Technology

A US judge has determined that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in online advertising technology, marking the tech giant's second antitrust loss within a year. The lawsuit, brought by the US Department of Justice and 17 states, successfully argued that Google illegally dominates the technology determining online ad placement. This ruling follows an earlier decision that found Google also held a monopoly in online search. Google has announced plans to appeal the decision. "Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective," stated Lee-Ann Mulholland, Google's head of regulatory affairs. In her ruling, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema declared Google had "wilfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts" allowing it to "acquire and maintain monopoly power" in the market. "This exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, […]

The US Embassy in Zambia has issued an alert to American citizens about a new cybersecurity law that requires surveillance of electronic communications in the country. The embassy warned Americans "in or planning to visit Zambia of a new law that requires the interception and surveillance of all electronic communications in the country," including calls, emails, texts and streamed content to check for "critical information," a term described as "so broadly defined that it could apply to almost any activity." Zambia's government defended the law as necessary to combat online fraud, child pornography, and disinformation. The foreign ministry responded that the Cyber Security Act is "not intended to invade any person's privacy" of either Zambians or foreigners, stating: "The Law does not authorize mass or random surveillance. Any interception or data request requires a court-issued warrant." The government clarified that […]

A significant antitrust trial against Meta commenced Monday in Washington, where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges the social media giant engaged in anticompetitive practices by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC contends that Meta, which owned Facebook, purchased Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 specifically to eliminate competition and establish a monopoly. Although the FTC initially reviewed and approved these acquisitions with a commitment to monitor outcomes, a victory in this case could force Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to divest both platforms. Meta has expressed confidence in winning the case. Experts suggest the company will likely argue that Instagram users have benefited from Meta's ownership. "The FTC's argument is that the acquisition of Instagram was a way of neutralizing this rising competitive threat to Facebook," explains Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor of antitrust at Vanderbilt Law School. Allensworth […]

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) has opened an investigation into how Elon Musk's X platform processes user data to train its Grok AI model. The inquiry will examine whether X complied with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when processing personal data from publicly-accessible posts made by European Union users. Specifically, the investigation will assess the lawfulness and transparency of how this data was used to train Grok's Large Language Models (LLMs). Grok refers to a suite of AI models developed by xAI that powers a generative AI chatbot available on the X platform. "Like other modern LLMs, the Grok LLMs have been developed and trained on a wide variety of data," the DPC explained in its statement. The Irish regulator clarified that the investigation will focus specifically on "personal data in publicly accessible posts posted on the 'X' social […]