Supreme Court Allows Some Suits Against Public Officials on Social Media

The Supreme Court opened the door to lawsuits against public officials for blocking critics on social media, but only when such actions deprive citizens of access to online posts that effectively serve as government communications. A unanimous high court set out the rules in a case involving a city manager in Port Huron, Mich., who used his personal Facebook page to post about his daughter and dog but also used the same account to announce some of the administrative directives he issued in his official capacity.

Pornhub Blocks Users in Texas After Court Upholds Age-Verification Law

Pornhub and other affiliated adult websites have blocked access to users in Texas, amid a legal battle with the Lone Star State’s attorney general over an age-verification law. A federal appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring pornography sites to institute age-verification measures to ensure only adults 18 and older are able to access them, while it also struck down a part of the law requiring porn sites to display “health warnings” about the content

European Parliament Approves Rules to Govern Artificial Intelligence

The European Union’s parliament approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment. The EU brokered provisional political consensus in early December, and it was then endorsed in the Parliament’s Wednesday session, with 523 votes in favor, 46 against and 49 votes not cast.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Italy's Competition Watchdog Fines TikTok $11M for Failing to Protect Children

Italy's competition watchdog has fined three units of social media giant TikTok 10 million euros ($10.94 million) in total for inadequate checks on content potentially harmful to young or vulnerable users, it said. TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and other social media companies including Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, are under pressure from regulators around the globe to protect under-age users.

House Approves Bill That Would Ban TikTok if Not Sold by Chinese Owner

The House passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to either sell the hugely popular video app or have it banned in the United States. The move escalates a showdown between Beijing and Washington over the control of a wide range of technologies that could affect national security, free speech and the social media industry.

As President, Trump Approved Social Media Campaign Targeting China

Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation. Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets.

Apple to Allow iPhone Users in Europe to Download Apps from Websites

IPhone users in the European Union will be able to download apps from websites, instead of through the App Store or a competing app store app, Apple said, in the the latest change forced by the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act. The announcement is the latest example of the Digital Markets Act forcing Apple to make long-resisted changes to its App Store business processes.

  • Read the article: CNBC

OpenAI Responds to Musk's Lawsuit, Denies Founding Agreement

OpenAI hit back at Elon Musk’s lawsuit against it, saying in a legal filing that it never had a founding agreement with the technology billionaire and describing his contentions as “often incoherent.” “There is no Founding Agreement, or any agreement at all with Musk, as the complaint itself makes clear,” OpenAI said in a recent filing to California’s superior court for San Francisco County. Musk’s claims “rest on convoluted — often incoherent — factual premises,” the filing said.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Says TikTok Could Influence Elections

China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing. Asked by Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi if China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) would use TikTok to influence the elections, Haines said: "We cannot rule out that the CCP would use it."

Apple Reverses Course, Allows Epic Games to Create App Store in Europe

Apple has reversed course under regulatory pressure and cleared the way for a nettlesome adversary, video game maker Epic Games, to set up an alternative store for iPhone apps in Europe. The about-face disclosed Friday is the latest twist in a bitter fight between Apple and Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, over the way iPhone apps are distributed and the fees for digital transactions that occur within them.

Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Requiring Porn Sites to Verify Ages

A federal appeals court has upheld a Texas law mandating that pornography websites verify that their users are adults, though it struck down a part of the law requiring them to display health warnings about their content. The 2-1 decision, opens new tab from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling blocking the law, which had been challenged in court by pornography producers.

U.S. Cybersecurity Agency Hacked, Takes Systems Offline

A federal agency in charge of cybersecurity discovered it was hacked last month and was forced to take two key computer systems offline, an agency spokesperson and US officials familiar with the incident told CNN. One of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s affected systems runs a program that allows federal, state and local officials to share cyber and physical security assessment tools, according to the U.S. officials briefed on the matter.

  • Read the article: CNN

Russian State-Sponsored Hacking Group Still Using Microsoft Data

Microsoft said a Russian state-sponsored hacking group that stole information from its senior leadership team is still using that information to gain unauthorized access to its internal systems. The tech company disclosed in January that the threat actor, which it has identified as the group Midnight Blizzard, had extracted information from a small percentage of employee email accounts, including members of its senior leadership team and employees in its cybersecurity and legal teams.

States Push Meta to Take Action Against Facebook, Instagram Account Hijackers

Forty U.S. states and Washington, D.C. called on Meta Platforms to crack down on scammers who hijack Facebook and Instagram accounts, to address a "dramatic" surge in account takeovers. In a letter to Meta's chief lawyer, states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James said fraudsters are "winning the war and running rampant on Meta," after the company in November 2022 announced thousands of job cuts focused on security and privacy.

Treasury Department Bans Spyware Maker That Targeted Officials, Reporters

The Treasury Department banned the maker of spyware used to target government officials, reporters and activists, deploying “first-of-its-kind” sanctions against sellers of commercial spyware. The U.S. government deployed sanctions against Greece-based spyware vendor Intellexa on Tuesday and the company’s leadership after targeting U.S. officials.

Apple Blocks Epic Games Subsidiary from Using iPhone Software Tools

When the European Union passed a 2022 law to loosen Apple’s grip on the app economy, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, began planning to launch a competing app store for developers. But before that law could go into effect this week, Apple has blocked Epic’s European subsidiary from using iPhone software tools, making it impossible for the game developer to create the Epic Games Store.

U.S. Charges Chinese Citizen with Stealing AI Trade Secrets from Google

A Chinese citizen was charged with stealing trade secrets from Google about artificial intelligence technology, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced. Linwei Ding, who is also known as Leon Ding, was charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets. Ding, 38, a resident of Newark, Calif., was arrested there and the indictment unsealed.

Ransomware Gang Behind Attack on UnitedHealth Says It Shut Down

A notorious ransomware gang said that it had shut down, but it left American prescription services in continued chaos after two weeks, showing the difficulty in trying to counter an enormous, shape-shifting criminal economy. ALPHV, the gang blamed for the massive Feb. 21 attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit, took in a ransomware payment of $22 million before shutting down and will probably reemerge under a new name, as its core group has done before, analysts said.

Bill Would Require ByteDance to Sell TikTok or Face Ban in United States

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to give China's ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a U.S. ban, seeking to tackle national security concerns about its Chinese ownership. The bill is the first significant legislative move in nearly a year toward banning or forcing ByteDance to divest the popular app, after senate legislation to ban it stalled in Congress last year in the face of heavy lobbying by TikTok.

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.