iab-law – The News Desk

24Oct

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Technology

States sue Instagram-parent Meta over ‘addictive’ features and youth mental health harms

CNN — Dozens of states sued Instagram-parent Meta on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of harming young users’ mental health through allegedly addictive features such as infinite news feeds and frequent notifications that demand users’ constant attention. In a federal lawsuit filed in California by 33 attorneys general, the states allege that Meta’s products have harmed minors and contributed to a mental health crisis in the United States. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” said Letitia James, the attorney general for New York, one of the ...

Genesis and Gemini face civil suit alleging $1 billion fraud

20Oct

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Genesis and Gemini face civil suit alleging $1 billion fraud

CNN — The fallout from the colossal implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto business is still rippling through the digital asset industry nearly a year later. On Thursday, New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against three digital asset firms that were caught up in the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s empire last fall — Gemini Trust, Genesis Global Capital and Digital Currency Group, parent company of Genesis. The lawsuit accused the companies of lying to investors and covering up more than $1 billion in losses. The AG’s office said that an investigation found Gemini, the crypto firm founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, deceived investors about significant risks associated with a lending ser...

15Oct

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Technology

EU officials warn TikTok over Israel-Hamas disinformation

CNN — EU officials warned TikTok Thursday about “illegal content and disinformation” on its platform linked to the war between Hamas and Israel, calling for CEO Shou Zi Chew to respond within 24 hours. In a letter to Chew, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said failure to comply with European Union laws around content moderation could result in penalties. It is the third such letter Breton has sent to large social media platforms this week, after he sent similar warnings to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and Meta. In August, a recently passed EU law known as the Digital Services Act went into effect for large online platforms including the companies Breton addressed t...

Federal judge rips into Montana’s statewide TikTok ban in preliminary injunction hearing

15Oct

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Federal judge rips into Montana’s statewide TikTok ban in preliminary injunction hearing

CNN — A Montana federal judge on Thursday tore into a contested state law that bans TikTok from all personal devices, saying in a hearing that the legislation appears driven by “paternalistic” views of social media users and suggesting lawmakers could have taken many steps short of an attempted ban to achieve their goals. The sharp criticism of Montana’s legislature and attorney general comes as TikTok and a group of content creators on the platform have sought a ruling temporarily blocking the law. The legal battle is closely watched because it is viewed as a bellwether for TikTok’s future in the United States, where dozens of states and the US government have already banned the app on official ...

12Oct

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Technology

India arrests executive of Chinese smartphone giant Vivo in fraud probe

New Delhi/Hong Kong CNN — An executive at Vivo, one of China’s top smartphone makers, has been arrested in India in connection with a money laundering probe, raising fears of a renewed crackdown on Chinese businesses in the country. Guangwen Kuang, the head of administration at Vivo India, was taken into custody on Tuesday by India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), his lawyer, Mudit Jain, told CNN. The ED is the country’s main financial crimes investigation agency, responsible for probing money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws. Kuang, a Chinese national, was arrested alongside three other people and would be held in custody for three days, according to a court document shared with CN...

Apple rejected opportunities to buy Microsoft’s Bing, integrate with DuckDuckGo

6Oct

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Technology

Apple rejected opportunities to buy Microsoft’s Bing, integrate with DuckDuckGo

CNN — Since 2017, Apple has turned down multiple opportunities to chip away at Google’s search engine dominance, according to newly unsealed court transcripts, including a chance to purchase Microsoft’s Bing and to make the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo a default for users of its Safari’s private browsing mode. The previously confidential records, unsealed this week by the judge presiding over the US government’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, illustrate the challenges that have faced Google’s rivals in search as they’ve tried to unseat the tech giant from its pole position as Apple’s default search provider on millions of iPhones and Mac computers. It’s a privilege for which Google has paid Apple at least $10...

US SEC seeks court order to compel Elon Musk to testify about his Twitter acquisition

5Oct

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US SEC seeks court order to compel Elon Musk to testify about his Twitter acquisition

New York CNN — The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday applied for a court order to force Elon Musk to testify in an ongoing probe related to his acquisition of Twitter and public disclosures he made in connection with the deal, according to court filings. The filing Thursday in San Francisco federal court seeks a judge’s order requiring Musk to testify, alleging “blatant refusal to comply” with an earlier SEC subpoena. X, the company formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The SEC action is the latest turn in a long-running inquiry into whether Musk fully complied with his disclosure obligations when he began acquiring large amount...

5Oct

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Technology

Microsoft, Amazon facing UK antitrust probe over cloud serivces

London CNN — Microsoft and Amazon could be in hot water over apparently making it difficult for UK customers to use multiple suppliers of vital cloud services. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the country’s antitrust regulator, said Thursday it was launching an investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure services market to determine whether players were engaged in anti-competitive practices. Cloud computing firms, such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS), use data centers around the world to provide remote access to computing services and storage. This “cloud infrastructure” forms the foundation for how software applications, such as Gmail and Dropbox, are developed and run. ...

Federal appeals court expands limits on Biden administration communications with social media companies

4Oct

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Federal appeals court expands limits on Biden administration communications with social media companies

Washington CNN — A federal appeals court has expanded the scope of a ruling that limits the Biden administration’s communications with social media companies, saying it now also applies to a top US cybersecurity agency. The ruling last month from the conservative 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals severely limits the ability of the White House, the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI to communicate with social media companies about content related to Covid-19 and elections that the government views as misinformation. The preliminary injunction had been on pause and a recent procedural snafu over a request from the plaintiffs in the case to broaden its sc...

Five takeaways from the FTC’s 172-page antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

30Sep

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Technology

Five takeaways from the FTC’s 172-page antitrust lawsuit against Amazon

Washington CNN — An antitrust lawsuit from 17 states and the Federal Trade Commission this week against Amazon represents the US government’s biggest regulatory challenge yet against the e-commerce juggernaut. The landmark case targets Amazon’s retail platform, alleging that it’s harmed shoppers and sellers alike on a massive scale. Through an alleged “self-reinforcing cycle of dominance and harm,” the plaintiffs claim, Amazon has run an illegal monopoly in ways that are “paying off for Amazon, but at great cost to tens of millions of American households and hundreds of thousands of sellers.” In response, Amazon has argued the case is “wrong on the facts and the law” and warne...