On May 11, 2022, the Fifth Circuit reinstated Texas state law HB 20 which allows private parties to sue tech platforms with 50M+ MAUs for their censorship of user-generated content based on “the viewpoint of a user or another person”. On May 13, technology lobbying groups NetChoice and the Computer...
President Trump signed a bill Wednesday that gives federal and state prosecutors greater power to pursue websites that host sex-trafficking ads and enables victims and state attorneys general to file lawsuits against those sites.
Read more at The Washington Post.
Federal authorities have taken down Backpage.com, a major classified advertising website that has been repeatedly accused of enabling prostitution and sex trafficking of minors.
Read more at The New York Times.
On April 5, 2018, a Brazilian court fined Facebook Inc. 111.7 million reals (over 26 million euros), for having failed to hand over WhatsApp messages to prosecutors, as part of a corruption investigation.
Read more at I&J Retrospect.
On March 31, 2018, a ban on non-state sanctioned virtual private networks (VPNs) entered into force in China.
Read more at I&J Retrospect.
On March 28, 2018, an amendment to Turkey's radio and television legislation entered into force, enabling the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) to monitor radio, television and on-demand broadcast content on the Internet, and to address complaints to a magistrate judge to block access to...
On March 26, 2018, the government of Malaysia proposed a new law that would criminalize the spreading of misinformation ahead of the country’s elections in August 2018, understood as "any new, information, data and reports, which is or are wholly or partly false."
Read more at I&J Retrospect.
On March 21, 2018, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that “French law should be amended to strengthen the obligations of detection, reporting and deletion of illegal content on the Internet,” and that the French government was considering measures akin to the German NetzDG, which imposes...
On March 21, 2018, the US Senate passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), a revised version of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which will make intermediaries liable for "knowingly assisting, supporting, or facilitating a sex trafficking...
Istanbul’s taxi drivers have taken Uber to court, accusing the U.S.-based ride-hailing app of endangering their livelihoods in a case that could crimp its business in Europe’s largest city.
Read more at Reuters.
On March 14, 2018, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that the platform would begin featuring excerpts of Wikipedia articles under YouTube videos on "significantly debated" topics.
Read more at I&J Retrospect.