Stories from Abroad

Facebook has failed in a last-ditch attempt to delay a major privacy case’s journey to Europe’s top court. The case in question was brought about by Facebook’s arch-nemesis, the Austrian law student Max Schrems, who has already succeeded in sinking the Safe Harbor agreement that gave U.S. firms a simple way to import the data of people from the European Union. As before, he is concerned that US intelligence programs break Europeans’ privacy rights.

A sizeable portion of the nearly 100 million users who have come online through Internet.org live in Myanmar, where Facebook partnered with local telecommunication company Myanma Posts and Telecommunications for the program in mid-2016. Facebook went on to serve as an accelerant to violence and ethnic cleansing-related hate speech. Cost-free access to Facebook’s services has seen Facebook’s own user base in the country skyrocket from two million in 2014 to 30 million in 2017.

Less than a month before tough new European privacy rules take effect, there are growing concerns from regulators, publishers, and privacy watchdogs about the ways that two internet giants—Google and Facebook—plan to implement the regulations. The critics say the companies are squelching the promise of the new rules, and will leave European internet users no better off. In a blog, a top EU regulator warned of “attempts to game the system,” which could lead to a “travesty of at least the spirit of the new regulation, which aims to restore a sense of trust and control over what happens to our

In London, Facebook’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, faced more than four hours of questions from a British parliamentary committee over the company’s data-collection techniques, oversight of app developers, fake accounts, political advertising and links to the voter-targeting firm Cambridge Analytica. If American politicians have been lampooned for being Luddites, the British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has built a reputation for thoroughness and detailed questioning.

The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists.

Comcast formally unveiled a $30.7 billion takeover bid for Sky, putting the American cable giant squarely in a takeover battle with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for control over the British satellite broadcaster.  The terms of the long-awaited proposal were good enough to prompt Sky to withdraw its recommendation for Fox’s $16 billion bid for the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own.

All 2.2 billion people who use Facebook will soon see changes to their privacy settings, in response to a sweeping new privacy law in Europe — but American users won't see exactly the same thing as their European counterparts.

The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump.  The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found ther

Facebook has quietly altered its terms of service, making stricter Irish data protection laws no longer binding on the vast majority of its users. Now, Facebook’s headquarters in California will be responsible for processing any relevant legal claims, and American law will be binding for those outside the European Union.

Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of reach of European privacy law, despite a promise from Mark Zuckerberg to apply the “spirit” of the legislation globally. In a tweak to its terms and conditions, Facebook is shifting the responsibility for all users outside the US, Canada and the European Union from its international HQ in Ireland to its main offices in California. It means that those users will now be on a site governed by US law rather than Irish law.