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