As the US Department of Justice aims to break up Google\\’s alleged ad tech monopoly, experts say that remedies sought in the antitrust trial could potentially benefit not just advertisers and publishers but also everyone targeted by ads online. So far, the DOJ has argued that through acquisitions, Google allegedly monopolizes the ad server market,…
A Senate committee on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to hold Ralph de la Torre, CEO of the failed Steward Health Care System, in civil and criminal contempt for rejecting a rare Congressional subpoena. In July, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) subpoenaed de la Torre to testify about the deterioration and eventual…
Cards Against Humanity has initiated legal action against SpaceX, claiming that the aerospace firm illegally occupied a parcel of land on the US-Mexico border that the game company purchased in 2017. The suit, filed on Wednesday in Cameron County District Court, accuses SpaceX and its contractors of usurping the property without permission. According to Ars…
New Starlink customers are facing a $100 “congestion charge” in regions of the United States where the satellite broadband network is experiencing limited capacity. As outlined in a FAQ on the Starlink website, the fee is a one-time charge for obtaining the Starlink Residential service in congested areas. This fee could also be applicable if…
The United Nations has proposed establishing a global framework to monitor and regulate artificial intelligence (AI), treating it with the same urgency as climate change. This comes in a report released by the UN secretary general’s High Level Advisory Body on AI. The report recommends the creation of an AI monitoring body akin to the…
A mistrial was declared today in the trial of former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, accused of bribing a powerful state lawmaker's ally to secure legislation beneficial to AT&T's business. La Schiazza had faced charges of bribery and conspiracy, among others, relating to efforts to influence former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan….
LinkedIn admitted Wednesday that it has been training its own AI using users’ data without explicitly seeking consent. Users cannot opt out of training that has already occurred. LinkedIn limits opt-out options to future AI training only. In a blog post detailing updates effective November 20, LinkedIn general counsel Blake Lawit confirmed that amendments to…
Elon Musk’s X social network briefly resurfaced in Brazil despite government mandates for Internet service providers (ISPs) to block the platform. The temporary accessibility was made possible by X switching to Cloudflare as its network provider. However, Cloudflare has since made adjustments allowing ISPs to continue blocking X. According to Ars Technica, X’s Global Government…
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider two bills on Thursday that could effectively overturn past Supreme Court rulings against the patenting of broad software processes and human genes. Open source and internet freedom advocates are rallying in opposition to these legislative moves. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA, S. 2140) is among the…
Amazon currently faces disgruntled workers in every direction. Office workers are raging against CEO Andy Jassy’s return to office mandate, Fortune reported—which came just as a leaked document reportedly showed that Amazon is also planning to gut management, Business Insider reported. Drivers by the hundreds are flocking to join a union to negotiate even better…
Four major Internet service providers are asking the US Supreme Court to relieve them of the obligation to enforce stringent anti-piracy measures that they argue could cause significant harm to legitimate users. This week, Altice USA, Frontier Communications, Lumen Technologies, and Verizon submitted an amicus brief backing Cox Communications in its attempt to reverse a…
Google has successfully appealed a €1.5 billion fine imposed by the European Commission, marking a significant legal victory for the tech giant amid heightened scrutiny from EU regulators. The EU’s General Court announced on Wednesday that although it acknowledged much of the commission’s findings that Google misused its dominant market position to hinder rival online…
AT&T has consented to a $13 million fine following an incident where it provided customer billing information to a vendor for the creation of personalized videos and subsequently failed to ensure the data’s destruction. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) disclosed this agreement on Monday, revealing that the vendor’s breach exposed the information of 8.9 million…
Zynga must pay IBM nearly $45 million in damages after a jury ruled that popular games in its FarmVille series, as well as individual hits like Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells, infringed on two early IBM patents. In an SEC filing, Zynga reassured investors that the patents at issue have expired, meaning that Zynga will…
Meta announced a ban on Russian state media outlets RT and Rossiya Segodnya, escalating actions against foreign interference activities. This decision comes three days after the US government imposed sanctions on these outlets. In a statement provided to Ars Technica, Meta stated, “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets:…
The ongoing legal battle to keep TikTok operative in the United States has now shifted to an appeals court, as TikTok and US-based creators collectively defend the highly popular app from a potential national ban. The legal stand-off kicked off on September 16, 2024, at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, marking another…
Brazil has confiscated approximately $2 million from a Starlink bank account and an additional $1.3 million from X in an effort to enforce fines imposed on Elon Musk’s social network, according to the country’s Supreme Court. Judge Alexandre de Moraes had previously frozen the accounts of both companies, classifying them as the same de facto…
DirecTV and Disney have reached a new distribution contract, ending a two-week blackout that affected DirecTV subscribers’ access to ABC, ESPN, and other Disney-owned channels. The companies announced they had arrived at an agreement in principle, and Disney’s full suite of linear networks has now been restored to DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers. Previously,…
The Biden administration has proposed rules that could make it more costly for Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu to ship goods into the US. In his announcement proposing to crack down on “unsafe, unfairly traded products,” President Joe Biden accused China-founded e-commerce platforms selling cheap goods of abusing the “de minimis exemption” that…
More than 33,000 unionized Boeing workers embarked on a strike Friday, rejecting what they consider unfair terms in a recently proposed agreement from the aerospace giant. The tentative deal, which offered a 25 percent wage increase and a promise to build Boeing’s next jet in the Puget Sound region, was intended to provide long-term job…
Elon Musk has lambasted Australia’s government as “fascists” over proposed laws that could levy substantial fines on social media companies if they fail to comply with rules to combat the spread of disinformation and online scams. The billionaire owner of social media site X posted the word “fascists” on Friday in response to the bill,…
Earlier this year, an internal investigation by Harvard Business School concluded one of its prominent faculty members had engaged in research misconduct. Ordinarily, such reports remain confidential, but this one came to light because the researcher, Francesca Gino, a Harvard Business School professor, filed a defamation lawsuit against the data detectives at the heart of…
Federal authorities have seized over 350 websites following an undercover investigation that revealed the sites were used to illegally import gun parts into the United States from China. The operation highlighted how the items, including parts intended to convert semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic firearms and silencers, were disguised during shipment to pass through customs….
Google is under investigation by Europe’s privacy regulator over its use of personal data in developing its artificial intelligence models. The inquiry, initiated by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), focuses on Google’s Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2) and its compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The investigation will scrutinize whether Google…
Just a couple of days into the Google ad tech antitrust trial, it seems clear that the heart of the US Department of Justice’s case is proving that Google Ad Manager is the key to the tech giant’s alleged monopoly. Google Ad Manager is the buy-and-sell side ad tech platform launched following Google’s acquisition of…