| Internet Governance Google Faces Antitrust Investigation In EU Over Advertising Business: After initiating a preliminary probe in 2019, EU antitrust regulators have launched a formal investigation into whether Google leverages its position in the digital advertising marketplace to restrict competition from competing online advertising businesses; the company is already under investigation for similar practices in the United States. Revel’s Ride-Hailing Plans Fall Through After NYC Closes Licensing Loophole: The moped company planned to exploit an electric-vehicle exemption to the city’s cap on for-hire vehicles to introduce a Tesla-based ride-hailing service in Manhattan, but the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to eliminate the exemption; the Commission defended its vote as protecting drivers and limiting congestion, while critics call the decision a “step backward” on fighting climate change. |
| Privacy EU Regulators Advocate For Biometric-Based AI Ban In Public Spaces: In response to the recent AI regulatory framework published by the European Commission, the European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor issued a join opinion urging the EU to ban the use of AI for biometric identification in publicly accessible areas, and also for social scoring. |
| Information Security and Cyberthreats Hackers Using Fake Microsoft Customer Support To Install Ransomware: The BazarCall cybercrime group has been tricking users into installing ransomware by posing as Microsoft customer support; the hackers will first send targets phishing emails with instructions to call a fake customer support number to purportedly cancel a renewing subscription, and then instruct victims via phone to download an infected Excel file. |
| Intellectual Property NFT Of Rapper Jay-Z’s Debut Album Sparks Copyright Suit: A lawsuit by Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records against its co-founder Damon Dash alleges that Dash is unlawfully attempting to sell his share of the copyright to Jay-Z’s debut album as an NFT; Dash counters that he’s simply attempting to sell his share of Roc-A-Fella Records, and not the album itself. |
| Free Expression and Censorship DOJ Seizes Domains Of Iranian, Yemeni, And Palestinian News Outlets: The American-owned domains of 36 news outlets in the countries were seized because the outlets promoted misinformation campaigns and violated U.S. sanctions against certain terrorist groups, according to a DOJ press release. SCOTUS Finds That School District Violated Student’s First Amendment Rights In Suspending For Snapchat Posts: The Court ruled that a Pennsylvania high school went too far when it suspended a student from the varsity cheerleading squad after she posted profanity-laced content related to the school on Snapchat; in the decision, the Court reaffirmed that schools have limited power to regulate students’ off-campus speech and found that the posts at issue warranted First Amendment protection because they amounted to criticisms of the poster’s community and didn’t significantly interfere with school. |
| On the Lighter Side Facebook Enters The Augmented-Reality Wearables Game: A newly-published patent shows that Facebook has designed an AR hat, which appears to be just a baseball hat with an AR screen suspended from the brim. |
| Olivier Sylvain Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP |