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À partir d’avant-hierArs Technica

Lawsuit from Elon Musk’s X against anti-hate speech group dismissed by US judge

A smartphone displays Elon Musk's profile on X, the app formerly known as Twitter.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Dan Kitwood )

A US judge has struck down a lawsuit brought by X against a nonprofit group that researched toxic content on the social media platform, finding the Elon Musk-owned company’s case appeared to be an attempt at “punishing” the group for exercising free speech.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate had sought to dismiss the case from X, which alleged the nonprofit unlawfully accessed and scraped X data for its studies. The CCDH found a rise in hate speech and misinformation on the platform. X had also alleged the group “cherry-picked” from posts on the platform to conduct a “scare campaign” to drive away advertisers, costing it tens of millions of dollars.

In a stinging ruling, US judge Charles Breyer in California granted the motion. “Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose. Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the defendants for their speech,” he wrote in the decision.

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Elon Musk’s improbable path to making X an “everything app”

Elon Musk’s improbable path to making X an “everything app”

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | NurPhoto / Getty Images)

X used to be called Twitter, but soon it will become "the Everything App," and that day is "closer than everyone thinks," X CEO Linda Yaccarino promised in one of her first X posts of 2024.

"Nothing can slow us down," Yaccarino said.

Turning Twitter into an everything app is arguably the reason that Elon Musk purchased Twitter. He openly craved the success of the Chinese everything app WeChat, telling Twitter staff soon after purchasing the app that "you basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success,” The Guardian reported.

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Facebook, Instagram may cut fees by nearly 50% in scramble for DMA compliance

Facebook, Instagram may cut fees by nearly 50% in scramble for DMA compliance

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

Meta is considering cutting monthly subscription fees for Facebook and Instagram users in the European Union nearly in half to comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA), Reuters reported.

During a day-long public workshop on Meta's DMA compliance, Meta's competition and regulatory director, Tim Lamb, told the European Commission (EC) that individual subscriber fees could be slashed from 9.99 euros to 5.99 euros. Meta is hoping that reducing fees will help to speed up the EC's process for resolving Meta's compliance issues. If Meta's offer is accepted, any additional accounts would then cost 4 euros instead of 6 euros.

Lamb said that these prices are "by far the lowest end of the range that any reasonable person should be paying for services of these quality," calling it a "serious offer."

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Apple to allow iOS app installs from websites, but small devs don’t qualify

App icons displayed on an iPhone screen.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

Apple will let European app developers distribute iPhone and iPad applications to users directly from a website, instead of through an app store. It's the latest app-installation option announced by Apple as it seeks to comply with new European rules, but this one will only be available to developers who had an app installed by over 1 million users the previous year.

In an announcement today, Apple said it plans to introduce "a new way to distribute apps directly from a developer's website." The Web Distribution option will become available after a software update "later this spring," letting developers "distribute their iOS apps to EU users directly from a website owned by the developer."

"Apple will provide authorized developers access to APIs that facilitate the distribution of their apps from the web, integrate with system functionality, back up and restore users' apps, and more," the company said.

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Spotify wins as EU orders Apple to pay $2B and change App Store rules

Spotify wins as EU orders Apple to pay $2B and change App Store rules

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

The European Commission (EC) has sided with Spotify, fining Apple nearly $2 billion for abusive App Store restrictions on developers that it found violated antitrust laws by degrading music streaming apps (other than Apple Music) and spiking prices.

"Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app (‘anti-steering provisions')," the EC found.

"This is illegal under EU antitrust rules" and harms consumers "who cannot make informed and effective decisions on where and how to purchase music streaming subscriptions for use on their device," the EC said.

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Judge mocks X for “vapid” argument in Musk’s hate speech lawsuit

Judge mocks X for “vapid” argument in Musk’s hate speech lawsuit

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

It looks like Elon Musk may lose X's lawsuit against hate speech researchers who encouraged a major brand boycott after flagging ads appearing next to extremist content on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

X is trying to argue that the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) violated the site's terms of service and illegally accessed non-public data to conduct its reporting, allegedly posing a security risk for X. The boycott, X alleged, cost the company tens of millions of dollars by spooking advertisers, while X contends that the CCDH's reporting is misleading and ads are rarely served on extremist content.

But at a hearing Thursday, US district judge Charles Breyer told the CCDH that he would consider dismissing X's lawsuit, repeatedly appearing to mock X's decision to file it in the first place.

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India’s plan to let 1998 digital trade deal expire may worsen chip shortage

India’s plan to let 1998 digital trade deal expire may worsen chip shortage

Enlarge (credit: Narumon Bowonkitwanchai | Moment)

India's plan to let a moratorium on imposing customs duties on cross-border digital e-commerce transactions expire may end up hurting India's more ambitious plans to become a global chip leader in the next five years, Reuters reported.

It could also worsen the global chip shortage by spiking semiconductor industry costs at a time when many governments worldwide are investing heavily in expanding domestic chip supplies in efforts to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies.

Early next week, world leaders will convene at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, just before the deadline to extend the moratorium hits in March. In place since 1998, the moratorium has been renewed every two years since—but India has grown concerned that it's losing significant revenues from not imposing taxes as demand rises for its digital goods, like movies, e-books, or games.

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EU accuses TikTok of failing to stop kids pretending to be adults

EU accuses TikTok of failing to stop kids pretending to be adults

Enlarge (credit: Matt Cardy / Contributor | Getty Images Europe)

The European Commission (EC) is concerned that TikTok isn't doing enough to protect kids, alleging that the short-video app may be sending kids down rabbit holes of harmful content while making it easy for kids to pretend to be adults and avoid the protective content filters that do exist.

The allegations came Monday when the EC announced a formal investigation into how TikTok may be breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) "in areas linked to the protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, as well as the risk management of addictive design and harmful content."

"We must spare no effort to protect our children," Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, said in the press release, reiterating that the "protection of minors is a top enforcement priority for the DSA."

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Apple disables iPhone web apps in EU, says it’s too hard to comply with rules

Photo of an iPhone focusing on the app icons for Phone, Safari, Messages, and Music.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

Apple is removing the ability to install home screen web apps from iPhones and iPads in Europe when iOS 17.4 comes out, saying it's too hard to keep offering the feature under the European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple is required to comply with the law by March 6.

Apple said the change is necessitated by a requirement to let developers "use alternative browser engines—other than WebKit—for dedicated browser apps and apps providing in-app browsing experiences in the EU." Apple explained its stance in a developer Q&A under the heading, "Why don't users in the EU have access to Home Screen web apps?" It says:

Addressing the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines would require building an entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps. And so, to comply with the DMA's requirements, we had to remove the Home Screen web apps feature in the EU.

It will still be possible to add website bookmarks to iPhone and iPad home screens, but those bookmarks would take the user to the web browser instead of a separate web app. The change was recently rolled out to beta versions of iOS 17.4.

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Judge rejects most ChatGPT copyright claims from book authors

Judge rejects most ChatGPT copyright claims from book authors

Enlarge (credit: Johner Images | Johner Images Royalty-Free)

A US district judge in California has largely sided with OpenAI, dismissing the majority of claims raised by authors alleging that large language models powering ChatGPT were illegally trained on pirated copies of their books without their permission.

By allegedly repackaging original works as ChatGPT outputs, authors alleged, OpenAI's most popular chatbot was just a high-tech "grift" that seemingly violated copyright laws, as well as state laws preventing unfair business practices and unjust enrichment.

According to judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, authors behind three separate lawsuits—including Sarah Silverman, Michael Chabon, and Paul Tremblay—have failed to provide evidence supporting any of their claims except for direct copyright infringement.

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Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off

Apple Messages in a Mac dock

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Apple's iMessage service is not a "gatekeeper" prone to unfair business practices and will thus not be required under the Fair Markets Act to open up to messages, files, and video calls from other services, the European Commission announced earlier today.

Apple was one of many companies, including Google, Amazon, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Meta, and Microsoft to have its "gatekeeper" status investigated by the European Union. The iMessage service did meet the definition of a "core platform," serving at least 45 million EU users monthly and being controlled by a firm with at least 75 billion euros in market capitalization. But after "a thorough assessment of all arguments" during a five-month investigation, the Commission found that iMessage and Microsoft's Bing search, Edge browser, and ad platform "do not qualify as gatekeeper services." The unlikelihood of EU demands on iMessage was apparent in early December when Bloomberg reported that the service didn't have enough sway with business users to demand more regulation.

Had the Commission ruled otherwise, Apple would have had until August to open its service. It would have been interesting to see how the company would have complied, given that it provides end-to-end encryption and registers senders based on information from their registered Apple devices.

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Trio wins $700K Vesuvius Challenge grand prize for deciphering ancient scroll

Text from one of the Herculaneum scrolls, unseen for 2,000 years.

Enlarge / Text from one of the Herculaneum scrolls has been deciphered. Roughly 95 percent of the scroll remains to be read. (credit: Vesuvius Challenge)

Last fall we reported on the use of machine learning to decipher the first letters from a previously unreadable ancient scroll found in an ancient Roman villa at Herculaneum—part of the 2023 Vesuvius Challenge. Tech entrepreneur and challenge co-founder Nat Friedman has now announced via X (formerly Twitter) that they have awarded the grand prize of $700,000 for producing the first readable text. The three winning team members are Luke Farritor, Yousef Nader, and Julian Schilliger.

As previously reported, the ancient Roman resort town Pompeii wasn't the only city destroyed in the catastrophic 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Several other cities in the area, including the wealthy enclave of Herculaneum, were fried by clouds of hot gas called pyroclastic pulses and flows. But still, some remnants of Roman wealth survived. One palatial residence in Herculaneum—believed to have once belonged to a man named Piso—contained hundreds of priceless written scrolls made from papyrus, singed into carbon by volcanic gas.

The scrolls stayed buried under volcanic mud until they were excavated in the 1700s from a single room that archaeologists believe held the personal working library of an Epicurean philosopher named Philodemus. There may be even more scrolls still buried on the as-yet-unexcavated lower floors of the villa. The few opened fragments helped scholars identify a variety of Greek philosophical texts, including On Nature by Epicurus and several by Philodemus himself, as well as a handful of Latin works. But the more than 600 rolled-up scrolls were so fragile that it was long believed they would never be readable since even touching them could cause them to crumble.

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Republicans in Congress try to kill FCC’s broadband discrimination rules

US Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) speaks at a podium with a microphone at an outdoor event.

Enlarge / US Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) speaks to the press on June 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Michael McCoy)

More than 65 Republican lawmakers this week introduced legislation to nullify rules that prohibit discrimination in access to broadband services.

The Federal Communications Commission approved the rules in November despite opposition from broadband providers. The FCC's two Republicans dissented in the 3-2 vote. While the FCC was required by Congress to issue anti-discrimination rules, Republicans argue that the agency's Democratic majority wrote rules that are too broad.

On Tuesday this week, US House Republications submitted a resolution of disapproval that would use Congressional Review Act authority to kill the anti-discrimination rules. "Under the guise of 'equity,' the Biden administration is attempting to radically expand the federal government's control of all Internet services and infrastructure," lead sponsor Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) said.

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Apple announces sweeping EU App Store policy changes—including sideloading

iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max lined up on a table

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 lineup.

To comply with European Union regulations, Apple has introduced sweeping changes that make iOS and Apple's other operating systems more open. The changes are far-reaching and touch many parts of the user experience on the iPhone. They'll be coming as part of iOS 17.4 in March.

Apple will introduce "new APIs and tools that enable developers to offer their iOS apps for download from alternative app marketplaces," as well as a new framework and set of APIs that allow third parties to set up and manage those stores—essentially new forms of apps that can download other apps without going through the App Store. That includes the ability to manage updates for other developers' apps that are distributed through the marketplaces.

The company will also offer APIs and a new framework for third-party web browsers to use browser engines other than Safari's WebKit. Until now, browsers like Chrome and Firefox were still built on top of Apple's tech. They essentially were mobile Safari, but with bookmarks and other features tied to alternative desktop browsers.

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Meta relents to EU, allows unlinking of Facebook and Instagram accounts

Meta relents to EU, allows unlinking of Facebook and Instagram accounts

Enlarge (credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu)

Meta will allow some Facebook and Instagram users to unlink their accounts as part of the platform's efforts to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) ahead of enforcement starting March 1.

In a blog, Meta's competition and regulatory director, Tim Lamb, wrote that Instagram and Facebook users in the EU, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland would be notified in the "next few weeks" about "more choices about how they can use" Meta's services and features, including new opportunities to limit data-sharing across apps and services.

Most significantly, users can choose to either keep their accounts linked or "manage their Instagram and Facebook accounts separately so that their information is no longer used across accounts." Up to this point, linking user accounts had provided Meta with more data to more effectively target ads to more users. The perk of accessing data on Instagram's widening younger user base, TechCrunch noted, was arguably the $1 billion selling point explaining why Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012.

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Consumer group wants to end $255M “gift card loophole” for Starbucks and others

Starbucks app showing on an iPhone

Enlarge / Starbucks' Rewards programs are a key part of their revenue. How the company deals with unspent amounts in that app could change under new Washington state proposals. (credit: Getty Images)

When you get a Starbucks gift card, or keep reloading one on your phone, you often end up with awkward amounts that can be difficult to spend.

For most people, the remainders are a few bucks of wasted potential caffeine and sugar. For Starbucks, they are worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year, according to a consumer advocacy group in Washington state that wants to end the "Gift Card Loophole." Changes in the coffee giant's home state could affect gift and loyalty cards nationwide.

The Washington Consumer Protection Coalition (which notes that its top funding contributor is the Service Employees International Union) is pushing state legislators to remove a provision dating back to 2004. While that 2004 legislation was relatively consumer-friendly for its time by barring gift cards from fully expiring and eliminating maintenance fees, it allowed funds left on cards, or now on mobile apps, to be claimed as revenue by companies.

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EU will hold 3 major porn sites to same regulations as Meta, X

EU will hold 3 major porn sites to same regulations as Meta, X

Enlarge (credit: ToolX via Getty Images)

Three of the world’s biggest pornography sites will be hit with new regulatory curbs including stricter requirements on age verification, after EU regulators determined the adult platforms fell within the scope of a landmark law designed to police content online.

Xvideos, Pornhub, and Stripchat will be from April subject to the obligations of “very large online platforms” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to three people familiar with the move.

That designation applies to platforms with more than 45 million users and has so far been applied to tech groups such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and TikTok.

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Musk’s X hit with EU’s first investigation of Digital Services Act violations

Illustration includes an upside-down Twitter bird logo with an

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Chris Delmas)

The European Union has opened a formal investigation into whether Elon Musk's X platform (formerly Twitter) violated the Digital Services Act (DSA), which could result in fines of up to 6 percent of global revenue. A European Commission announcement today said the agency "opened formal proceedings to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers."

This is the commission's first formal investigation under the Digital Services Act, which applies to large online platforms and has requirements on content moderation and transparency. The step has been in the works since at least October, when a formal request for information was sent amid reports of widespread Israel/Hamas disinformation.

The European Commission today said it "decided to open formal infringement proceedings against X under the Digital Services Act" after reviewing X's replies to the request for information on topics including "the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel." The commission said the investigation will focus on dissemination of illegal content, the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on X, transparency, and "a suspected deceptive design of the user interface."

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Google Play keeps banning the same web browser due to vague DMCA notices

Screenshot of the Google home page displayed on Downloader, an Android app with a built-in browser.

Enlarge / The Downloader app that was suspended from Google Play. (credit: Elias Saba)

App developer Elias Saba has had some bad luck with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns. His Android TV app Downloader, which combines a web browser with a file manager, was suspended by Google Play in May after several Israeli TV companies complained that the app could be used to load a pirate website.

Google reversed that suspension after three weeks. But Downloader has been suspended by Google Play again, and this time the reason is even harder to understand. Based on a vague DMCA notice, it appears that Downloader was suspended simply because it can load the Warner Bros. website.

Downloader is similar to standard web browsers in that it lets users access both legal and illegally shared content. The app can be used for general web surfing and can download files from a website when a user inputs the desired URL. According to Saba, the app itself contains no infringing content, nor does it direct users to infringing content.

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Hate speech group calls Musk “thin-skinned tyrant” amid X advertiser fallout

Hate speech group calls Musk “thin-skinned tyrant” amid X advertiser fallout

Enlarge (credit: Leon Neal / Staff | Getty Images Europe)

Advertisers with zero-tolerance policies for antisemitism spent the weekend urging the CEO of X (formerly Twitter), Linda Yaccarino, to follow their lead, save her reputation, and ditch Elon Musk's toxic social media platform, according to a pair of reports.

Advertising industry insiders told the Financial Times and Forbes that Yaccarino got bombarded all weekend by industry friends advising her to resign, or else face a "credibility crisis" as major brands—including Apple, Disney, IBM, Lionsgate, Paramount Global, Sony, and Warner Bros.—have stopped advertising on X.

This latest X advertiser scare followed two Media Matters reports of ads appearing next to antisemitic content. But the backlash goes beyond stemming just from those reports and is also connected to an antisemitic X post from Musk. In the post, Musk explicitly endorses as "the actual truth" the great replacement theory. That theory, as The New York Times explained, claims that "Jews have organized nonwhite immigrants to replace the white race" and "was embraced by Robert Bowers, who killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018."

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No Bing, no Edge, no upselling: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

Windows 11 with a number of advertising pushes opened simultaneously

Enlarge / Users in the extended European Economic Area will soon be able to avoid most of the things that feel so exhausting about Windows 11. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Using Windows these days means putting up with many, many pitches to use and purchase other Microsoft products. Some are subtle, like the built-in Edge browser suggesting you use its "recommended settings" after each major update. Some are not so subtle, like testing a "quiz" that made some users explain why they're trying to quit the OneDrive app.

Those living in the European Economic Area (EEA)—which includes the EU and adds Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway—will soon get the volume turned down on their Windows 11 systems. To meet the demands of the European Commission's Digital Markets Act—slated to be enforced in March 2024—Microsoft must make its apps easier to uninstall, its default settings easier to change, and its attempts at steering people toward its services easier to avoid.

Microsoft writes in a blog post that many of these changes will be available in a preview update of Windows 11 (version 23H2) this month. Windows 10 will get similar changes "at a later date." A couple of changes affect all Windows 10 and 11 users:

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Apple fights EU gatekeeper status to avoid opening up services to rivals

Apple fights EU gatekeeper status to avoid opening up services to rivals

Enlarge (credit: picture alliance / Contributor | picture alliance)

Apple has officially joined Meta and TikTok in appealing the European Union's designation of their services as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)—a strict EU antitrust law aimed at "preventing gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end users" and "ensuring the openness of important digital services."

On Friday, the EU Court of Justice confirmed the Apple appeal in a post on X. No other details about Apple's legal challenge have been made public, Reuters reported. But last week, sources told Bloomberg that Apple's appeal was expected to oppose gatekeeper status of its App Store, iOS operating system, and Safari browser. That report, however, noted that sources had only seen a draft of the appeal, which could have been edited ahead of filing.

Apple had previously argued that its App Store could be considered not one software application marketplace, but five distinct marketplaces offered across five devices: iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches. Following this logic, only the iOS App Store should be considered a gatekeeper, Apple argued. Ultimately, the EU disagreed, saying that the "nature, function, and usage of the different devices on which the App Store can be accessed" does not "alter the common purpose the App Store serves across all Apple's devices."

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Google sues people who “weaponized” DMCA to remove rivals’ search results

Multiple camera exposures show several Google logos jumbled together.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Google yesterday sued a group of people accused of weaponizing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to get competitors' websites removed from search results. Over the past few years, the foreign defendants "created at least 65 Google accounts so they could submit thousands of fraudulent notices of copyright infringement against more than 117,000 third-party website URLs," said Google's lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Another 500,000 URLs were also targeted, according to Google. "To date, Defendants' scheme has forced Google to investigate and respond to fraudulent takedown requests targeting more than 117,000 third-party website URLs, as well as takedown requests targeting more than half a million additional third-party URLs that are likely fraudulent based on preliminary investigation," the lawsuit said.

Google filed the lawsuit against Nguyen Van Duc and Pham Van Thien, who are both said to live in Vietnam, and 20 defendants whose identities are unknown. Google alleged that the defendants "appear to be connected with websites selling printed t-shirts, and their unlawful conduct aims to remove competing third-party sellers from Google Search results."

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Google, Meta, TikTok defeat Austria’s plan to combat hate speech

Google, Meta, TikTok defeat Austria’s plan to combat hate speech

Enlarge (credit: Matt Cardy / Contributor | Getty Images Europe)

On Thursday, a top European court ruled that Austria cannot force Google, Meta, and TikTok to pay millions in fines if they fail to delete hate speech from their popular social media platforms.

Austria had attempted to hold platforms accountable for hate speech and other illegal content after passing a law in 2021 requiring tech giants to publish reports as often as every six months detailing content takedowns. Like the European Union's recently adopted Digital Services Act, the Austrian law sought to impose fines—up to $10.69 million, Reuters reported—for failing to tackle illegal or harmful content.

However, soon after Austria tried to enforce the law, Google, Meta, and TikTok—each with EU operations based in Ireland—challenged it in an Austrian court. The tech companies insisted that Austria's law conflicted with an EU law that says that platforms are only subject to laws in EU member states where they're established.

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Consumer Finance Protection Bureau wants to regulate Venmo, Apple Cash like banks

Consumer Finance Protection Bureau wants to regulate Venmo, Apple Cash like banks

Enlarge (credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The top US consumer finance regulator is seeking new powers to oversee technology companies that offer digital wallets and payment applications, in a move that would intensify scrutiny over companies such as Google and Apple.

The proposal issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday would subject non-bank companies that offer digital payments to a regulatory scheme similar to that for banks or credit unions.

It aims to ensure that US consumer protection laws are applied to a ballooning sector used by millions of consumers to transfer funds and make retail payment transactions.

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Google loses fight to hide 2021 money pit: $26B in default contracts

Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google (where he is responsible for Google Search, Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce, and Payments products), speaks during a 2018 event.

Enlarge / Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google (where he is responsible for Google Search, Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce, and Payments products), speaks during a 2018 event. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

On Friday, Google started defending its search business during the Justice Department's monopoly trial. Among the first witnesses called was Google's senior vice president responsible for search, Prabhakar Raghavan, who testified that Google's default agreements with makers of popular mobile phones and web browsers were "the company’s biggest cost" in 2021, Bloomberg Law reported.

Raghavan's testimony for the first time revealed that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 for default agreements, seemingly investing in default status for its search engine while raking in $146.4 billion in revenue from search advertising that year. Those numbers had increased "significantly" since 2014, Big Tech on Trial reported, when Google's search ad revenue was approximately 46 billion and traffic acquisition cost was approximately $7.1 billion.

Prior to Raghavan's testimony, Google had been carefully guarding this information. According to Bloomberg, Judge Amit Mehta overruled Google's objections to revealing the numbers, despite Google's claims that such transparency could harm future deals.

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Elon Musk wants your “entire financial life” on X by 2024

Elon Musk wants your “entire financial life” on X by 2024

Enlarge (credit: MANDEL NGAN / Contributor | AFP)

One year into Elon Musk's ownership of X, the finances of the platform formerly known as Twitter remain shaky. But the ongoing money troubles haven't stopped Musk from forging ahead with his plan to turn X into a bank, a move he said last November would be key to helping the platform avoid bankruptcy. On an earnings call yesterday, Musk told X employees that he predicts X's payments system will launch by the end of 2024, The Verge reported.

“It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year,” Musk said, confirming that “when I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money, it’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So it’s not just like 'send $20 to my friend.' I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”

In January, Musk took his first steps toward this ambitious goal by registering Twitter Payments LLC with the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. This was a necessary step for Twitter to start transmitting money between users in all states and US territories, and according to The Verge, Musk confirmed that he expects to get the rest of the money-transmitting licenses "in the next few months."

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Court downplayed privacy risks to uphold cops’ keyword warrant, experts say

Court downplayed privacy risks to uphold cops’ keyword warrant, experts say

Enlarge (credit: living_images | E+)

On Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Google search data evidence retrieved by Denver police using a controversial keyword search warrant can be used to prosecute a teenager who has been charged with deadly arson.

Gavin Seymour, the teenager accused of arson, had moved to suppress the evidence, asking the court to consider whether keyword warrants violate constitutional rights protecting against unlawful, overly broad searches and seizures.

This was the first constitutional challenge to the legitimacy of keyword warrants—which operate in the complete opposite manner of traditional warrants and do not require police to first identify a suspect before conducting a search—but the judge writing the majority opinion, William W. Hood, declined to definitively decide whether keyword search warrants are unconstitutional.

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AI helps decipher first text of “unreadable” ancient Herculaneum scroll

x-ray image of across fragment showing lettering, with some marked in purple

Enlarge / The first words have been deciphered on a charred ancient scroll: "πορφυρας" which means "purple dye" or "cloths of purple." (credit: Vesuvius Challenge/University of Kentucky)

Hundreds of badly charred ancient Roman scrolls found in a Roman villa have long been believed to be unreadable, but a 21-year-old computer science student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has successfully read the first text hidden within one of the rolled-up scrolls using a machine learning model. The achievement snagged Luke Farritor a $40,000 First Letters prize from the Vesuvius Challenge, a collaboration between private entrepreneurs and academics offering a series of rewards for milestones in deciphering the scrolls.

A second contestant, Youssef Nader, received a smaller $10,000 First Ink prize for essentially being the second person to decipher letters in a scroll. The main prize of $700,000 will be awarded to the first person to read four or more passages from one of the scrolls by December 31, and the founders are optimistic that this goal is achievable in light of these most recent breakthroughs.

As previously reported, the ancient Roman resort town Pompeii wasn't the only city destroyed in the catastrophic 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Several other cities in the area, including the wealthy enclave of Herculaneum, were fried by clouds of hot gas called pyroclastic pulses and flows. But still, some remnants of Roman wealth survived. One palatial residence in Herculaneum—believed to have once belonged to a man named Piso—contained hundreds of priceless written scrolls made from papyrus, singed into carbon by volcanic gas.

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Long gone, DEC is still powering the world of computing

A DEC VAX 8350 with cover removed.

Enlarge / A DEC VAX 8350 with cover removed. (credit: Adamantios)

Even though very few of the early players in technology still exist, we use their creations to this day. Bell Labs created the transistor, and Fairchild Semiconductor created the integrated circuit, but neither company is still around. So is the case with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It no longer exists, but unless you're using a handheld device to read this article, you're using a descendant of DEC technology.

DEC was founded in 1957 by Ken Olsen, Harlan Anderson, and H. Edward Roberts to build small digital modules, but the team soon discovered that they could use those modules to build minicomputers—computers that were smaller and less powerful (but cheaper) than mainframes, which were the business standard at the time.

In 1977, DEC introduced the VAX, a new line of minicomputers that featured a 32-bit instruction set architecture and virtual memory. Its operating system, VMS, was a multi-user, multitasking OS that provided features we now take for granted, including virtual memory, file sharing, and networking. It amassed a wide variety of third-party software packages that made it the most popular system in its class.

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