Hillicon Valley — Groups push tech to step up on crises

Tech companies are facing more pressure to ensure people in crisis zones have access to critical information.  

Meanwhile, e-cigarette company Juul settled a Washington state lawsuit over advertising to underaged people that will require the company to halt most social media promotions.  

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Wartime moderation woes 

Social media platforms must do more to ensure people in crisis zones have access to crucial information, a group of two dozen civil society groups argue in an open letter published Wednesday. 

The letter focuses on how companies have responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, faulting platforms for failing to listen to local organizations since Moscow’s 2014 incursion into the neighboring country about how to handle Russian cases of mis- and disinformation. 

Once the conflict kicked off in earnest, however, the letter argues social media platforms took “extraordinary” steps with Ukraine that they have been unwilling to deploy in other conflict zones. 

“As a global community of civil society actors, we do not demand a one-size-fits-all approach to responding to human rights crises,” the groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now and Digital Security Lab Ukraine, said.  

“What we are asking platforms to do is to invest more time and effort in improving their operations now, not when unfolding violence gets into the media spotlight and it is often already too late to act.” 

Read more. 

Juul settles suit 

E-cigarette company Juul will pay $22.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Washington state that alleges it marketed its products to underage customers, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) announced in a statement. 

Ferguson sued the company in September 2020, alleging that it violated the Consumer Protection Act tens of thousands of times by creating and marketing products catered toward underage customers. The lawsuit also accused the company of deceiving customers about how addictive its products are. 

“JUUL’s unlawful conduct fueled a pervasive and staggering rise in e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction among youth,” Ferguson’s office wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit. 

In addition to the multimillion-dollar payment, which the company must pay over four years, the settlement also requires that Juul does not use advertisements that appeal to youth and halts most social media promotions. The company, however, announced in 2019 that it was suspending all broadcast, print and digital product advertising in the U.S. 

Read more. 

NEWSOM ACCUSED OF MEDDLING 

An attorney with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing resigned Tuesday and accused Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of interfering with a case involving sexual harassment allegations at video game giant Activision Blizzard, according to an email obtained by Bloomberg. 

Melanie Proctor, the assistant chief counsel at the department, said the agency’s former chief counsel, Janette Wipper, was fired earlier this month for raising objections to the governor’s office meddling in the case, which the state is currently prosecuting. 

Proctor also withdrew from the Activision Blizzard lawsuit earlier this month, according to Bloomberg. 

While the department was working on the case, Proctor says Newsom’s office “repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation,” per the email obtained by Bloomberg. 

Read more here.  

GOOGLE TO INVEST $9.5B IN U.S. 

Google will invest $9.5 billion in office spaces and data centers across the U.S in 2022, the company announced Wednesday.  

“It might seem counterintuitive to step up our investment in physical offices even as we embrace more flexibility in how we work. Yet we believe it’s more important than ever to invest in our campuses and that doing so will make for better products, a greater quality of life for our employees, and stronger communities,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.  

The investment will go toward existing and new office spaces and data centers across the country, including Google’s new Kirkland Urban campus in Washington State, a Nebraska data center, a new Pier 57 office in New York, and a data center in Mayes County, Oklahoma. 

BITS AND PIECES 

An op-ed to chew on: IRS blunders with facial recognition ‘security’ requirement 

Lighter click: Numbers can be beautiful 

Notable links from around the web: 

Behind closed doors, progressives fighting ‘Big Tech’ work with anti-trans group (Politico / Emily Birnbaum) 

Collapsed Amazon warehouse had construction defects, says family of slain worker (The Verge / Justine Calma) 

Does traveling to every country count if you don’t post on the Internet? (The Washington Post / Taylor Lorenz) 

Substack’s Growth Spurt Brings Growing Pains (The New York Times / Tiffany Hsu) 

One last thing: More Musk mania 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit from former Twitter shareholders who claim he failed to disclose his stake in the social media platform in orderly time which prevented them from profiting from the rise in stock prices. 

Musk purchased a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, becoming the social media company’s largest shareholder.  The tech mogul denied a position on the company’s board after first announcing that he would accept the position. 

In a class-action lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, plaintiff and stockholder Marc Bain Rasella said he is suing on behalf of all Twitter shareholders who held stock between March 24, when Musk passed the 5 percent ownership threshold in the social media company, and April 1. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s technology and cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Thursday. 

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