The lack of “any visible cyber activity” from Moscow is one of many “surprises about the campaign that Russia is waging against Ukraine,” Keir Giles, Chatham House senior consulting fellow-Russian and Eurasian affairs, said Friday on a Conference Board podcast. “There are a lot of areas of Russian capability that were expected to be deployed against Ukraine that somehow haven’t materialized.” The impact of major Russian cyber operations against Ukraine would be “huge,” and many experts are speculating “that is actually why Russia is being restrained and is holding off from mounting the campaigns that were expected,” said Giles. “If Russia conducts cyberattacks against Ukraine only, it may be very hard for them to contain the effects to Ukraine only.” Giles worries that in the “later stages of Russia’s war on the West” there will materialize cyberattacks from Moscow that “are far less restrained,” he said. “If and when Russia does move on from Ukraine, and it comes away from Ukraine thinking that at least it had met some of its objectives, then the next stage of the attack on the West will almost certainly include those cyberattacks that are far less discriminating.” If Russia succeeds in removing access to the internet “in large sectors of large countries,” the economic impact obviously will be significant, said Giles. “Everybody that is data-dependent or that manages civilian telecommunications infrastructure needs to be prepared,” he said.
States waited too long to bring antitrust claims against Facebook’s already-approved acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, which initially didn’t raise competitive issues, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce argued Monday with industry groups before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in docket 21-7078 (see 2203150046). The chamber signed its brief in support of Facebook with the Computer & Communications Industry Association and Business Roundtable. The states seek a “wholesale” exemption from Clayton Act applications “no matter how unreasonable the delay or how prejudicial its effect,” the groups wrote. Facebook made a similar argument in its last rebuttal against states seeking actions against the deals. “By expanding the enforcement field from a reasonable time to eternity, dispensing with laches guarantees more enforcement actions concerning old conduct,” the chamber wrote. They denied claims the platform’s refusal to deal with certain rivals constituted an antitrust violation, saying Facebook never terminated a prior profitable course of dealing with the rivals in question: “Absent termination of a prior profitable course of dealing, allegations based on a refusal to deal do not state a valid antitrust claim.”
A bipartisan bill authorizing the government to set mandatory technical measures for online platforms to combat piracy would undermine the balance of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, industry groups, advocates and academics wrote Congress Tuesday. Computer & Communications Industry Association, Public Knowledge, CTA, NetChoice, American Library Association and R Street Institute signed. The Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies (Smart) Copyright Act (S.3880) authorizes the librarian of Congress to designate technical measures through a public rulemaking process, creating new liability for service providers hosting content (see 2203180069). “Within months of the designation of a technical measure, sophisticated infringers would find workarounds, while service providers would be on an endless cycle of ‘designated technical measure’ rulemakings,” the groups wrote.
The online sports betting market will likely have “unexpected volatility” over the next few years as the legal landscape changes, said a March eMarketer report. The market research firm estimates there will be 19 million online sports bettors in the U.S. in 2022, up 31% year on year, with 7.9% of adult internet users. Though the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, states have varying, wide-ranging regulations, and some, including California and Texas, prohibit online sports betting, it noted. EMarketer anticipates “strong growth” in the number of online sports bettors as more states legalize the practice and marketing spend increases. It predicts 23.1 million legal online sports bettors by year-end 2023.
A lawsuit claiming Facebook benefited from a user’s image without consent fails to allege the platform had editorial discretion in the third-party advertisement in question, Meta argued Friday in docket 2:19-cv-04034 (see 2203070067). Philadelphia news anchor Karen Hepp sued Facebook in 2018 for running an ad from the dating app FirstMet, which used her image without consent. The U.S. District Court in Philadelphia should dismiss her lawsuit because she doesn’t have a “plausible claim” the platform used her image for commercial or advertising purposes, Meta argued. The case has implications for Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2203250048).
The “great resignation” phenomenon among skilled labor that’s plaguing all industries is hitting the cybersecurity field “especially hard,” an Information Systems Audit and Control Association survey found. ISACA canvassed 2,031 security professionals, finding 63% reporting they have unfilled cybersecurity positions, up 8 points from the 2021 survey, it said Wednesday. One in five respondents said it takes more than six months on average “to find qualified cybersecurity candidates for open positions,” it said. More than six in 10 reported difficulties retaining qualified cybersecurity professionals, up 7 points from 2021, it said. Recruitment by other companies is the top reason (59%) for cybersecurity professionals leaving their jobs, followed by insufficient salary or bonus (48%); limited advancement opportunities (47%); high stress on the job (45%); and poor management support (34%).
DOJ’s claim that Google is hiding documents is “baseless,” the company argued Thursday before the U.S. District Court in Washington in docket 1:20-cv-03010 (see 2203210054). “Accusing an adversary of engaging in a systematic, bad-faith scheme to falsify and hide documents is a serious matter,” Google attorneys wrote. “A charge of that magnitude should be accompanied by unassailable proof,” and DOJ provided none. The company claimed DOJ misread three slides from internal presentations included with more than 4.5 million documents. With proper context, the slides show legitimate “guidance to Google employees about how to communicate with in-house counsel to request legal advice on subjects with obvious legal implications,” Google said.
The U.S. began formal negotiations with Canada on a bilateral agreement for law enforcement to share cross-border data in investigations, DOJ announced Tuesday. The agreement would be authorized under the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act (see 1803220057). An agreement “would pave the way for more efficient cross-border disclosures of data” so governments can “more effectively fight serious crime, including terrorism, while safeguarding the privacy and civil liberties values,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
States have sufficiently argued Google is violating antitrust law through its online advertising agreement with Facebook, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) argued Tuesday in docket 1:21-md-03010 before the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Google asked the court to toss out the multistate lawsuit in January, arguing the state’s lawsuit is “untimely” and fails to “plausibly” allege the agreement with Facebook violates antitrust law. Paxton noted the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority launched probes into the Jedi Blue agreement between the two companies, “solidifying the effort to end Google’s monopolization of the internet.” Google “demonstrably diminished publishers’ ability to monetize content, increased advertisers’ costs, and directly harmed consumers,” Paxton said.
Government regulation “along viewpoint lines” is “generally impermissible” under the First Amendment, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (see 2203210067). Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked Jackson if it’s within Congress’ authority to condition Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunity on online public forums not discriminating against certain viewpoints. “I can’t comment on a particular issue” about whether it’s constitutional, she said. The criteria depend on whether the government is seeking to regulate along viewpoint lines, which is “generally impermissible” under the First Amendment, she said. Concerning antitrust law, there’s a lot of precedent for the Supreme Court to consider, Jackson told Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Antitrust laws protect competition, consumers, competitors and the economy, and the Sherman and Clayton acts have broad protections, said Jackson. If confirmed, she said, she would look at precedent to ensure legislation is interpreted to reflect Congress’ intent. The text of the statute is what the court uses to interpret, Jackson said. Tech and telecom issues largely didn’t come up during Jackson’s second confirmation hearing of the week.