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☆ Fact Check: UN has not been granted ‘powers to regulate all internet content’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The United Nations has not been granted “powers to regulate all internet content,” as claimed in an article circulating online. The article cites a report published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November that outlines guidelines on governing the internet as proof. The report (archived) does not grant the U.N. authority to regulate the internet, however. Nowhere in the objectives does it say that the document gives power to the U.N. to govern the internet. The U.N. has not been granted powers to regulate all internet content.

Persons: “, ”, ’, Lorna Woods, Woods, Read Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Educational, Cultural Organization, UNESCO, UN, Reuters, Internet Law, University of Essex, Thomson

☆ Google, Meta, Snap and TikTok must face teen addiction claims, federal judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Major social media companies must face allegations that their services addicted teen users and caused other mental health harms after a federal judge on Tuesday denied a motion to dismiss the bellwether lawsuit filed by a wave of consumer plaintiffs. The ruling paves the way for hundreds of plaintiffs to continue their case against the tech companies, and could indirectly lift the prospects for a bevy of similar suits filed by dozens of state attorneys general last month against Meta. “Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work,” José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement. Gonzalez Rogers said Tuesday that Section 230 does shield the tech platforms from claims that try to hold the companies accountable as publishers of other users’ speech. For example, she said, the companies will not have to face claims they violated the law by implementing infinite news feeds or by using algorithms to increase user engagement.

Persons: Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Gonzalez Rogers, TikTok didn’t, ” José, ” Lexi Hazam, Previn Warren, Chris Seeger Organizations: CNN, Google, Communications, Meta, YouTube

But its following has surged on popular messaging app Telegram since its October 7 terror attack on Israel. Hamas is a designated foreign terror organization in the United States, and new internet laws in the European Union mean large social media platforms can face penalties for hosting terroristic content. Hamas’ growing audienceThe Telegram channel for Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had about 200,000 followers at the time of the attack. Fishman said while the huge growth in the number of people following Hamas’ Telegram accounts is concerning, it doesn’t mean all the followers are supporters – pointing out that many journalists, researchers and others are likely following the accounts. And that could make it more difficult for plaintiffs to use legal action to force Telegram to remove Hamas content.

Persons: –, Brian Fishman, Fishman, Hamas ’, Pavel Durov, Durov, ” Durov, John Bergmayer, Thierry Breton, didn’t Organizations: CNN, Brigades, Google, Hamas, European Union, Hamas ’, Atlantic, Forensic Research, Meta, Capitol, Facebook, Twitter, ISIS, Communications, Republicans, European, Digital Services, European Commission Locations: Israel, United States, European, Russian, Dubai, Russia, Ashkelon, US

REGULATORY SCRUTINYWhile disinformation has spread on all major social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok, X appeared to be the most recent to draw scrutiny from regulators. On Tuesday, European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk that X was spreading "illegal content and disinformation," according to a letter Breton posted on X. Musk himself recommended that X users follow two accounts that had previously spread false claims for "real-time" updates on the conflict, the Washington Post reported. False information has also spread on messaging app Telegram and short-form video app TikTok, said DFRLab's Trad. Like other online platforms, YouTube has moderation employees and technology to remove content that violates its rules.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ruslan Trad, X, Bruno Mars miscaptioned, Thierry Breton, Breton, Musk, Renee DiResta, Jack Brewster, Brewster, Tamara Kharroub, DFRLab's Trad, TikTok, Solomon Messing, there's, Messing, Kharroub, Sheila Dang, Riniki Sanyal, Deepa Babington Organizations: Twitter, REUTERS, Elon, European Union, Reuters, Atlantic, Forensic Research, Hamas, Meta, Facebook, European, EU, Stanford Internet Observatory, Washington Post, Washington, Arab Center Washington DC, New York University's Center for Social Media, YouTube, Thomson Locations: Israel, American, New, Dallas, Bangalore

☆ Britain Passes Sweeping New Online Safety Law
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Adam Satariano | More About Adam Satariano | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Britain passed a sweeping law on Tuesday to regulate online content, introducing age-verification requirements for pornography sites and other rules to reduce hate speech, harassment and other illicit material. The Online Safety Bill, which also applies to terrorist propaganda, online fraud and child safety, is one of the most far-reaching attempts by a Western democracy to regulate online speech. About 300 pages long, the new rules took more than five years to develop, setting off intense debates about how to balance free expression and privacy against barring harmful content, particularly targeted at children. At one point, messaging services including WhatsApp and Signal threatened to abandon the British market altogether until provisions in the bill that were seen as weakening encryption standards were changed. The British law goes further than efforts elsewhere to regulate online content, forcing companies to proactively screen for objectionable material and to judge whether it is illegal, rather than requiring them to act only after being alerted to illicit content, according to Graham Smith, a London lawyer focused on internet law.

Persons: Graham Smith Locations: Britain, Western, British, London

☆ US Senate panel to vote on key Biden telecom board nominee
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote next week on President Joe Biden's nominee for a key fifth seat on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under Democratic then-President Barack Obama in 2015. Biden's first nominee for the open seat, former FCC official Gigi Sohn, withdrew in March after three hearings. The FCC has raised mounting concerns about Chinese telecom companies which had won permission to operate in the United States decades ago. In 2019, the FCC voted to deny state-owned Chinese telecom firm China Mobile Ltd (0941.HK) the right to provide U.S. services and later withdrew U.S. authorizations for several other Chinese telecom carriers, including China Telecom Corp (0728.HK).

Persons: Joe Biden's, Anna Gomez, Gomez, Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks, Donald Trump, Biden, Barack Obama, Biden's, Gigi Sohn, Sohn, David Shepardson Organizations: U.S, Senate, U.S . Federal Communications Commission, Democratic, State Department's Bureau, Cyberspace, Digital, Radio Conference, FCC, Republican, China Mobile Ltd, HK, China Telecom Corp, Thomson Locations: U.S, United States, United

☆ Bored Ape NFT creators win case against copycat artist
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Elle Reeve | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Crypto company Yuga Labs has won its claims of trademark infringement against artist Ryder Ripps who copied their NFTs in what he called a protest of their racially offensive imagery. Ripps told CNN he would appeal. But critics commented on social media that some of the Bored Apes contained what looked like references to posts on the website 4chan, which has become a hub of extremism, and pointed out that apes are an old trope in racist imagery. “Once the court adopted the plaintiff’s framing of the case, it was clear what was going to happen: the plaintiff wins everything basically,” he said. “There was an underlying really important point that the defendants are trying to make about the possibility that there was some kind of Nazi glorification in the overall collection NFT collection for the Bored Ape Yacht Club,” Goldman said.

☆ Porn on Amazon's Kindle app prompts warnings from Apple, Alphabet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Greg Bensinger | Thomson Reuters | Greg Bensinger Joined Reuters As A Technology Correspondent In Focusing On The World'S Largest Technology Companies. He Was Previously A Member Of The New York Times Editorial Board | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Reuters learned of the issue when two families told Reuters their pre-teen sons downloaded the explicit material via Amazon's Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service and viewed the full-color photographs on the Kindle iPhone app. Pornography also is available through Amazon's Kindle online store and viewable on versions of the Kindle app. The adult material at issue is primarily self-published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing arm. The Apple app store’s guidelines “prohibit apps dedicated to portraying overtly sexual or pornographic material,” the company said in a statement. As of Monday, adult materials were still accessible on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited via the iOS and Android apps.

☆ Biden pick for FCC withdraws, says agency will 'remain sidelined'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Sohn had been a senior aide to Tom Wheeler when he was the FCC chair under President Barack Obama. The open internet laws seek to bar internet service providers from blocking or slowing traffic or offering paid fast lanes. "The FCC deadlock, now over two years long, will remain so for a long time," Sohn said in a statement. Many Democrats said Republicans were doing the bidding of powerful telecom companies that did not want to face regulation from the FCC. In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the open internet net neutrality rules.

☆ Biden U.S. FCC pick in jeopardy after Democrat Manchin opposes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks to reporters following the weekly Democratic caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 29, 2022. Senator Joe Manchin said on Tuesday he will vote against confirming Gigi Sohn as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), potentially imperiling her nomination by President Joe Biden. The open internet laws seek to bar internet service providers from blocking or slowing traffic or offering paid fast lanes. In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the open internet net neutrality rules. Reporting by David Shepardson and Katharine Jackson; writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"The government wants to fix what it sees as the 'news-lisation' of social media," said one source familiar with the talks. "News-lisation", or báo hoá, is a term used by the authorities to describe the misleading of users into thinking that social media accounts are authorised news outlets. Authorities would be able to order social media companies to ban accounts that break those rules, they said. YouTube has 60 million users in Vietnam and TikTok has 20 million, according to 2021 government estimates, although Twitter remains a relatively small player. Sources told Reuters in April that the new rules, which were originally planned for July, reflected the government's dissatisfaction with social media platforms' take-down rates.

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