State Legislators Plan New Effort to Adopt British-Style Child Safety Laws

A group of state legislators and children’s safety advocates are planning a renewed campaign to import British digital safeguards for kids into the United States as they look to ward off legal challenges from the tech industry. Legislators and advocates are forging ahead, reviving efforts to get the U.K.-style protections into law while attempting to thwart industry criticism that the approach would expand data collection and impose ambiguous restrictions on businesses, according to interviews with key negotiators and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Netherlands Limits ASML's Chip Exports to China After U.S. Restrictions

The Netherlands has blocked chip-equipment manufacturer ASML’s exports to China of some lithography systems, which are essential to making advanced microprocessors, in a partial license revocation following U.S. export restrictions. The Netherlands-based company said Monday that the Dutch government recently partially revoked an export license for shipping the NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China in 2023.

Chief Justice Report Acknowledges Risks, Rewards of AI in Court

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. devoted his annual year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary, issued, to the positive role that artificial intelligence can play in the legal system — and the threats it poses. “One of A.I.’s prominent applications made headlines this year for a shortcoming known as ‘hallucination,’” he wrote, “which caused the lawyers using the application to submit briefs with citations to nonexistent cases. (Always a bad idea.)”

Pornhub Starts Restricting Access in States with New Age-Verification Laws

Pornhub has restricted access in two more states in protest of continued nationwide state-level efforts to regulate online access to porn. 404Media reported that residents in both North Carolina and Montana visiting Pornhub and other Aylo-owned sites like Redtube or Brazzers are now greeted by a video of performer Cherie DeVille, and a handful of paragraphs, telling them their states are now blocked.

Google to Settle Lawsuit Over Tracking Users with Private Browsing

Alphabet's Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled Feb. 5, 2024 trial in the proposed class action on hold after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached a preliminary settlement.

X Fails to Block California Law Requiring Disclosure of Moderation Policies

Elon Musk's X failed to block a California state law that requires social media companies to publicly disclose how they moderate certain content on their platforms. X, formerly known as Twitter, in September sued California to undo the content moderation law, saying the law violated its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and California's state constitution.

Ex-Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Cited AI-Generated Fake Court Cases

Michael D. Cohen, the onetime fixer for former President Donald J. Trump, mistakenly gave his lawyer bogus legal citations concocted by the artificial intelligence program Google Bard, he said in court papers. The fictitious citations were used by the lawyer in a motion submitted to a federal judge, Jesse M. Furman. Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and served time in prison, had asked the judge for an early end to the court’s supervision of his case now that he is out of prison and has complied with the conditions of his release.

New York Times Sues Creator of ChatGPT, Microsoft for Copyright Infringement

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies. The Times is the first major American media organization to sue the companies, the creators of ChatGPT and other popular A.I. platforms, over copyright issues associated with its written works.

Parent of Paramount, CBS Reports Data Breach Affecting 80,000 People

National Amusements, the cinema chain and corporate parent giant of media giants Paramount and CBS, has confirmed it experienced a data breach in which hackers stole the personal information of tens of thousands of people. The private media conglomerate said in a legally required filing with Maine’s attorney general that hackers stole personal information on 82,128 people during a December 2022 data breach.

Substack's Founders Say They Won't Ban Nazi Symbols, Extremist Speech

Under pressure from critics who say Substack is profiting from newsletters that promote hate speech and racism, the company’s founders said that they would not ban Nazi symbols and extremist rhetoric from the platform. The response came weeks after The Atlantic found that at least 16 Substack newsletters had “overt Nazi symbols” in their logos or graphics, and that white supremacists had been allowed to publish on, and profit from, the platform.

FTC Proposes Changes to Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

The Federal Trade Commission proposed sweeping changes to bolster the key federal rule that has protected children’s privacy online, in one of the most significant attempts by the U.S. government to strengthen consumer privacy in more than a decade. The changes are intended to fortify the rules underlying the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, a law that restricts the online tracking of youngsters by services like social media apps, video game platforms, toy retailers and digital advertising networks.

Italy Fines Meta $6.45 Million for Breaching Ban on Gambling Ads

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has become the latest tech company to be fined in Italy for breaches of a ban on the advertising of gambling. Meta has been fined 5.85 million euros ($6.45 million) in connection with profiles and accounts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as sponsored content which promoted either betting or games with cash prizes, communications watchdog AGCOM said in a statement.

White House Blocking North Korea's Ability to Launder Cryptocurrency

Convinced North Korea primarily sees hacking as a way to funnel money back to the cash-strapped Kim Jong Un regime, the White House has focused on blocking the country’s ability to launder the cryptocurrency it steals through its cyberattacks. In the last year, the administration has unveiled a flurry of sanctions against North Korean hacking groups, front companies and IT workers, and blacklisted multiple cryptocurrency services they use to launder stolen funds.

Google to Pay $700 Million to Settle Antitrust Suit Over App Store

Google said that it would allow developers on its Play app store to offer direct payment options to users and would pay $700 million to settle an antitrust suit brought by state attorneys general, in the company’s latest move to navigate increased regulatory scrutiny of its power. The suit, brought in July 2021, accused Google’s app store of abusing its market power and forcing aggressive terms on software developers.

Meta's Oversight Board Rules Against Removal of Videos from War in Gaza

Meta Platform's Oversight Board said that the social media company erred in removing two videos depicting hostages and injured people in the Israel-Hamas conflict, saying the videos were valuable to understanding human suffering in the war. The videos about the conflict are the first time that the Oversight Board, an independent body that reviews content decisions on Meta's Facebook and Instagram, examined cases on an expedited basis.

Law Enforcement Agencies Seize Ransomware Gang's Website

An international group of law enforcement agencies have seized the dark web leak site of the notorious ransomware gang known as ALPHV, or BlackCat. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation seized this site as part of a coordinated law enforcement action taken against ALPHV Blackcat Ransomware,” a message on the gang’s dark web leak site now reads, seen by TechCrunch.

European Union Opens Formal Investigation of X for 'Deceptive' Practices

The European Union announced a formal investigation into X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, accusing it of failing to counter illicit content and disinformation, a lack of transparency about advertising and “deceptive” design practices. In going after X, the European Union is for the first time using the authority gained after last year’s passage of the Digital Services Act.

Brazil's First Lady Plans to Sue X After Hacker Accessed Her Account

Brazilian first lady Rosangela 'Janja' Lula da Silva said she will sue Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after having her account hacked. The alleged hacker entered Janja's account on Dec. 11 and posted several messages, including insults against the first lady and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as well as misogynistic slurs.

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