Business
Free Speech And Digital Rights Groups Argue TikTok Law Would Infringe On The First Amendment
A group of nonprofits argued in a legal filing that the federal law requiring TikTok’s parent company to sell the platform or face a ban is an unconstitutional measure restricting speech and making it impossible for users to associate on the app.
Tiktok | Wired Image
Free Speech And Digital Rights Groups Argue TikTok Law Would Infringe On The First Amendment
The legal brief, submitted late Wednesday to a federal court in Washington, comes as TikTok and its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, are waging a consequential legal battle against a law that would disrupt the platform’s U.S. operation. Third-party groups are due to file documents in support of the two companies on Thursday.
Seven nonprofits signed onto the brief, including groups that have previously expressed support for TikTok or sided with the company in a similar lawsuit against Montana last year. They include free speech and digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the First Amendment Coalition, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which advocates for public-interest journalism.
In their legal filing, the nonprofits argue that the law would infringe on the First Amendment, echoing TikTok’s arguments in its lawsuit against the government. They say the Constitution doesn’t just protect TikTok’s U.S. users but the company itself. They also argue the government’s burden to justify free speech violations is the same around national security issues as with any other matter. They argue that the government’s action against TikTok also represents “a direct and serious threat” against freedom of the press.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-1227952189-ef89e5ba81984b63a33c84ce2bf6de78.jpg "Free Speech And Digital Rights Groups Argue TikTok Law Would Infringe On The First Amendment")
Tiktok | Ivestopedia Image
Free Speech And Digital Rights Groups Argue TikTok Law Would Infringe On The First Amendment
The federal law President Joe Biden signed as part of a larger foreign aid package in April is the U.S. government’s attempt to deal with national security concerns surrounding TikTok. Lawmakers from both parties and some administration officials have said TikTok’s current ownership structure poses a threat since ByteDance operates under the laws of the Chinese government.
They have said Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion towards Beijing’s interests by tinkering with the algorithm that populates users’ feeds. But public evidence hasn’t been provided to support either claim.
Like the civil liberties and free speech groups, many TikTok creators have opposed the measure, which marks the first time the U.S. has singled out a social media company for a potential ban. It gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok and a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress. However, both companies have argued they would have to shut down TikTok’s U.S. operation by Jan. 19 because continuing to operate in the U.S. wouldn’t be commercially, technologically, or legally possible if forced to divest.
Tiktok | Hollywood reporter Image
Free Speech And Digital Rights Groups Argue TikTok Law Would Infringe On The First Amendment
Last week, TikTok filed another legal brief, giving an account of its negotiations with the Biden administration since 2021. The company said it presented a draft agreement in August 2022, but the administration “ceased any substantive negotiations” afterward.
The Justice Department said in a statement last week that it’s looking forward to defending the recently enacted legislation, which addresses “critical national security concerns in a manner that is consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Microsoft’s online gaming and digital media network, Xbox Live, experienced a massive outage Tuesday, and thousands of customers reported issues accessing it.
According to monitoring site Downdetector, user-reported Xbox Live difficulties began to surge at 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday. At 2:25 p.m., the site had received over 23,000 outage reports, with more than three-fourths indicating login troubles. Some Xbox Live customers reported getting an error message indicating that the service was undergoing “scheduled maintenance.”
Xbox | XBox Image
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
Other Microsoft-operated services, such as Minecraft and the Microsoft Store, also received many user issue reports on Downdetector.
The official Xbox Support account on X stated at 2:55 p.m. ET, “We are aware that some users have been disconnected from Xbox Live. We are conducting an investigation!” The notice led visitors to the Xbox status page, which was later modified to indicate that a serious outage of the “Account & Profile” service was reported at 2:07 p.m. ET.
Xbox
Xbox Live Goes Down In Nearly Seven-Hour Outage
“You may be unable to sign in to your Xbox profile, disconnected while signed in, or experiencing other related issues,” the statement on the Xbox status website read. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”
To play online games and access additional experiences on the Xbox console, Windows PC, and Xbox mobile apps, users must first create an Xbox Live account (which is free).
SOURCE – Variety
(CTN News) – General Access Solutions, the company that owns the patent, has been ordered to collect $847 million from Verizon, a major telecommunications carrier in the United States.
According to the information that was provided by The Register, a federal jury in East Texas ordered Verizon to pay General Access the money that was owing to it.
This was stated in the material. The reason for this was that General Access had broken two patents, which led to this situation. As a consequence of this change.
For General Access, Verizon is now responsible for making payments.
According to the decision that was handed down by the court a week ago, the total amount is comprised of a “reasonable royalty” of $583 million for infringing on US Patent No. 7,230,931 (the ‘931) patent, as well as an additional $264 million for infringing on the other patent, which is 9,426,794 (‘794).
The total amount in question is $583 million. The sum in dispute comprises a total of 583 million dollars. Five hundred and eighty-three million dollars is the entire amount that is under question.
According to the allegations, Verizon has committed a violation of the patents that General Access possesses which pertain to the technologies of 5G and hotspots. These patents are related to the technologies that are accessible to the general public without restriction.
General Access was the purchaser of the patents, which had been developed by Raze Technologies, the firm that had bought them. On the other hand, General Access said that some components of Verizon’s 5G wireless networks, smartphone hotspots, wireless home routers, and MiFi devices are in breach of the company’s intellectual property rights.
Raze Technologies was the company that successfully completed the acquisition of the patents offered by General Access.
2001 was the year that both patent applications were initially submitted to the appropriate authorities. The year in which everything began was the year in question.
In the initial complaint that the firm has submitted, it says that the base station technology that Verizon has been deploying is in violation of the 931 patent that it possesses.
This is stated in the complaint that the company has filed. As an additional point of disagreement, the business asserts that the wireless devices produced by Verizon that are capable of receiving 4G and 5G cell signals are in violation of its ‘794 patent. This is due to the fact that these devices route information to mobile stations by abusing 802.11 WiFi communications protocols. This is an additional contentious factor to consider.
In answer to a question that was posed about the patents, Verizon provided a statement in which it suggested that the patents were invalid due to the fact that there was either no written description or the patents were not “fully enabled.”
Verizon’s response to the inquiry is as follows:
According to the official response, this was the response. On the other hand, the members of the jury did not accept this line of thinking in any manner, shape, or form and refused to accept it in any way.
Verizon disclosed that the company will be appealing the verdict in a statement that was issued to DCD. The statement was sent to provide information about the case.
Despite the fact that we have a great deal of respect for the court system, we are unable to express our agreement with the verdict that was reached by this particular jury. As part of our efforts to reverse the verdict that was handed down today, we are going to file an appeal, and we are also going to continue searching for administrative remedies.
In line with a statement that was released by a spokesperson for Verizon, this does not imply the fact that the situation has been resolved.
According to Law 360, Ericsson, a Swedish component manufacturer, is also vehemently opposed to the verdict. The business has declared that it will support any challenge that Verizon takes forward, and it has stated that it will defend itself against any other challenge. The company Ericsson is widely recognized as a frontrunner in the business when it comes to the creation of components.
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To navigate the climate proposal, BlackRock employs a new voting policy.
Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
(VOR News) – The $10.5 trillion money BlackRock manager’s assets will vote differently on shareholder proposals than the funds that have specific climate change mandates. This is BlackRock’s most recent attempt to navigate the political rift over decarbonization.
The world’s biggest asset management said in a statement on Tuesday that clients of funds with a climate focus will now be allowed to voice their opinions aggressively in shareholder resolutions pertaining to decarbonization.
All of BlackRock’s funds are susceptible to climate risk.
Still, funds that follow its recently released “climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines” will evaluate whether or not companies are really attempting to keep the rise in world average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Agreement, which over 200 nations joined, set this goal as the optimal threshold.
The head of BlackRock, Larry Fink, was a vocal early proponent of integrating sustainability into the investment process. In his letter to investors for the 2020 annual meeting, he raised the topic of climate change, but he has subsequently faced criticism from all sides.
With the new stewardship policy, BlackRock is attempting to reconcile US regulations compelling fund managers to focus on financial returns with the expectations of its clients in Europe and the US, who want the company to promote decarbonization.
In a letter to clients, Joud Abdel Majeid, Global Head of Stewardship at BlackRock, said that the policy will start to apply to 83 funds in the fourth quarter. $150 billion worth of assets are held by these funds, all of which are headquartered in Europe.
Conservatives in the US are starting to push back, denouncing the movement as “woke capitalism.” This is true even if a large number of progressives and investors in Europe favor advancing the effort to limit global warming as quickly as is practical.
The boards of directors of funds with a special responsibility for climate change in the United States and Asia will be asked if they would like to carry out the policy later this year. The climate-related option that BlackRock intends to offer will also be available to clients who invest through independently managed accounts.
“BlackRock will continue to undertake our stewardship responsibilities with a sole focus on advancing clients’ long-term financial returns in line with our benchmark policies,” Abdel Majeid stated.
“BlackRock will continue to handle all other funds.”
As a result, the climate-focused funds might adopt stances on business votes related to fossil fuels and other decarbonization-related issues that are completely at odds with those of the other funds in the group. They will follow BlackRock’s primary criteria for additional environmental, social, and governance considerations in all other cases.
Since the spike in energy prices that coincided with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, BlackRock has been the subject of intense political discourse. Conservatives have tried to limit or boycott the company’s offerings. Simultaneously, proponents of climate change expressed their annoyance at the company’s sharp drop in backing for shareholder resolutions related to the issue.
Since then, the asset manager has claimed that a large number of recently passed shareholder resolutions by businesses were unduly prescriptive and did not support customers’ financial interests.
BlackRock withdrew its support from Climate Action 100+, an investor group founded to motivate companies to combat global warming, at the beginning of this year. Instead of carrying on with global participation, it chose to move membership to its smaller foreign subsidiary.
BlackRock has also implemented a policy that gives institutional clients and some retail investors authority over how their shares are voted on proxy matters.
Investors may choose to entrust BlackRock with their vote or they can choose from over a dozen policies created by proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis through the “voting choice” scheme.
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Google Falling Short Of Important Climate Target, Cites Electricity Needs Of AI
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Alibaba will discontinue its data center operations in India and Australia.
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