Meta Fined €251 Million in Ireland for Data Breach
Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta Platform Ireland €251 million after two inquiries into a data breach that impacted approximately 29 million global Facebook accounts.
A US appeals court last week rejected arguments to stop legislation that requires ByteDance to sell its US TikTok assets or be banned. The decision by the court was unanimous.
The company now plans to take its case to the US Supreme Court, the highest in the land. Following the appeals court decision, TikTok pointed to the Supreme Court’s established historical record of protecting free speech and expressed hope it would do the same on this important constitutional issue. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship”.
The company turned up the heat, again arguing any ban would silence the voices of 170 million users in the US. TikTok bosses plan to seek an injunction on the law being enacted to give the Supreme Court time to assess the matter. If TikTok fails to convince it, the country would theoretically enact a ban on 19 January. This timing could prove crucial given President-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in on 20 January.
Trump is the President who began the action against TikTok, arguing in 2020 that the company’s Chinese heritage meant it was a national security risk due to links with the nation’s government. He apparently had a change of heart during his election campaign, when the incoming President argued TikTok was a powerful competitive force. The pledge sets up the possibility of reversing one of his own policies being among the first actions taken when President-elect Trump is inaugurated.