New York Times: Google Said to Be Facing Record E.U. Fine by End of August. “European antitrust officials are preparing to hit Google with a potentially record fine by the end of August over some of the Silicon Valley giant’s search services, according to two people with direct knowledge of the case.”
Europe
Nature: The ‘time machine’ reconstructing ancient Venice’s social networks
Nature: The ‘time machine’ reconstructing ancient Venice’s social networks. “Only metres away from the tourist throngs that bustle through Venice’s crowded piazzas, the silence inside Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is so profound it hurts the ears. State archivists long ago took over this fourteenth-century friary, but they are just as studious as the Franciscan brothers who once lived here, as they tend the historical records that fill some 80 kilometres of shelving within. Now, a crew of scientists laden with high-tech equipment is stirring things up in these hallowed stacks.”
New York Times: Making Google the Censor
The New York Times: Making Google the Censor. “Platforms in Europe currently operate notice-and-takedown systems for content that violates the law. Most also prohibit other legal but unwelcome material, like pornography and bullying, under voluntary community guidelines. Sometimes platforms remove too little. More often, research suggests, they remove too much — silencing contested speech rather than risking liability. Accusers exploit this predictable behavior to target expression they don’t like — as the Ecuadorean government has reportedly done with political criticism, the Church of Scientology with religious disputes and disgraced researchers with scholarship debunking their work. Germany’s proposed law increases incentives to err on the side of removal: Any platform that leaves criminal content up for more than 24 hours after being notified about it risks fines as large as 50 million euros.”
Bloomberg: Democracy Never Faced a Threat Like Facebook
Bloomberg: Democracy Never Faced a Threat Like Facebook. “The social media giants based in the U.S. may soon face a new attack in Europe: There’s a perception among activists and officials that the basis of their business model — targeted advertising — can be a threat to democracy.”
New York Times: Facebook’s Role in European Elections Under Scrutiny
New York Times: Facebook’s Role in European Elections Under Scrutiny. “Lawrence Dodd lives in one of Britain’s most fiercely fought voting districts, and he has been peppered almost daily with ads from the country’s major political parties on Facebook. About a month ago, he tried to find out why.”
Exclusive – Google faces hefty EU fine in shopping case by August: sources (Reuters)
Reuters: Exclusive – Google faces hefty EU fine in shopping case by August: sources . “EU antitrust regulators aim to slap a hefty fine on Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google over its shopping service before the summer break in August, two people familiar with the matter said, setting the stage for two other cases involving the U.S. company.”
Reuters: EU to conclude Google antitrust cases in next few months
Reuters: EU to conclude Google antitrust cases in next few months. “EU antitrust regulators will rule in the ‘next few months’ whether Alphabet’s Google abused its dominance of internet searches and other areas, a senior European Commission official said on Monday, an outcome that could lead to a hefty fine.”
