Author: Sean Conners

Internet Governance

Disney Plus Asserts Twitter Users Are Subject To Disney Terms Of Service: The media giant’s twitter account spurred confusion after suggesting users who tweet with the hashtag #MayThe4th and mention @DisneyPlus are subject to its terms of service and agree to Disney’s use of any message shared in such tweets; legal experts have questioned the validity of Disney’s claims.

Amazon Loses Appeal In France To Sell More Than Essential Goods: The Versailles Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling limiting Amazon’s delivery services to essential goods until a proper health and risk evaluation to protect workers from COVID-19 is conducted with French unions; the technology giant currently faces a fine of €100,000 for any delivery made in violation of the ruling.

Privacy

Apple And Google Promise To Shut Down Coronavirus Tracker When Pandemic Ends: The tech giants have issued a revised plan for their joint contract-tracing effort that includes a promise to end the service when the pandemic has been “sufficiently contained,” as well as stronger encryption specifications to prevent the identification or digital fingerprinting of individuals.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Nintendo Hack Exposed Over 160,000 Accounts: The gaming company announced last week that the accounts were exposed starting in early April, and that hackers were able to access individuals’ date of birth, region, and email address; the hackers also used users’ PayPal or credit card information to buy items on Nintendo’s platform such as “V-bucks,” the virtual currency associated with the popular game Fortnite.

Intellectual Property

Jay-Z Responds To YouTube Deepfakes With Copyright Strikes: The hip-hop mogul’s entertainment agency, Roc Nation, claims that the AI-generated videos replicating Jay-Z’s voice rapping the “Book of Genesis and the infamous Navy Seal copypasta meme” amount to unlawful copyright infringement; though YouTube initially removed the content, the videos were reinstated after the platform determined Roc Nation’s DMCA takedown requests were incomplete.

Free Expression and Censorship

U.S. Army Reservist Falsely Accused Of Being Coronavirus Patient Zero In Viral Misinformation Campaign: Maatje Benassi, the subject of a viral conspiracy promoted by YouTube “misinformation peddler” George Webb and the Chinese Communist Party, has tried to get the viral content removed, but First Amendment speech protections and YouTube’s legal immunities have left her with seemingly little legal recourse.

Twitter Says Trump’s Disinfectant Statements Do Not Violate Coronavirus Misinformation Policies: While the social media platform has blocked hashtags related to the use of disinfectant as a coronavirus cure, a spokesperson for the company said that videos of President Trump proffering the idea of ingesting disinfectant to treat the virus do not violate its policies because the statements reflect “a wish for a cure rather than a call to action.”

On the Lighter Side

Library Of Congress Launches Free Audio-Mixing Website: Created by DJ and computer scientist Brian Foo, “Citizen DJ” allows users to access “roughly 3 million sound recordings spanning centuries” and remix them to create their own tracks.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Senator Blumenthal Raises Concerns Over Apple And Google’s Contact Tracing Technology: Apple and Google have teamed up to develop contact tracing technology designed to help contain the spread of coronavirus by alerting users after they’ve come in contact with a contagious person; Senator Blumenthal has warned the companies that they must balance consumer privacy with the needs of public health officials.

Supreme Court To Hear Cases Via Teleconference, Relaxes Paper Filing Rules: After delaying oral arguments last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court will hear cases over teleconference in May and will live stream oral arguments; the Court also relaxed its rules for paper filings and service in an effort to protect the health and safety of personnel amid the outbreak.

Privacy

Half Of Americans Have Opted Out Of Products Or Services Due To Privacy Concerns: According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 52% of Americans have decided not to use a product or service because of the amount of personal information it collected; the study also found that Americans who were victims of hacking or fraud were more likely to opt out of services due to privacy concerns.

Singapore Bans Use Of Zoom In Schools Following Security Incidents: After a series of “very serious incidents” in the first weeks of home-based learning involving “Zoombombing,” Singapore has discontinued the use of teleconferencing service for remote learning; the move follows a series of security and privacy incidents for Zoom, as other schools and regions have also banned use of the service for learning. 

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Zoom Allows Users To Choose Routing Region: After the Taiwanese government banned Zoom due to concern about the flow of its data through China, the video-conferencing platform is now allowing users of paid accounts to opt out of having their data routed through selected regions. 

Free Expression and Censorship

Amazon Halts Delivery In France: The Nanterre Court of Justice ruled that the e-commerce giant must assess the “occupational risks inherent in the COVID-19 epidemic” at its French warehouses and is now limited to delivering only essential goods; in response, Amazon has suspended operations in the country pending a review of COVID-19 risks in its facilities.

Practice Note

Court Reverses Order Requiring Facebook To Turn Over Murder Victim’s Data: California’s Court of Appeal reversed a trial court decision that ordered Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to produce the victim’s social media messages to the defendants; the Court of Appeal found that the lower court had failed to “consider all the relevant factors” identified by the state’s Supreme Court before permitting the defendants to access the data.

On the Lighter Side

Unemployed Gamers Turn To Full-Time Video Game Coaching: As unemployment surges due to the coronavirus pandemic, some newly unemployed gamers are using their passion to earn extra money as video game coaches.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

African Governments Partner With Tech Companies To Fight Coronavirus Misinformation: Several African countries have partnered with Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter to combat misinformation as coronavirus infections now total around 6,000 on the continent; some countries, including Kenya and South Africa, have also resorted to punitive measures, threatening jail time and large fines for the spread of false information.

Privacy

With Massive Uptick In Users, Zoom Promises To Fix Privacy And Security Flaws: Citing a series of privacy and security concerns, including vulnerabilities that allowed users to hijack cameras and “Zoombomb” meetings, Zoom announced a 90-day feature freeze as it plans to focus on fixing privacy and security issues to better accommodate its 200 million daily users.

Washington Governor Signs Facial Recognition Technology Law: The law, signed on Tuesday, is the first U.S. state law to limit the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement and requires, among other things, that government agencies obtain a warrant before running facial recognition scans. 

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Marriott Discloses New Security Breach: After a 2018 breach impacted over 500 million guests, Marriott said the latest breach exposed the personal information of 5.2 million guests, including names, birthdates, and phone numbers; Marriott said it does not believe any payment information was leaked. 

Intellectual Property

National Emergency Library’s Expanded Offering Raises Piracy Concerns: In response to increased demand from educators who are now teaching remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, the Internet Archive-affiliated digital library suspended waitlists for access to its collection of 1.4 million scanned books and ebooks; some authors and publishers have criticized the policy change and accuse the Emergency Library of “acting as a piracy site.”

Free Expression and Censorship

“Fake News” Banned By Vietnamese Government: Effective April 15, a new law will restrict social media users from posting or sharing content the government deems to be misinformation; the law, which empowers authorities to impose substantial fines and force users to remove posts, also prohibits a swath of other content including posts “encouraging unsound customs, promoting depraved cultural products,” or disclosing state secrets.

Practice Note

Judge Rules Call Of Duty Can Depict Humvees Without A License: A New York district court judge ruled that unlicensed depictions of Humvees in the popular video game did not infringe Humvee maker AM General’s trademark because the vehicle’s presence in the game was intended to promote realism rather than to trade on the Humvee brand.

On the Lighter Side

A Micro-Mini Purse For Your Airpods: Twelve South, a company that exclusively makes accessories for Apple products, debuted a purse designed to hold Airpods and Airpods only; priced at $49, the miniature leather satchel is equipped with both a side strap and a finger-sized top handle.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP


Internet Governance

YouTube Allows Some Content Creators To Monetize Coronavirus Content: Reversing its previous position, YouTube will now allow select content creators, including news organizations and a “limited number of channels,” to display advertisements on coronavirus-related videos.

Thousands Of Political Ads On Facebook Had Inaccurate Payment Disclosures: A New York University study of the social media site’s Ad Library found over $37 million worth of political ads with inaccurate or misleading disclosures about the ads’ sponsors; over 19,000 ads were found to be posted by “inauthentic communities” comparable to the Internet Research Agency, the Russia-backed organization believed to be responsible for the 2016 Democratic National Committee email hack.

Privacy

U.S. House Votes To Approve Extension Of The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The bill, which will now go to the Senate, extends key provisions of the Act allowing the FBI to investigate suspected terrorism or espionage by foreign powers; the bill also includes additional privacy protections and harsher penalties for violating the Act. 

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Cybercriminals Expected To Exploit Coronavirus Pandemic: According to a RiskIQ study of past outbreaks and patterns of phishing and malware attacks, cyber-criminal activity using social engineering is expected to increase as a result of a heightening interest in coronavirus news.

Anonymous Secret Sharing App Left 900 Million User Records Exposed: Whisper, an app used by over 30 million people per month to anonymously post personal secrets, unintentionally exposed identifying user information—including that of children—on a searchable online database for years; the database, which included information such as age, location, ethnicity, and residence, has since been removed by Whisper.

Intellectual Property

EU Plans Expansive “Right To Repair” Electronics Legislation: In an attempt to curb electronic waste and “decoupl[e] economic growth from extraction of primary resources,” the European Commission plans to introduce legislation designed to compel electronics producers to “create products that last longer, include as many recycled materials as possible and are easier to reuse, repair and recycle.” 

Free Expression and Censorship

Biden Clip Prompts Twitter and Facebook To Apply Fact-Checking Labels: An edited video shared by President Trump in which former Vice President Biden appeared to say that Trump would be re-elected was labeled “partly false” by Facebook fact-checkers and also resulted in the first use of Twitter’s “manipulated video” tag.

On the Lighter Side

Wuhan Students Try To Kick Remote Learning App From App Store: In an inventive attempt to get out of their online classes spurred by coronavirus-related school closures, students in Wuhan bombarded the App Store with one-star reviews of remote learning app DingTalk because they mistakenly believed apps with one-star ratings would be taken off the App Store.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

China Cracks Down On Sharing Of Coronavirus Information: The Chinese government has started censoring posts related to the coronavirus outbreak on platforms like WeChat and Twitter, even if such posts are benign or uncritical of the government’s response.

Privacy

New Study Quantifies Value Of Online Privacy: The study by the Technology Policy Institute asked Facebook users across six countries how much they would want to be paid in exchange for Facebook to be able to share their personal information with third-parties; German users valued privacy the highest overall by desiring around $8.00 per month for Facebook to have the right to share their contact information.

ICE Runs Facial Recognition On Millions Of Maryland Drivers: Immigrant rights and privacy advocates are alarmed after the state of Maryland, which permits undocumented immigrants to obtain special driver’s licenses, allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to search millions of driver’s license photos without a warrant. 

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Facial Recognition Technology Startup Clearview AI Lost Entire Client List To Hackers: The client list, which was obtained through a security flaw that Clearview says has since been fixed, includes law enforcement agencies, police departments, and banks; the startup has been subject to scrutiny for scraping billions of photos from social media platforms for its facial recognition technology. 

Intellectual Property

Uber Forced To Face $1 Billion Trade Secrets Suit: The trial will proceed to a second phase, in which a new jury will decide the merits of plaintiff Kevin Halpern’s claims that leaders at Uber “made off with his trade secrets,” after lawyers for the ridesharing platform failed to convince a jury that Halpern’s suit was time-barred. 

Free Expression and Censorship

John Oliver Episode Criticizing Indian Prime Minister Modi Blocked By Disney: The episode was blocked on India’s largest streaming service, Disney-owned Hotstar; India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which regulates media distributed in the country, has said the government was not involved in the censorship of the episode.

Practice Note

Google Prevails Against Conservative Group In YouTube Censorship Suit: The Ninth Circuit ruled against conservative non-profit Prager University in its suit alleging that Google unconstitutionally censored its videos by tagging those “on such topics as abortion, gun rights, Islam and terrorism for its ‘Restricted Mode’ setting” after finding that YouTube is not a government entity and therefore not subject to First Amendment scrutiny.

On the Lighter Side

Landlord Throws Out Drug Dealer’s Codes For $58 Million In Bitcoin: After he was convicted for drug-related crimes, many of the possessions in Clifton Collins’ Ireland apartment were sent to a dump by his landlord, including a fishing rod case containing the codes to $58M in Bitcoin; Collins may take some comfort in knowing Ireland’s Criminal Asset Bureau had already planned to seize the cryptocurrency.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

France Fines Apple €25 Million For Slowing Down Old iPhones: The country’s General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control determined that Apple misled consumers by not informing them that the throttling, which was introduced to prevent unexpected shutdowns as a result of battery degradation, would lead to the slower performance of iPhones with older batteries; Apple has since notified users and provided an option to turn off throttling in newer software updates. 

Privacy

Facebook Delays Launch Of Dating Service After Not Meeting European Privacy Requirements: The Irish Data Protection Commission “conducted an inspection” of the social media giant’s Dublin offices after Facebook failed to give EU data regulators proper advance notice that its dating service would launch in the EU on February 13th and failed to demonstrate that it had performed the legally required privacy risk assessment.

Senator Gillibrand Proposes Creation Of Data Protection Agency: The New York Senator introduced on Thursday the Data Protection Act of 2020, which would create a federal agency dedicated to protecting consumer privacy and enforcing data protection. 

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Chinese Military Denies Hacking Equifax, Calls Accusations “Legal Bullying”: After four Chinese military officers were charged with hacking the credit reporting agency in 2017 (a breach that exposed over 145 million people’s personal data), China’s Ministry of National Defense demanded that the U.S. repeal its charges to “avoid another destructive step in the relationship between the two countries and militaries.”

CIA-Owned Encryption Company Spied On Clients: Recently leaked documents show that from 1951 until at least 2008, the CIA secretly owned and operated encryption company Crypto AG, which enabled the intelligence agency to decrypt and read all messages sent by Crypto AG’s hundreds of clients, which ranged “from the Vatican to Iran.”

Intellectual Property

Huawei Sues Verizon For Patent Infringement: The Chinese telecommunications giant is suing Verizon for over $1 billion, claiming that the top U.S. wireless carrier profited $29.8 billion in 2018 alone from the unauthorized use of 12 Huawei patents; Verizon says the claims are without merit and calls the lawsuits “nothing more than a PR stunt.” 

Free Expression and Censorship

UK Government Appoints Social Media Content Regulator: Citing a desire to “protect children and vulnerable people online” while balancing accountability and free expression, the British government has appointed the media watchdog Ofcom to regulate content on large social media platforms; Ofcom is specifically tasked with ensuring that platforms adhere to their respective terms and conditions. 

On the Lighter Side

SpaceX Launches Rocket Rideshare: The rocket and spacecraft company is now allowing users to book their spot on a rocket for prices starting at $1 million; users are asked to specify their desired orbit, travel date, weight, and any add-on services they would like to purchase.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

UK To Allow Huawei To Supply 5G Network Infrastructure: Despite protests from the Trump Administration, which has banned the use of Huawei’s technology in the United States due to national security concerns, the UK announced on Tuesday that it will allow Huawei and other “high-risk vendors” to supply equipment for its national 5G infrastructure, citing a lack of alternatives and an existing reliance on Huawei’s technology by major network operators within the country.

Privacy

Facebook To Prompt Users To Examine Privacy Settings: The social network plans to direct 2 billion users to its updated Privacy Checkup tool, through which users can learn who can see their data and adjust their privacy preferences; the platform has also given users access to its new Off-Facebook Activity tool, where they can view a summary of their data being used by third-party sites and delete that data.

London Police Begin Using Live Facial Recognition Technology To Locate “Serious Offenders”: The technology will initially be deployed in targeted areas and is intended to supplement police’s discretion in engaging with individuals; privacy groups contend that the development threatens civil liberties, and an independent review of the technology has called into question the technology’s ability to accurately identify individuals.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Over Half Of NFL Team Twitter Accounts, Along With ESPN And UFC Accounts, Hacked: Activity on the compromised accounts during the two-day hack promoted the hacking group OurMine, which later took responsibility; tweets sent out from official NFL team accounts proclaimed that the hacking collective had returned and that “everything is hackable.” 

Intellectual Property

UK Says It Will Not Implement EU Copyright Directive: Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the UK will not implement the new Copyright Directive, which it originally voted to approve in 2019, after leaving the EU; the Directive, which imposes a “link tax” and requires platforms to identify and remove infringing content, is currently being transposed into the national laws of other EU member states. 

Free Expression and Censorship

Facebook, Google, And Twitter Work To Halt The Spread Of Coronavirus Misinformation: As social media users begin to make unsubstantiated posts about the coronavirus’ spread, such as that it developed because of Chinese dietary habits or that oregano oil and colloidal silver are curative, the three tech giants are taking action to stop their powerful social media platforms from becoming echo-chambers for misinformation about the quickly spreading disease. 

Practice Note

Facebook Settles Facial Recognition Lawsuit For $550 million: In a case filed in 2015, Illinois Facebook users accused the site of violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act by using the platform’s photo “Tag Suggestions” function to collect and store the biometric data of millions of users without their consent; this week, the company announced that it had reached a $550 million settlement pending approval from the district court.

On the Lighter Side

Introducing Vine 2.0, Byte: For those of you who may find yourselves re-watching YouTube videos such as “Vines I Quote Every Day,” or “Iconic Vines That Changed the World,” with a yearning sense of nostalgia, look no further than Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann’s TikTok competitor and Vine spinoff, Byte, which announced on Twitter last week, “today we’re bringing back 6-second looping videos and a new community for people who love them.”

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Brittany Thomas
Sean Conners
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP