Canadian Judge Says Using a Thumbs-Up Emoji Can Create a Contract

A Canadian court has found that the ubiquitous thumbs-up emoji can affirm that a person is officially entering into a contract. The ruling pointed to what a judge called the “new reality in Canadian society” that courts would have to confront as more people express themselves with hearts, smiley faces and fire emojis — even in serious business dealings or personal disputes.

Complaint Accuses Judge of Posting TikTok Videos Lip-Syncing Rap Songs

For two years, a judge in New Jersey used a pseudonym to post TikTok videos of himself lip-syncing lyrics from popular rap songs. The court system said it had filed a complaint against the Superior Court judge, Gary N. Wilcox, who will now face a hearing that could lead to discipline ranging from a reprimand to dismissal from the bench.

Twitter Threatens to Sue Meta for Hiring Employees to Work on Threads

Twitter is threatening Meta with a lawsuit after the blockbuster launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads — in perhaps the clearest sign yet that Twitter views the app as a competitive threat. An attorney representing Twitter sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter that accused the company of trade secret theft through the hiring of former Twitter employees.

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Canadian Government to Stop Buying Facebook Ads in Dispute Over News

The Canadian government will stop buying ads on Facebook and Instagram amid a dispute over a new law on paying online news publishers that the Meta-owned platforms have opposed, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said. The Online News Act, or Bill C-18, was passed into law last month, triggering Meta and Alphabet's Google to say they would end news access on their platforms in Canada.

State Department Cancels Meetings with Facebook About Election Preparation

One day after a Louisiana federal judge set limits on the Biden administration’s communications with tech firms, the State Department canceled its regular meeting with Facebook officials to discuss 2024 election preparations and hacking threats, according to a person at the company. State Department officials told Facebook that all future meetings, which had been held monthly, have been “canceled pending further guidance,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve working relationships.

Judge Orders White House to Limit Communications with Social Media Firms

A federal judge in Louisiana restricted the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about broad swaths of content online, a ruling that could curtail efforts to combat false and misleading narratives about the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. The order, which could have significant First Amendment implications, is a major development in a fierce legal fight over the boundaries and limits of speech online.

Cyberattack Takes Down Russian Military's Satellite Communications System

A satellite communications system serving the Russian military was knocked offline by a cyberattack, in an incident reminiscent of an attack on a similar system used by Ukraine at the start of the war between the countries. Dozor-Teleport, the satellite system’s operator, switched some users to terrestrial networks during the outage, according to JD Work, a cyberspace professor at the National Defense University.

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.

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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.