After Supreme Court Rules Against TikTok, App Goes Dark, Trump Vows Help

President-elect Donald J. Trump said that he would issue an executive order to stall a federal ban of TikTok, just hours after major app stores removed the popular social media site and it stopped operating for U.S. users. In issuing an order, Mr. Trump would raise questions about the rule of law in the United States, as his action would constitute an attempt to temporarily neuter a law that passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.

Supreme Court Embraces Texas Age-Verification Law for Viewing Porn

The Supreme Court weighed whether an explosion in online pornography requires repudiating the court’s precedents concerning sexual content as the justices heard arguments in a challenge to Texas’s age-verification law for porn websites. A majority of the justices suggested the concept of an age-verification requirement could survive First Amendment scrutiny even as the court seemed inclined to send the Texas law back to a lower panel to apply a higher standard of review.

Biden Issues Executive Order to Strengthen Federal Computer Networks

President Joe Biden has signed an order to strengthen federal computer networks in the wake of damaging espionage intrusions by the Chinese government. The 53-page order builds on steps taken by the White House and federal agencies over the past four years to impose cybersecurity regulations on rail, pipeline and other critical infrastructure sectors of the U.S. economy and develop federal standards for secure software.

Trump Considers Questionable Executive Order to Stop TikTok Ban

President-elect Donald Trump is considering an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok ban-or-sale law for 60 to 90 days, buying the administration time to negotiate a sale or alternative solution — a legally questionable effort to win a brief reprieve for the Chinese-owned app now scheduled to be banned on Sunday nationwide. Trump has been mulling ways to save the day for the wildly popular video app, talking through unconventional dealmaking and legal maneuvers such as an executive order that would unravel the law passed by Congress last year with bipartisan support, according to two people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

GoDaddy to Implement Information-Security Programs in FTC Settlement

GoDaddy will implement new information-security programs to settle charges that the technology platform failed to secure its website-hosting services and protect its customers from attacks, the Federal Trade Commission said. The settlement agreement will prohibit the company from making misrepresentations about its security practices, as well as mandate it to hire an independent assessor to oversee the program, the FTC said.

Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers Accessed 3,000 Files at Treasury Dep't

Chinese state-sponsored hackers who breached the U.S. Treasury Department got into more than 400 laptop and desktop computers, taking particular interest in the machines of staff and senior leaders focused on sanctions, international affairs and intelligence, according to an agency report reviewed by Bloomberg News. The hackers accessed employee usernames and passwords, as well as more than 3,000 files on unclassified personal computers, the report said.

London Court Hears Arguments Over Apple's App Store Commissions

Apple has abused its dominant position by charging app developers an unfair 30% commission through its App Store, costing British consumers up to 1.5 billion pounds ($1.8 billion), a London tribunal heard. The U.S. tech company is facing a mass lawsuit brought on behalf of around 20 million iPhone and iPad users in the United Kingdom, who were allegedly overcharged for app purchases.

U.S. Imposes New Limits on Chips Sales to China to Limit AI Advances

The U.S. is imposing some of its strongest measures yet to limit Chinese advances in artificial intelligence, requiring companies to get government approval to export certain information about their AI models and set up large AI computing facilities overseas. The rules are a final push by the Biden administration in a yearslong effort to use export controls to stem China’s advances in chip-making and AI, and they have sparked a backlash from companies including Nvidia.

Meta to End Fact-Checking Program Created to Limit Misinformation

Meta said that it was ending its longstanding fact-checking program, a policy instituted to curtail the spread of misinformation across its social media apps, in a stark sign of how the company was repositioning itself for the Trump presidency and throwing its weight behind unfettered speech online. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said it would now allow more speech, rely on its users to correct inaccurate and false posts, and take a more personalized approach to political content.

EU Officials Committed to Probe of X's Violation of Content Law

The European Union’s top digital officials have committed to “energetically” push forward an investigation into whether Elon Musk’s X social network breached the bloc’s content moderation law. The European Commission’s digital czar Henna Virkkunen and justice chief Michael McGrath said the executive arm will come to a conclusion “as early as legally possible,” in a letter to European lawmakers seen by Bloomberg News.

Other Agencies Spared from Chinese Cyberattack on Treasury Department

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that there is “no indication” other federal agencies were impacted by the recent breach at the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department revealed last week that Chinese state-sponsored actors had hacked into the agency’s workstations in early December and accessed unclassified documents.

EU Court Says EC Must Pay Damages Over Data Protection Regulations

In a first, the EU General Court ruled that the European Commission must pay damages to a German citizen for failing to comply with its own data protection regulations. The court determined that the Commission transferred the citizen's personal data to the United States without proper safeguards and ordered it to pay him 400 euros ($412) in damages.

Man in Cybertruck Explosion Used ChatGPT to Plan Attack, Police Say

The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said. An investigation of 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger’s searches through ChatGPT indicate he was looking for information on explosive targets, the speed at which certain rounds of ammunition would travel and whether fireworks were legal in Arizona.

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.