Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Chesnot )

TikTok and its owner ByteDance today sued the federal government to block the "Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications" law that would prohibit TikTok in the US if the company isn't sold to a non-Chinese firm. The complaint in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit alleges that the law is unconstitutional and asks for a court order prohibiting enforcement.

TikTok and ByteDance say the law "would allow the government to decide that a company may no longer own and publish the innovative and unique speech platform it created. If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down."

The law will "silenc[e] the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere," TikTok and ByteDance alleged.

Enlarge / An American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner preparing to take off at Barcelona-El Prat Airport in Spain on May 1, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether Boeing failed to complete required inspections on 787 Dreamliner planes and whether Boeing employees falsified aircraft records, the agency said this week. The investigation was launched after an employee reported the problem to Boeing management, and Boeing informed the FAA.

"The FAA has opened an investigation into Boeing after the company voluntarily informed us in April that it may not have completed required inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes," the FAA said in a statement provided to Ars today.

The FAA said it "is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records. At the same time, Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet." The agency added that it "will take any necessary action—as always—to ensure the safety of the flying public."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

The US government has pressured telcos to rip out network gear made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE but has allocated only about 38 percent of the money needed to replace equipment with non-Chinese hardware, the Federal Communications Commission said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to Congress Thursday, urging lawmakers to fully fund the program. Congress allocated $1.9 billion for replacements of Chinese gear that must be removed as early as this month, but the needed reimbursements add up to nearly $5 billion, Rosenworcel wrote.

"I am writing... to emphasize again the urgent need for full funding of the Reimbursement Program," she wrote. Rural mobile carriers could have to withdraw from the reimbursement program or even shut down networks if the funding shortfall isn't closed, the letter said.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto )

Continuing its crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may potentially sue Robinhood Markets over securities violations alleged in the popular investing app's crypto unit, Robinhood Crypto said Monday.

In a recent SEC filing , Robinhood Markets Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick confirmed that Robinhood Crypto has received investigative subpoenas from the SEC regarding its "cryptocurrency listings, custody of cryptocurrencies, and platform operations."

Despite Robinhood cooperating with these investigations, the SEC sent a "Wells Notice" on Monday, the filing said. The notice alerted Robinhood that SEC staff had made a "preliminary determination" recommending that the SEC "file an enforcement action" alleging that Robinhood Crypto had violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Enlarge / Kenneth Dintzer, litigator for the US Department of Justice, exits federal court in Washington, DC, on September 20, 2023, during the antitrust trial to determine if Alphabet Inc.'s Google maintains a monopoly in the online search business. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg )

Near the end of the second day of closing arguments in the Google monopoly trial, US district judge Amit Mehta weighed whether sanctions were warranted over what the US Department of Justice described as Google's "routine, regular, and normal destruction" of evidence.

Google was accused of enacting a policy instructing employees to turn chat history off by default when discussing sensitive topics, including Google's revenue-sharing and mobile application distribution agreements. These agreements, the DOJ and state attorneys general argued, work to maintain Google's monopoly over search.

According to the DOJ, Google destroyed potentially hundreds of thousands of chat sessions not just during their investigation but also during litigation. Google only stopped the practice after the DOJ discovered the policy. DOJ's attorney Kenneth Dintzer told Mehta Friday that the DOJ believed the court should "conclude that communicating with history off shows anti-competitive intent to hide information because they knew they were violating antitrust law."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Kirill Kudryavtsev)

Google urged a federal court to reject Epic Games' request for an injunction that would reduce Google's control of the Android app distribution and in-app payment markets.

"Rather than a judicial injunction against alleged violations of law, Epic asks this Court to create a new global regulatory regime that would set prices, impose ongoing duties to deal, and require the Court to micromanage on an ongoing basis a highly complex and dynamic ecosystem that is used by billions of consumers and millions of app developers and that supports the business of hundreds of OEMs and carriers around the world," stated Google's objections filed yesterday in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

In December 2023, the maker of Fortnite won a jury ruling that found Google engaged in anticompetitive conduct in order to maintain monopolies in the Android app distribution market and the Android market for in-app billing. The jury sided with Epic on every question it was presented.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto via Getty )

“Join Your Local Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.”

Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing and deemed the Three Percenters an “armed militia group" on its 2021 Dangerous Individuals and Organizations List , the post and group remained up until WIRED contacted Meta for comment about its existence.

Free American Army is just one of around 200 similar Facebook groups and profiles, most of which are still live, that anti-government and far-right extremists are using to coordinate local militia activity around the country.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

AT&T is now charging mobile customers an extra $7 per month for faster wireless data speeds. AT&T says the Turbo add-on, available starting today , is "built to support high-performance mobile applications, like gaming, social video broadcasting and live video conferencing, with optimized data while customers are on the go."

While Turbo "boosts all the high-speed and hotspot data on a user's connection," AT&T said the difference will be more noticeable for certain kinds of applications. For example, gaming applications using Turbo will experience "less freezing or stuttering and lower latency," AT&T said.

The $7 charge is for each line. Adding Turbo to multiple lines on the same account requires paying the extra fee for each line. AT&T said that Turbo lets users "optimize their plan's high-speed (premium) and hotspot data allotments" and provides better data performance "even during busy times on the network."

Enlarge / John Schmidtlein, partner at Williams & Connolly LLP and lead litigator for Alphabet Inc.'s Google, arrives to federal court in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg )

Halfway through the first day of closing arguments in the Department of Justice's big antitrust trial against Google, US District Judge Amit Mehta posed the question that likely many Google users have pondered over years of DOJ claims that Google's market dominance has harmed users.

"What should Google have done to remain outside the crosshairs of the DOJ?" Mehta asked plaintiffs halfway through the first of two full days of closing arguments.

According to the DOJ and state attorneys general suing, Google has diminished search quality everywhere online, primarily by locking rivals out of default positions on devices and in browsers. By paying billions for default placements that the government has argued allowed Google to hoard traffic and profits, Google allegedly made it nearly impossible for rivals to secure enough traffic to compete, ultimately decreasing competition and innovation in search by limiting the number of viable search engines in the market.