Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram have lost a bid to shut down a lawsuit brought by an Australian social media startup, with a judge finding the digital giants relinquished their right to move the dispute to California.
The consumer watchdog has launched enforcement action against Facebook, alleging the social media giant engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in the promotion of its discontinued Onavo Protect mobile app.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead wants Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston to hand over documents connected to confidential sources, and says Aston can’t rely on a journalist’s privilege protecting the identity of informants.
The operator of the Stock Swami Twitter handle has responded to a defamation case brought by mining entrepreneur Tolga Kumova, saying a reasonable reader would not consider his tweets a reliable source of factual information about the businessman.
A solicitor who failed to respond to calls from the Federal Court has been criticised by a judge for filing what appeared to be a “deficient” application in a case run on behalf of gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson in her bid to obtain details from Google over the identity of an online reviewer.
Google has rejected claims by the ACCC that it tricked consumers into agreeing to expanded collection of their personal data, saying that it instead sought “explicit consent” from users through an “easy-to-understand opt-in consent mechanism”.
A judge has awarded $875,000 in damages in a defamation case brought by Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster against a conspiracy theorist for a series of social media posts linking the politician and her husband to a child sex ring.
Melbourne businessman Tolga Kumova has filed defamation proceedings against the operator of the Stock Swarmi Twitter account, a case that could lay down the legal groundwork for cyberbullying claims.
The Greens Party is urging the Morrison Government to include the ABC and SBS in its mandatory media bargaining code, saying the plan to make Google and Facebook pay for news content was “incomplete” without protections for the public broadcasters.
Facebook’s argument that it can’t be sued by the privacy commissioner in Australia has fallen flat, with a judge rejecting the social media giant’s application to dismiss enforcement action brought in March over the disclosure of users’ personal data.