Supreme Court in Brazil Lifts Ban on X After Free Speech Claims Settled

The Brazilian Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized the restoration of social media platform X´s service in Brazil, over a month after its nationwide shutdown, according to a court document that was made public. Elon Musk’s X was blocked on Aug. 30 in the highly online country of 213 million people — and one of X’s biggest markets, with estimates of its user base ranging from 20 to 40 million.

Judge Orders Google to Open Android App Store to Competitors

A federal judge ordered Google to pry open its Android app store to competition, continuing a wave of challenges to its power and that of other U.S. technology giants. U.S. District Judge James Donato largely sided with Epic Games, creator of the Fortnite video games, which won a jury verdict last year that found the Google Play app store operated as an illegal monopoly.

Chinese Hackers Reportedly Breach Three Major U.S. Telecoms

Chinese hackers have breached at least three major U.S. telecommunications providers in what appears to be an audacious espionage operation likely aimed in part at discovering the Chinese targets of American surveillance, according to U.S. officials. The full scope of the compromises and their impact is not yet known, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Crypto.com Sues SEC Over Regulating Cryptocurrency Industry

Crypto.com filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that the federal agency is overstepping its jurisdiction by regulating the cryptocurrency industry. The crypto trading platform said its move follows the receipt of a "Wells notice" from the top U.S. markets regulator on the grounds that tokens traded on its platform qualified as securities.

Attorneys General Sue TikTok for Damaging Young Users' Mental Health

Fourteen attorneys general, led by officials in New York and California, filed lawsuits accusing the social media platform TikTok of damaging young users’ mental health and collecting their data without consent. The legal broadside, organized by a bipartisan coalition of 14 law enforcement officers, alleges TikTok violated state laws by falsely claiming its service is safe for young people. The lawsuits were filed individually.

U.S. Seizes Domain Names Used by Russian Intelligence Agents

U.S. authorities have seized dozens of Internet domains used by Russian intelligence agents and their proxies to steal valuable information from U.S. government computers and email accounts, the Department of Justice revealed. In a warrant, the department accused the "Callisto Group," a unit under Russia's FSB security service, of orchestrating an "ongoing and sophisticated spear phishing campaign" aimed at gaining unauthorized access to the computers and email accounts of victims.

EU Commission Requests Info from Social Media About Algorithms

The EU Commission requested information from YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok on the parameters used by their algorithms to recommend content to users and their role in amplifying some systemic risks, including those related to the electoral process, mental health and protection of minors. The requests, made under the Digital Services Act (DSA), "also concern the platforms' measures to mitigate the potential influence of their recommender systems on the spread of illegal content, such as promoting illegal drugs and hate speech," the EU Commission said in a statement.

Russian Efforts to Influence Election for Trump Growing, Researchers Say

Russia’s attempts to influence the 2024 election in favor of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are accelerating, federal officials and researchers say, adding to a sea of misinformation about immigration and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, despite U.S. efforts to blunt the onslaught with indictments, seizures and public warnings. After a group of prominent far-right influencers was exposed last month for taking money provided by Russian state media figures, they continued to promote falsehoods to their large followings, including debunked claims about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets.

Judge Rejects Amazon's Effort to Dismiss FTC's Antitrust Suit

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission can proceed with its case that Amazon operates as an illegal monopoly, handing agency chair Lina Khan a preliminary win in her legal campaign to rein in the power of Big Tech companies. In a sealed order, U.S. District Judge John Chun delivered a blow to Amazon’s months-long efforts to have the agency’s landmark case dismissed, according to two people familiar with the ruling, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nonpublic document.

SEC Appeals Court Order Restricting Regulation of Crypto Markets

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it is appealing a court ruling that restricted its ability to regulate cryptocurrency markets. Wall Street's main securities regulator will ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to review a July 2023 decision that the XRP token sold by Ripple Labs on public exchanges did not meet the legal definition of a security.

Judge Says Section 230 Protects eBay from Environmental Laws

A federal judge dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing eBay of violating environmental laws by allowing the sale of hundreds of thousands of harmful products on its platform, including pesticides and devices to evade motor vehicle pollution controls. U.S. District Judge Orelia Merchant in Brooklyn ruled that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from liability over user content, shielded eBay from liability in the civil lawsuit.

Epic Games Sues Google, Samsung for Protecting Google's Play Store

"Fortnite" video game maker Epic Games accused Alphabet's Google and Samsung, the world's largest Android phone manufacturer, of conspiring to protect Google's Play store from competition. Epic filed a lawsuit, in U.S. federal court in California alleging that a Samsung mobile security feature called Auto Blocker was intended to deter users from downloading apps from sources other than the Play store or Samsung's Galaxy store, which the Korean company chose to put on the back burner.

Brazil's Supreme Court Says X Owes $5 Million Fine to Resume Service

Brazil's Supreme Court said that social platform X still needs to pay just over $5 million in pending fines, including a new one, before it will be allowed to resume its service in the country, according to a court document. The Elon Musk-owned U.S. firm told the court it had complied with orders to stop the spread of misinformation and asked it to lift a ban on the platform.

Justice Department Charges Three Iranians with Hacking Trump Campaign

Three Iranian operatives have been charged with hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as part of what the Justice Department says was a sweeping effort to undermine the former president and erode confidence in the U.S. electoral system. The action, coupled with sanctions and rewards for information leading to the accused hackers’ capture, is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what’s seen as Iran’s attempts to interfere in the election by damaging Trump and sowing general chaos.

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.