States Sue Meta, Allege Company Misled About Dangers for Young People

A coalition of 41 states and the District of Columbia are filing lawsuits alleging that Meta Platforms has intentionally built its products with addictive features that harm young users of its Facebook and Instagram services. The lawsuits, in federal and state courts, say Meta misled the public about the dangers of its platforms for young people.

Japanese Regulator Opens Antitrust Probe of Google for Mobile Search

Japan’s competition watchdog said it is investigating Alphabet-owned Google for alleged antitrust law violations in regards to its search practices on mobile platforms, ramping up regulatory pressure on the U.S. technology giant. The Japan Fair Trade Commission said it is examining whether Google made agreements with Android smartphone makers to share search ad-related revenue on the condition that the device manufacturer does not install a rival search engine.

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Supreme Court to Hear Case Limiting White House's Contacts with Social Media

The Supreme Court paused a sweeping ruling from a federal appeals court that had prohibited thousands of Biden administration officials from engaging in many kinds of contact with social media platforms. The justices also agreed to hear the administration’s appeal in the case, setting the stage for a major test of the role of the First Amendment in the internet era, one that will require the court to consider when government efforts to limit the spread of misinformation amount to censorship of constitutionally protected speech.

Justice Department Seizes Domain Names Used by North Korean IT Workers

Thousands of information technology workers working remotely for U.S. companies have for years sent millions of dollars to North Korea under the radar to fund its weapons program, according to federal prosecutors. The Department of Justice (DOJ) in a statement said authorities seized 17 website domains used by North Korean IT workers in a scheme to defraud the U.S. and foreign businesses, evade sanctions and fund the the country’s ballistic missile program.

Huckabee, Religious Authors File Suit Over AI Tools Scraping Their Content

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and a group of religious authors filed a new lawsuit against a group of tech companies, arguing they trained artificial intelligence tools on the authors’ books without permission. The suit, filed in New York federal court, is the latest in a procession of lawsuits targeting tech companies for training their AI on text they scraped from the web, a practice that has helped OpenAI, Google and others create breakthrough chatbots like ChatGPT and kick off a competitive scramble to sell AI tools.

New York Sues Three Cryptocurrency Firms for 'Defrauding' Investors

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued cryptocurrency firms Genesis Global, its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Gemini for allegedly "defrauding" investors of more than $1 billion. The development underscores the challenges the crypto industry continues to face almost a year after the bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried's exchange FTX, which led to a meltdown in the sector that overwhelmed several major firms.

Proposed Treasury Rule Targets Crypto Money Laundering Prompted by Hamas

The Biden administration proposed labeling a cryptocurrency practice that provides customers with anonymity as a money laundering concern, amid a larger effort to crack down on illicit uses of crypto in the wake of Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said the rule would identify international crypto mixing — a practice that anonymizes crypto funds by mixing them with others — as a primary money laundering concern and would require financial institutions to report transactions involving crypto mixing.

Major Newspapers Consider Granting Access to OpenAI for ChatGPT

Since August, at least 535 news organizations — including the New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post — have installed a blocker that prevents their content from being collected and used to train ChatGPT. Now, discussions are focused on paying publishers so the chatbot can surface links to individual news stories in its responses, a development that would benefit the newspapers in two ways: by providing direct payment and by potentially increasing traffic to their websites.

FCC Votes to Approve Process to Restore Net Neutrality Regulations

The Federal Communications Commission voted to move forward on a proposal to restore open internet rules, which were repealed during the Trump administration, with a final vote likely to come next year. The commissioners at the Democratic-led agency voted 3 to 2 along party lines to kick off a monthslong process to bring back so-called net neutrality regulations that prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing down services like Google and Netflix on their networks.

India Frequently Cuts Access to Internet, Citing Need to Contain Unrest

Between 2016 and this May, India accounted for more than half of all the shutdowns recorded worldwide by an international coalition of more than 300 digital rights groups led by Access Now, a nonprofit. On more than 680 occasions during that period, state and local officials in India issued legal orders requiring the country’s handful of telecommunication companies to suspend mobile data transmission from cell towers and freeze wired broadband connections.

Five Countries Accuse China of IP Theft, Using AI for Hacking, Spying

The Five Eyes countries' intelligence chiefs came together to accuse China of intellectual property theft and using artificial intelligence for hacking and spying against the nations, in a rare joint statement by the allies. The officials from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — known as the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network — made the comments following meetings with private companies in the U.S. innovation hub Silicon Valley.

Hamas Seizes Hostages' Social Media Accounts to Broadcast Violent Messages

In a new war tactic, Hamas has seized the social media accounts of kidnapped Israelis and used them to broadcast violent messages and wage psychological warfare, according to interviews with 13 Israeli families and their friends, as well as social media experts who have studied extremist groups. In at least four cases, Hamas members logged into the personal social media accounts of their hostages to livestream the Oct. 7 attacks.

At Hearing, Judge Says Montana's Law Banning TikTok 'Confuses Me'

A federal district judge voiced doubt over Montana’s “paternalistic” ban of TikTok during a hearing in the first courtroom challenge to the only statewide ban targeting the wildly popular video app. TikTok sued Montana in May, saying the ban violated the First Amendment and was backed by no evidence of legitimate national security risks. During the suit’s first hearing in Missoula, state attorneys argued the ban was vital to protect citizens against a Chinese-owned app with 150 million users nationwide.

Caltech, Apple, Broadcom Settle Billion-Dollar Patent Dispute Over Wi-Fi Chips

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has reached a settlement with Apple and Broadcom over Wi-Fi chips, ending a billion-dollar patent dispute that started in 2016, Reuters has reported. In a filing, Caltech said that it's dismissing the case with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again. The saga has taken several turns. Caltech initially alleged that millions of iPhones, iPads, Watches and other Apple devices with Broadcom chips infringed its Wi-Fi based patents.

California Judge Allows Kids' Negligence Lawsuits Against Social Media

Minors and parents suing Meta Inc.’s Facebook and other technology giants for the kids’ social media platform addictions won an important ruling advancing their collection of lawsuits in a California court. A state judge threw out most of the claims but said she’ll allow the lawsuits to advance based on a claim that the companies were negligent — or knew that the design of their platforms would maximize minors’ use and prove harmful. The plaintiffs argue social media is designed to be addictive, causing depression, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders and suicide.

Supreme Court Maintains Block on White House Social Media Limitations

The U.S. Supreme Court on maintained a block on restrictions imposed by lower courts on the ability of President Joe Biden's administration to encourage social media companies to remove content deemed misinformation, including about elections and COVID-19. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito temporarily put on hold a preliminary injunction constraining how the White House and certain other federal officials communicate with social media platforms pending the administration's appeal to the Supreme Court.

EU Reminds YouTube About Obligations Under Digital Services Act During War

European Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai reminding him of the company’s obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) as a large online platform to keep illegal content and disinformation from being shared on YouTube surrounding Israel’s war with Hamas. “Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we are seeing a surge of illegal content and disinformation being disseminated in the EU via certain platforms,” Breton wrote.

Jews, Palestinians Both Complain About Online Hate Spreading Amid War

Groups who study online hate speech say it has spiked in recent days — not just for Jewish communities but also for Palestinians, who have faced increasing online hatred. And representatives of both communities agree on one thing: U.S.-based social media companies are still not doing anywhere near enough to rid their platforms of hate against targeted groups.

Meta Creates 'Special Operations Center' to Combat Misinformation About War

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it stepping up efforts to enforce policies on violence and misinformation amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The tech giant said it has established a “special operations center” with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to monitor the situation and remove content that violates Meta policies more quickly.

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.