autocrats.

Hackers Threaten to Release Data from One of UK's Largest Hospital Groups

A gang of cybercriminals says it has breached one of the UK’s largest hospital groups and is threatening to publish a trove of its confidential data. The gang, known as ALPHV or BlackCat, posted a statement on Friday claiming it had obtained seven terabytes of internal documents from the Barts Health NHS Trust, which manages five hospitals in London that care for about 2.5 million people, according to the Trust’s website.

Cyber Attack Compromises Information on Workers at Dublin Airport

Some Dublin airport staff's financial information has been compromised by a cyber-attack on provider company Aon that also affected various other firms, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said. "DAA can confirm that as a result of a recent cyber-attack on Aon, a third-party professional service provider, data relating to some employees’ pay and benefits was compromised," a spokesperson said in a statement.

11-Year-Old's YouTube Account, Called 'Psychological Warfare,' Removed

The YouTube account for an 11-year-old video blogger, which had more than 30,000 subscribers, was terminated, one of three removed by the platform after authorities in Seoul moved to crack down on a network of North Korean propaganda channels. “North Korea has been running such YouTube channels as part of its psychological warfare against South Korea,” an NIS official told South Korea’s state news agency Yonhap.

Two U.S. Authors Sue OpenAI, Claim ChatGPT Infringed Their Copyrights

Two U.S. authors sued OpenAI in San Francisco federal court, claiming in a proposed class action that the company misused their works to "train" its popular generative artificial-intelligence system ChatGPT. Massachusetts-based writers Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad said ChatGPT mined data copied from thousands of books without permission, infringing the authors' copyrights.

Supreme Court Reverses Man's Conviction for Making Online Threats

The Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a man who made extensive online threats to a stranger, saying free speech protections require prosecutors to prove the stalker was aware of the threatening nature of his communications. In a 7-2 ruling authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the court emphasized that true threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment. But to guard against a chilling effect on non-threatening speech, the majority said states must prove that a criminal defendant has “disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence.”

Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal in Caltech's Wi-Fi Patent Case

The Supreme Court dealt a setback to Apple and Broadcom, declining to hear an appeal filed by the companies in a billion-dollar patent case brought by the California Institute of Technology. The high court’s denial sets the stage for a damages-only jury trial to determine how much Apple and Broadcom should pay for infringing Caltech patents relating to wireless technology.

More Political Campaign Materials Being Created by Artificial Intelligence

What began a few months ago as a slow drip of fund-raising emails and promotional images composed by A.I. for political campaigns has turned into a steady stream of campaign materials created by the technology, rewriting the political playbook for democratic elections around the world. Increasingly, political consultants, election researchers and lawmakers say setting up new guardrails, such as legislation reining in synthetically generated ads, should be an urgent priority.

Russia Blocked Access to News Sources Amid Wagner Mercenary Efforts

Russian authorities blocked access to major news sources and information from the Wagner mercenary group as it pushed toward Moscow, adding to the confusion as rumors and misinformation about events flourished. News aggregator Google News was blocked by Rostelecom, Russia’s largest digital provider, along with at least four other major internet service providers, according to the nonprofit group NetBlocks, which monitors internet censorship.

Biden Announces $40 Billion in Funding to Expand Broadband Access

President Biden announced roughly $40 billion in funding to be allocated across the country in an effort to bring areas without Internet access online in the coming years. The White House billed the announcement as the kickoff of a three-week “investing in America” blitz, in which Biden and other officials will highlight how money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other legislation passed under Biden are boosting infrastructure around the country.

Lawmaker Says Commerce Department Regulations Would Allow TikTok

The chairman of the House select committee on China said a recent change in Commerce Department regulations appears to be aimed at allowing the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok to continue operating in the United States, despite congressional fears that Beijing could use the online service as a tool of espionage or propaganda. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the panel’s chairman, accused the department of watering down proposed rules on supply chain security so that the Biden administration can more easily approve TikTok’s proposal to calm U.S. national security concerns through a corporate restructuring.

Google Asks India's Supreme Court to Stop Restrictions on Android Devices

Google has urged India's Supreme Court to quash antitrust directives against it for abuse of the Android market, two sources said, as its presses its legal battle against the competition watchdog in one of its most important markets. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in October that Google, whose Android mobile operating system powers 97% of the 600 million smartphones in India, had exploited its dominant position.

Meta Says It Will Remove News Content from Facebook, Instagram in Canada

After the Senate passed the Online News Act, Meta confirmed it will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for all Canadian users, but it remained unclear whether Google would follow suit for its platforms. The act, which was known as Bill C-18, is designed to force Google and Facebook to share revenues with publishers for news stories that appear on their platforms. By removing news altogether, companies would be exempt from the legislation.

Biden Meets with Civil Society Leaders to Discuss Concerns About AI

President Biden met with a group of civil society leaders who have been critical of Big Tech companies in the past to discuss the boom in artificial intelligence, part of a broader push by the U.S. government to get involved in conversations around AI tech and its potential risks. Biden, in brief remarks to reporters before the closed-door meeting in San Francisco, said that he was there to learn about the potential controls that could be put in place to protect people from the harms of the new tech.

YouTube Removes Interview with RFK Jr. for Violating Vaccine Guidelines

YouTube has removed an interview between commentator Jordan Peterson and 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for violating its guidelines against vaccine misinformation, the video-sharing platform said. “We removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

Republican Lawmakers, Activists Seek to Stifle Studies of Disinformation

On Capitol Hill and in the courts, Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online. The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas — demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015.

Gannett Sues Google for Monopolizing Online Advertising Technology

Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain and publisher of USA Today, sued Google for trying to corner the market for online advertising by monopolizing ad technology. In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Gannett, which has more than 200 daily newspapers, said Google's control over tools for buying and selling online ads forces publishers to sell more cheap ad space to the Alphabet Inc. unit.

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.