The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Friday that it is fining Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL) 91 million euros over improper password storage. The decision by Commissioners Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland follows an inquiry into MPIL initiated in 2019. In March 2019, Meta stated, “we found that some user passwords were being [...]

The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) ruled Friday that in order for X (formerly Twitter) to resume activities in Brazil, it must prove payment of the fines imposed for non-compliance with the court’s order to appoint a legal representative in Brazil. Brazil, with more than 21.5 million X users, is a major market for the social [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Thursday detailing incidents of civilian atrocities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) amid ongoing military confrontations involving Rwandan forces and the M23 rebel group. As these forces move closer to the town of Sake, local residents and more than half a million displaced individuals [...]

A coalition of 59 Egyptian and international civil society organizations on Thursday called for the promised release of Egypt’s most prominent political activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, as his five-year prison sentence comes to an end on September 29. Despite his scheduled release, concerns have mounted after his lawyer revealed that Egyptian authorities might extend his [...]

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday for impermissibly soliciting and accepting donations from foreign agents in exchange for political favors, as well as illegally obtaining public funds through the guise of small donor campaign contributions. The 57-page indictment accuses Adams of accepting benefits from Turkish foreign nationals that included plane tickets, hotels, [...]

The US Justice Department (DOJ) indicted three Iranian men on Friday, accusing them of orchestrating Iran’s alleged hack-and-leak operation targeting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The charges outline a sweeping effort to steal sensitive data from current and former government officials and to undermine trust in the presidential election. According to the indictment, the conspirators fixed [...]

Belarus transgender rights organization TG House Belarus said on Friday that more than 15 LGBTQ+ individuals, including eight transgender individuals, were detained by the Belarusian authorities in the past month. According to TG House Belarus, the individuals were arrested in several Belarusian cities for allegedly subscribing to extremist resources. TG House Belarus stated that most [...]

Democratic US Senator Ron Wyden on Thursday introduced the Judicial Modernization and Transparency Act, a bill aimed at reforming the United States Supreme Court. The proposed legislation seeks to expand the court from nine to fifteen justices among other reforms.  Beyond adding six new justices to the Court, Senator Wyden’s proposal seeks to implement new [...]

Twenty-six countries on Thursday expressed their support for a legal initiative to hold the Taliban accountable at the International Court of Justice for systematic human rights violations against women and girls in Afghanistan. In a joint statement, the countries condemned Taliban policies that have severely curtailed the rights of Afghan women and girls since the [...]

Japan’s Shizuoka District Court aquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamata on Thursday in a retrial, overturning his conviction after spending 48 years on death row. Presiding judge Kunii Koshi held that evidence against Hakamata had been manipulated by the investigative authorities at the time. In 1966, Hakamada was convicted of murdering four individuals—a senior manager at his [...]