The Department of Homeland Security’s disinformation board director announced her resignation Wednesday after weeks of Republican criticism claiming the agency’s board was attempting to police online speech (see 2205040061). Nina Jankowicz announced her departure, saying mischaracterizations of the board’s work had become a distraction to the DHS’ work, and she will leave to return to work in the “public sphere.” The board’s work will be “paused” during a monthslong review of the board by the Homeland Security Advisory Council, a DHS spokesperson said. With a 75-day deadline, the assessment will focus on how DHS can “most effectively and appropriately address disinformation that poses a threat to our country, while protecting free speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy,” the agency said. HSAC will review how DHS can “achieve greater transparency across our disinformation-related work and increase trust with the public and other key stakeholders.” The board has been “grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner,” DHS said. “It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting core Constitutional rights. However, false attacks have become a significant distraction from the Department’s vitally important work to combat disinformation that threatens the safety and security of the American people.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted he was “pleased” to hear about the board’s suspension: It’s “important to shut this and all similar efforts down entirely. The core problem is not the people that would serve as the government's Disinformation Czars, its that those jobs should not exist.”

FTC Chair Lina Khan has “enormous respect” for agency staff’s “diligence and expertise,” an agency spokesperson said Wednesday in response to Republican criticism about unfavorable employee survey results (see 2205170067). “Last year, the period over which the FEV (Federal Employee Viewpoint) data was collected, was a period of considerable change at the FTC, which is always difficult,” the agency said. Khan is “committed to making sure that the FTC continues to be a great place to work and looks forward to building on the agency’s record of accomplishments.”

Bitdefender debuted an identity theft protection service for U.S. consumers, reported the cybersecurity company Tuesday. The service, developed in collaboration with TransUnion subsidiary IdentityForce, is available as a stand-alone subscription offering or through the Bitdefender Ultimate Security suite of antivirus and password-protection solutions, it said. A recent Bitdefender survey of more than 10,000 consumers found many use “high-risk behavior” when shopping online, including half who admitted to using a single password for all online accounts, it said.

It’s a “fact” FTC staff is showing “low morale,” and hopefully it's a trend the full commission can reverse, FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips said Tuesday during The Media Institute's Communications Forum event. Commissioner Christine Wilson spoke at length about the topic earlier this month (see 2205060056). Phillips said he was “chilled” to see the decline in the agency survey about how staff views agency leadership’s integrity. He noted career staffers, including Democratic appointees, have been leaving the FTC, which he said doesn’t look good from the inside or outside. He repeated opposition to the FTC pursuing a privacy rulemaking, saying the agency should leave legislative policymaking to Congress. Commercial surveillance is a broad term, and privacy involves major trade-offs best left to Congress, he said. The agency didn't comment.

FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya was sworn in Monday for a term ending in September 2026, the agency announced. With Bedoya’s addition, Chair Lina Khan said she’s “confident we can vigorously advance our mission and fully serve the American people.” Commissioner Christine Wilson tweeted she looks forward to working with Bedoya "to promote competition and protect consumers." Khan will testify Wednesday at a House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing, and the FTC scheduled a meeting for Thursday (see 2205130058).

Stronger EU cybersecurity rules advanced Friday when government and European Parliament negotiators agreed provisionally to the revised network and information security directive (NIS2). If approved by European Council members and the full Parliament, the measure would set the baseline for cybersecurity risk management measures and reporting obligations across several sectors, the Council said. One is digital infrastructure: The directive would apply to providers of public electronic communications services, digital services and domain name system services (see 2103220038). NIS2 introduces a size-cap rule under which all medium and large entities within the relevant sectors would be subject to the rules. Negotiators agreed on other provisions to ensure proportionality, a higher level of risk management and "clear-cut criticality criteria" for determining which enterprises are covered. The provisional accord also streamlines reporting requirements. The European Commission welcomed the political agreement, saying its next move will be a cyber-resilience act to ensure that digital products are more secure.

Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is “temporarily on hold” until he gets more detail supporting the estimate that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of users, the Tesla CEO tweeted Friday. “Still committed to acquisition,” he added about two hours later. Twitter shares closed 9.7% lower Friday at $40.72, recording their lowest mark since Musk announced plans to become the platform’s largest individual shareholder in April. Abandoning the deal carries the potential for a $1 billion break-up fee. Musk earlier in the week said he would reinstate former President Donald Trump, whose account was suspended in response to his activity related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (see 2204120056). “I saw President Trump said he wasn’t interested” in rejoining the platform “so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told us Thursday. “I’m opposed to the social media companies censoring free speech so good for” Musk. “This is such an uninteresting conversation,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said of the potential Trump reinstatement. The company didn't comment.

President Joe Biden extended for a year the national emergency declaration in then-President Donald Trump’s May 2019 executive order under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to protect U.S. information and communications technology supply chains against interference by foreign adversaries, says a notice for Friday’s Federal Register. The order was due to expire Sunday. Bad actors’ “unrestricted access” to ICT “augments the ability” of foreign adversaries to exploit “vulnerabilities” in the U.S. supply chain, “with potentially catastrophic effects,” said the notice. The “unusual and extraordinary threat” continues to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the U.S., it said. For this reason, the national emergency declaration “must continue,” it said.

Google will pay hundreds of European news publishers for their content as part of licensing agreements under the European Copyright Directive, the company said Wednesday. Google reached agreements with “more than 300 national, local and specialist news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland,” the company said. Google will launch a new tool to allow for potential agreements with “thousands more news publishers, starting in Germany and Hungary, and rolling out to other EU countries over the coming months,” said News and Publishing Partnerships Director Sulina Connal.

Google manipulated the app store market and abused its power by forcing Match Group to use the Google Play Store billing system, alleged Match Monday in an antitrust lawsuit against Google in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Google initially told Match the company would be able to use its own payment systems for its dating apps Tinder, Match, OkCupid and others. The platform pulled a “bait-and-switch” in requiring all apps selling digital goods to use Google Play billing, the company said. The “requirement will eliminate user choice on Match Group apps and increase costs to consumers by allowing Google to charge Match Group an arbitrary and discriminatory tax of 15% on all subscriptions and up to 30% on all other in-app purchases,” Match said. Google Vice President-Government Affairs and Public Policy Wilson White rejected Google’s “cynical campaign,” saying Match is trying to “freeload” on Google investments after years of reaping benefits from the Google Play store.