Italian Price Comparison Company Sues Google for $3.33 Billion

Italy’s price comparison site operator Moltiply Group is suing Alphabet’s Google for 2.97 billion euros ($3.33 billion) in damages over what it called anti-competitive behavior. The lawsuit, which leans on a key European Commission ruling, alleges that the tech giant abused its market dominance to suppress competition from Trovaprezzi.it, a comparison platform operated by Moltiply subsidiary 7Pixel.

Jury Orders NSO Group to Pay $167 Million for WhatsApp Hacking

A federal jury ordered the best-known maker of government spyware to pay a record-setting $167 million for hacking more than 1,000 people through WhatsApp messages in a stunning cap to six years of litigation. U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton granted WhatsApp’s motion for summary judgment against Israel-based NSO Group in December, finding that it had violated the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and a similar California law with its spying program known as Pegasus.

In Loss for Crypto Industry, Senate Fails to Approve GENIUS Act

Legislation to create a framework for payment stablecoins failed to clear a key hurdle on the Senate floor, after several Democrats voted against moving forward with consideration of the bill. Senators voted 48-49 to end debate on a motion to proceed on the GENIUS Act, short of the 60 votes required to move the measure further along the road to final passage.

OpenAI's CEO Reverses Course, Calls AI Regulation 'Disastrous'

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, warned at a Senate hearing that requiring government approval to release powerful artificial intelligence software would be “disastrous” for the United States’ lead in the technology. It was a striking reversal after his comments at a Senate hearing two years ago, when he listed creating a new agency to license the technology as his “number one” recommendation for making sure AI was safe.

Hackers Attack Darkweb Site Used by Extortion Group Lockbit

The ransom-seeking cybercriminals behind the extortion group Lockbit appear to have suffered a breach of their own, according to a rogue post to one of the group's websites and security analysts who follow the gang. One of Lockbit's darkweb sites was replaced with a message saying, "Don't do crime CRIME IS BAD xoxo from Prague" and a link to an apparent cache of leaked data.

Version of Signal Used by Trump's Former NSA Adviser Reportedly Hacked

The unofficial version of Signal used by Donald Trump's former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been hacked, tech site 404 Media said, raising further concern over the security of the communications exchanged at the highest levels of the U.S. government. 404 Media said the hacker exploited a vulnerability in TeleMessage, a Signal-like application which a Reuters photograph appeared to show Waltz using at a cabinet meeting.

Irish Data Protection Commission Fines TikTok $600 Million

Ireland’s data-privacy watchdog fined TikTok about $600 million for failing to guarantee that user data sent to China was protected from government surveillance, a blow to the company’s efforts to convince Western countries that it is safe to use. The Irish Data Protection Commission said that TikTok had failed to demonstrate that any user data it sends to China would be protected from government access under Chinese laws covering things like espionage and cybersecurity.

Microsoft's President Promises 'Continuity of Access' in Europe

Microsoft’s top legal officer said the company would take the U.S. government to court if necessary to protect European customers’ access to its services, as it tries to reassure Europe that Donald Trump will not be able to cut off critical technology. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, commented come as the region grapples with uncertainty over the U.S. president’s long-term commitment to the transatlantic security alliance — and whether he could block access to American technology as leverage in wider negotiations with the bloc.

Conservative Activist Sues Meta for Linking Him to Capitol Riot

Robby Starbuck, the conservative activist, filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta, alleging its artificial intelligence tool smeared him by falsely asserting he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Starbuck says he discovered the problem last summer when he was waging an online campaign to get Harley-Davidson to change its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies.

France Accuses Russia of Cyber Attacks on Ministries, Defense Firms

France's foreign ministry explicitly accused Russia's GRU military intelligence agency of mounting cyber attacks on a dozen entities including ministries, defense firms and think tanks since 2021 in an attempt to destabilize France. The accusations, levelled at GRU unit APT28, which officials said was based in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, are not the first by a Western power, but it is the first time Paris has blamed the Russian state on the basis of its own intelligence.

House Approves Bill Criminalizing Posting of Nonconsensual Intimate Imagery

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill aimed at cracking down on the posting of sexual images and videos of people online without their consent, including AI-generated “deepfake” nudes of real people. The bill makes it a federal crime to publish nonconsensual intimate imagery, or NCII, of any person and requires online platforms to remove such imagery within 48 hours when someone reports it.

Publisher Ziff Davis Files Copyright Lawsuit Against OpenAI

Ziff Davis, the digital publisher behind tech sites like Mashable, PCMag and Lifehacker, sued OpenAI, joining a wave of media companies accusing the artificial intelligence giant of stealing its content. In a 62-page complaint filed in federal court in Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, Ziff Davis says the tech company has “intentionally and relentlessly reproduced exact copies and created derivatives of Ziff Davis works,” infringing on the publisher’s copyrights and diluting its trademarks.

EU Fines Apple $570M, Meta $230M for Violating Digital Markets Act

European Union regulators said that Apple and Meta were the first companies to be penalized for violating a new law intended to increase competition in the digital economy, ratcheting up tensions with the Trump administration. Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) and Meta was fined €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, which was adopted in 2022.

Oversight Board Criticizes Meta for Limits on Fact-Checking

Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board sharply rebuked the Facebook and Instagram owner over a policy overhaul in January that cut fact-checking and eased curbs on discussions of contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity. The board, which operates independently but is funded by Meta, urged the world's biggest social media company to assess “potential adverse effects” of the changes, put in place just before U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term.

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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.