Month: October 2021

Internet Governance Facebook Under “Government Investigations” Following Release Of Internal Documents By Whistleblower: In an earnings filing this week, the social network acknowledged that it “became subject to government investigations and requests” in September; while Facebook provided no specifics, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly “looking into” whether the company violated a 2019 settlement agreement, and the company has implemented a legal hold to instruct employees not to delete documents and communications. Biden Finalizes FCC Picks: After a long delay that forced a 2-2 deadlock between Commission democrats and republicans, President Biden named acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to permanent chair, and appointed Gigi Sohn as Commissioner.

Privacy Users Under 18 May Have Their Photos Removed From Google Search Results: As part of a new safety initiative, minors (or their parents, guardians, or legal representatives) will be allowed to ask Google to remove their photos from search results; exceptions exist for photos concerning “compelling public interest or newsworthiness,” and users must be under 18 at the time a request is made.

Information Security and Cyberthreats State Department Readies Cybersecurity Bureau: In what amounts to the latest step by the Biden administration to strengthen national cybersecurity efforts, the State Department will announce a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy to “confront global cybersecurity challenges.” Microsoft Warns That SolarWinds Hackers Still Active, Targeting More Companies: The company announced that since July, it has informed more than 140 IT products and solutions providers that Nobelium, the Russian state-sponsored group behind the SolarWinds hack, attempted to compromise their systems; Microsoft believes that 14 of the attempts were successful, but that early detection should “mitigate the fallout.”

Intellectual Property U.S. Copyright Office Expands Right To Repair: New exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “anti-circumvention” provisions create protections for the “diagnosis, maintenance, and repair” of certain consumer devices that “rely on software to function.”

Free Expression and Censorship Internal Documents Show That Facebook Struggles With Moderating Misinformation: Internal company documents disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that the social network’s systems for moderating anti-vaccine comments operate poorly, and that in earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, global health organizations turned down free advertising space on the platform over concerns that the ads would instigate more anti-vaccine content.

On the Lighter Side Would You Like Fries With Your AI? McDonald’s and IBM announced a partnership designed to automate the fast food chain’s drive-throughs.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Lawmakers Accuse Amazon Of Misleading Congress: Following reports that Amazon uses third-party seller data to create and promote its own products, five members of the House Judiciary Committee claim in a letter to the company that the reporting “directly contradicts” the previous sworn testimony of Amazon representatives, including CEO Jeff Bezos; the Committee is considering referring the matter to the Department of Justice, and has offered Amazon the opportunity to “correct the record.”  UK Competition Authority Fines Facebook $70 Million For “Deliberate” Rulebreaking Around Giphy Acquisition: The fine, which is by far the largest of its kind, was levied after the Competition and Markets Authority found that the company “consciously” failed to comply with an “initial enforcement order” related to the acquisition by “significantly limit[ing] the scope of” reporting required by the order.

Privacy Nine UK Schools Deploy Facial Recognition Tech To Speed Up Lunch Lines: The system, which ties into “encrypted faceprint templates” and students’ cashless payment accounts, has reduced transaction time to five seconds per student; although ninety-seven percent of parents have consented to the system’s implementation, privacy advocates are concerned about a lack of transparency surrounding the data use and disclosure practices of the biometrics company that provides it.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Japanese Man Pleads Guilty To Uncensoring Pornographic Videos Using Deepfake Technology: A website operator pleaded guilty to charges of violating copyright and obscenity laws after he was arrested for using artificial intelligence to digitally reconstruct genitalia in pornographic videos, which would otherwise be blurred out or pixelated, and then selling the altered content online.  Commerce Department To Issue New Rules Towards Limiting Resale And Export Of Commercial Hacking Tools: Under the rules, American companies that wish to sell “certain items that can be used for malicious cyber activities” such as commercial spyware and other intrusion software to countries “of national security or weapons of mass destruction concern,” or to those subject to arms embargoes, must first secure a license from the Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Free Expression and Censorship Vienna Museum Consortium Hosts Nude Artworks On OnlyFans After Facing Censorship On Traditional Social Media Platforms: The city tourism board’s “Vienna Laid Bare” campaign comes in response to what it calls a “new wave of prudishness” on the part of other social media platforms that has led to the censorship of artworks featuring nudity under the platforms’ policies against sexually explicit content.

Practice Note FCC Will Consider Rules Banning Robotexting: After the Commission mandated that phone companies implement technology to cut down on robocalls earlier this year, it has now signaled it will next tackle robotexts, which have generated more than 9,800 consumer complaints so far in 2021.

On the Lighter Side What’s In A Name? After reports suggested that Facebook may be planning a re-brand, the internet was quick to joke about a potential name change for the social network.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Facebook Oversight Board Seeks Insight From Whistleblower: Whistleblower Frances Haugen accepted an invitation from the Oversight Board to “discuss [her] experiences” as part of an investigation about whether the social network “has been fully forthcoming” about its content moderation practices. FTC Warns Companies About Fake Reviews And Deceptive Endorsements: In a notice sent to over 700 large companies including “top advertisers, leading retailers, top consumer product companies, and major advertising agencies,” the Commission announced that it is prepared to levy fines up to $43,792 per violation for the use of fake reviews and other forms of deceptive endorsements.

Privacy Google Removes Ads For Stalkerware Apps: The company removed a number of ads for stalkerware applications that used “a variety of techniques” designed to circumvent a ban on such advertisements imposed last summer under Google’s policy on enabling dishonest behavior; the policy, which does not extend the ban to child-tracking or employee-monitoring apps, has been criticized for allowing stalkerware apps to “skirt the rules by changing the face of what they’re selling, without changing the core technology within.”

Information Security and Cyberthreats White House Hosts Ransomware Summit: In the wake of numerous cyberattacks on high-profile businesses and government entities, the White House hosted more than 30 countries in a virtual meeting to discuss how to counter ransomware attacks and hold cybercriminals accountable. Facebook Restricts Access To Internal Message Boards To Prevent Further Leaks: As it deals with the fallout from the recent leak of a huge trove of internal documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen, the company has made some groups on its internal message boards about platform safety and election integrity private.

Free Expression and Censorship Facebook Updates Bullying And Harassment Policies To Ban Sexualizing Public Figures And Coordinated Attacks: Under the updated policy, Facebook will remove profiles, pages, groups, and events that engage in “severe sexualizing content” toward celebrities, politicians, and content creators, as well as language that could incite coordinated attacks on users that are at a “heightened risk of offline harm.”

Practice Note Australian Court Allows Defamation Case To Proceed Over Poorly-Punctuated Facebook Post: After the country’s High Court ruled last month that media companies could be held liable for user comments posted on their content, another Australian court allowed a defamation case brought by an employer against an employee to proceed because the defendant-employee’s omission of an apostrophe in one word of his Facebook post might suggest a “systematic pattern of conduct” on the part of the employer.

On the Lighter Side Tesla Unveils Gigabeer To Celebrate Gigafactory: The brew has been released in vessels that “vaguely recall[ ]” the company’s Cybertruck to celebrate the start of production at Tesla’s new Berlin plant.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Facebook Whistleblower Provides Roadmap For Increased Accountability: In testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who leaked internal company documents to journalists and others, recommended changes that could be made to increase Facebook’ accountability, including reforming Section 230 to make Facebook responsible for the consequences of its content-ranking algorithms. DOJ Creates Cryptocurrency Unit: The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team will be made up of members of the Department’s money laundering, computer crimes, and intellectual property divisions and will focus on “crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.”

Privacy European Parliament Adopts Resolution To Ban Facial Recognition: The resolution, which was adopted “overwhelmingly in favor,” calls to ban both the use of facial recognition by police in public spaces and predictive policing techniques, as well as private facial recognition databases and social scoring systems.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Server Error To Blame For Massive Twitch Data Leak: The popular video streaming service announced that human error related to a “server configuration change” left the server vulnerable to access “by a malicious third party”; the leaked data, which includes internal code and documents, payout data, and work-in-progress could amount to “nearly the full digital footprint of Twitch.” DOJ Announces Crackdown On Federal Contractors Who Hide Data Breaches: Under the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, the Department will leverage the False Claims Act to bring civil suits against government contractors who knowingly violate obligations to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents, as well as those who knowingly misrepresent or provide deficient cybersecurity products or services.

Intellectual Property EU To File Antitrust Charges Against Apple Over Tap-To-Pay Tech: The charges follow an investigation from last year that focused on the built-in electronics that facilitate the tap-to-pay function, which are “tightly integrated with Apple Pay and not open to rival payment systems.”

Free Expression and Censorship YouTube Terminates Two R. Kelly Channels: The company closed down two video channels associated with the rapper in accordance with its Creator Responsibility Guidelines after Kelly was recently found guilty of sex trafficking.

On the Lighter Side Internet Archive Creates “Wayforward Machine”: The nonprofit known for creating the Wayback Machine digital archive of the internet has released the Wayforward Machine, which offers a glimpse of what the group foresees the internet might look like in 2046.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance Facebook Shares Annotated Internal Research In Lead-Up To Congressional Testimony: Prior to appearing before Congress late this week, and in the wake of a recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal that prompted the hearings about the social networks’ effects on teens’ mental health, Facebook released annotated versions of its internal research into the matter to counter the reporting and contextualize the findings.

Privacy Amazon Ring’s Home-Security Drone Now In Testing: As part of an invite-only program, people will now be able to test Ring’s “Always Home Cam,” which is designed to fly around and “patrol” properties while occupants aren’t home; to curb privacy concerns, the drone “issues an audible warning” when recording occurs, and the camera is “obscured” when the drone is idle.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Far-Right Organizations Suffer Hacks: Five gigabytes of data belonging to the Oath Keepers militia group, including emails, chat logs, donor lists, and other information, were made publicly available earlier this week; on Tuesday, hacking group Anonymous published data from Epik, the web hosting company popular among far-right platforms, which it had breached earlier this month.

Intellectual Property National Music Publishers’ Association Reaches Agreement With Roblox: After making a similar deal with streaming platform Twitch last week, the NMPA has settled a $200 million copyright suit against the popular gaming platform; under the settlement, NMPA members have an option to negotiate their own licensing deals with Roblox.

Free Expression and Censorship CNN Restricts Certain Content In Australia Following Court Ruling: In response to a recent ruling by the country’s highest court that exposes media companies to liability for others’ comments on their social media posts, CNN has blocked Australian users from viewing its primary Facebook page, its CNN International page, and others. YouTube Expands Vaccine Misinformation Ban To Include All Vaccines: After concluding that falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine “spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general,” the company will expand its ban on vaccine misinformation to cover “long-approved vaccines”; certain vaccine content, such as “personal testimonies relating to vaccines,” will be allowed to remain on the site.

Practice Note New Jersey Lawyer Absolved Of Ethics Charges Based On Facebook Friending Opposing Party: The New Jersey Supreme Court concluded that the lawyer, who had directed a paralegal to use Facebook to connect with and download content from a represented opposing party in 2008, had a “good faith misunderstanding about the nature” of the social network’s privacy practices at the time, when he didn’t fully comprehend the concept of Facebook friendship and thought all content posted on the site was “for the world to see.”

On the Lighter Side Let Me Google That For You: “Google” is the most commonly searched word on Microsoft’s Bing browser, according to the record in court proceedings in the EU.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP