Politico: EU to ask Facebook, Twitter, Google for monthly ‘fake news’ reports. “The European Commission is planning to ask social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Google for monthly reports on Russian disinformation campaigns ahead of the European election next May, two EU officials told POLITICO.”
Europe
Reuters: Does Google harm local search rivals? EU antitrust regulators ask
Reuters: Does Google harm local search rivals? EU antitrust regulators ask. “EU antitrust regulators have asked Google’s rivals if the internet search giant unfairly demotes local search competitors, according to a questionnaire seen by Reuters, a move which could lead to a fourth case against the Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit.”
BBC: Google challenged over location tracking
BBC: Google challenged over location tracking . “Google has been accused of flouting European data protection laws when it tracks users’ locations. A coalition of seven consumer organisations is filing complaints with local data protection regulators over Google’s tracking system. The complaints draw on research by one coalition member, which alleges people are forced to use the location system.”
AFP: EU turns eye to ‘fake’ Google shopping rivals
AFP: EU turns eye to ‘fake’ Google shopping rivals. “The EU’s top competition enforcer said Brussels was taking a closer look at allegations that Google had helped introduce false price comparison sites to answer a historic ruling against the search engine giant.”
The Wonky Donkey: How Infringement Helped Create A Best Seller… Which Would Be Impossible Under Article 13 (Techdirt)
Techdirt: The Wonky Donkey: How Infringement Helped Create A Best Seller… Which Would Be Impossible Under Article 13. “That video is almost certainly copyright infringement. It’s a derivative work with the grandmother reading the entire book out loud. Obviously, neither the author nor the publisher mind that this happened. Indeed, they’re pretty happy about it. And so this could just be yet another example of where copyright infringement actually ends up helping the copyright holder significantly. But this is also an excellent example of the massive harm that the EU is about to do with Article 13 and the EU Copyright Directive.”
The Ferret: The Brexit Papers
The Ferret, and I’m not sure when these were released: The Brexit Papers. “In September 2018 The Ferret submitted more than 130 freedom of information (FoI) requests to Scottish public bodies to find out what measures they had taken to prepare for Brexit. This has produced more than 350 documents, which we’ve published below in a single, public, searchable archive.”
Techdirt: Leading Open Access Supporters Ask EU To Investigate Elsevier’s Alleged ‘Anti-Competitive Practices’
Techdirt: Leading Open Access Supporters Ask EU To Investigate Elsevier’s Alleged ‘Anti-Competitive Practices’. “Back in the summer, we wrote about the paleontologist Jon Tennant, who had submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission regarding the relationship between the publishing giant Elsevier and the EU’s Open Science Monitor. Now Tennant has joined with another leading supporter of open access, Björn Brembs, in an even more direct attack on the company and its practices, reported here by the site Research Europe…”
