Erik Larson

The US Court of Appeals in Washington rejected claims that social media giants conspired to suppress conservative views online. The court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by the nonprofit group Freedom Watch and the right-wing YouTube personality Laura Loomer, who accused the companies of violating antitrust laws and the First Amendment. The organization didn’t provide enough evidence of an antitrust violation, and the companies aren’t state entities that can violate free speech rights, a three-judge panel held in a decision only four pages long.

States suing to block T-Mobile's proposed acquisition of Sprint urged the federal judge overseeing the landmark antitrust trial not to defer to the Trump administration’s approval of the $26.5 billion deal. Lawyers for NY and CA, which are leading the lawsuit for the states, said in a filing late Jan 8 that the deal’s approval by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t carry any special weight and should be ignored by the judge.

Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, urged the chairman of Dish Network to enlist US senators to help win the Federal Communications Commission’s approval for the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile US, which would involve asset sales to the satellite TV provider. “Today would be a good day to have your Senator friends contact the [FCC] chairman,” Delrahim said in a text one day before the states sued to block the deal.

Apparently, Facebook has become the target of at least three more state probes into the alleged mishandling of user data, expanding the number of government agencies investigating privacy-violation claims against the company. The state probes are coalescing into two main groups scrutinizing the social-media company’s data-protection practices. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Illinois counterpart, Kwame Raoul, have joined forces with Connecticut’s William Tong, apparently. That group is focused on investigating existing allegations.