The European Commission said it's requiring Google parent Alphabet, Facebook and Twitter to change terms of service and improve responsiveness to removing content aimed at committing consumer fraud within one month or face “enforcement action.” The EU has been scrutinizing the three firms’ practices, including their ability to detect and remove scam content like fake promotions and ads for counterfeit products. Friday’s announcement followed a Thursday meeting between EC officials and representatives from three companies. Social media companies generally “need to take more responsibility in addressing scams and frauds,” said Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Věra Jourová in a news release. “It is not acceptable that EU consumers can only call on a court in California to resolve a dispute.” Social media companies’ terms of service must comply with European consumer law, which requires a balance between parties’ rights and obligations, and those terms be drafted in plain language, the EC said. The decision came soon after Germany said it was proposing a law that would allow fines of up to $53 million against social media firms if they fail to remove libelous or threatening posts. Google, Facebook and Twitter didn’t comment.

The FTC launched a website that will spotlight the work of a new "economic liberty" task force, said a Thursday news release. Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen mentioned the task force in several speeches, saying it will focus on removing or narrowing occupational licensing regulations when they don't have a public safety or health rationale (see 1702230012). In a blog post, Ohlhausen wrote about examples of "excessive occupational licensing," saying the task force will "increase awareness of this vexing problem."

Consumer demand for cable-offered wireless service remains a question mark, but "content bundling creativity is the glue that might stick," Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan wrote investors regarding Comcast. His email Wednesday said Comcast has customer relationships, retail presence and marketing to help it deploy a wireless service, something other MVNOs typically lacked. The analyst said the key test for Comcast will be lowering its churn and creating "a stickier customer base," as AT&T is chasing the same goal and that company will likely be first "to see how well this concept works." Raymond James said Comcast's small and midsized business strategy is increasingly to focus on areas outside its footprint, partnering with other cable companies, and on national franchises with multitudes of end-user locations.

Energizer recalled its Xbox One 2X smart charger due to a burn hazard, said a Tuesday Consumer Product Safety Commission notice. The Energizer battery chargers, item number 048-052-NA, hold up to two Xbox controllers, it said. Energizer received 24 reports of the chargers overheating and deforming the plastic cover, including six reports of chargers emitting a burning odor. No injuries were reported. The agency instructed consumers to contact importer Performance Designed Products to return the chargers for a full refund. The chargers were sold at Best Buy, GameStop and other stores nationwide and online at Amazon.com and other online retailers from February 2016 through last month for about $40, said the commission.

Pay-TV penetration declines will likely be in the 1.5 to 2 percent range annually over the next five years -- and even lower if factoring in subscription VOD pay-TV players, Pivotal Research Group's Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Thursday. He said the growth of virtual multichannel video programming distributors, plus the growing cost to consumers of traditional MVPD service, means the era of traditional pay-TV growth is "likely over" as any modest gains in cable video subscriber growth will be offset by telco and direct broadcast satellite subscriber losses. The analyst said there's "a reasonable chance" the Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress may "scuttle" the FCC's ability to enforce Title II Communications Act regulation of cable.

More than 50 companies, including Amazon, Apple, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Lyft, Salesforce, Twitter and Yahoo, filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting a transgender high school student's fight against a Virginia county school board over restricting bathroom access to individuals based on their biological sex. The companies said they're alarmed by the "stigmatizing and degrading effects" of the Gloucester County School Board's policy and similar ones that would "adversely" affect their businesses, customers and employees. "Having built inclusive workplaces for transgender employees and their loved ones, we have a vested interest in the legal landscape in which our employees and their dependents live, work and go to school," wrote Margenett Moore-Roberts, Yahoo head-inclusive diversity, in a blog post Thursday. A district court upheld the policy, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision last year. In October, the Supreme Court stayed the 4th Circuit decision and said it would review the case. Yahoo was also among companies that said it was disappointed over the Trump administration's withdrawal of guidance that required public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms based on their gender identity (see 1702230035).

The 2017 Mobile World Congress drew a record 108,000 visitors to Barcelona, show producer GSMA said Thursday. That was up 7 percent over 2016 and included attendees from 208 countries and territories, GSMA said in a news release. The 2018 MWC will be in Barcelona Feb. 26-March 1.

CTA hailed President Donald Trump’s Friday executive order directing each federal agency to create a “regulatory reform task force” to evaluate regulations for possible “repeal, replacement, or modification.” Each task force “at a minimum” will try to identify regulations that “inhibit job creation,” are obsolete, unnecessary or ineffective, or “impose costs that exceed benefits,” the order said. It urges the task forces, as part of their evaluations, to “seek input” from entities that are “significantly affected” by federal rules, including state and local governments, consumers, small businesses and trade associations. That the task force “process” calls for getting such “feedback from stakeholders” should help it “distinguish between regulations we need for national harmonization versus the ones that are overly burdensome, crushing innovation and hampering startups,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a Monday statement. Tech startups “are the very first to feel the consequences of unnecessary regulations that ultimately stifle innovation and prevent opportunities for job growth here in the United States,” Shapiro said. “With two dozen federal agencies and more than 30 congressional committees covering IoT devices and tens of thousands of costly regulations, we are well overdue for a thorough examination of unnecessary, duplicitous and ineffective federal rules and regulations.” In the modern tech economy, "one-size-fits-all regulations spawn numerous unintended consequences that could stifle and suffocate our new economy," Shapiro said. "It’s also important to recognize that in some cases, non-regulatory, market-oriented solutions will avoid the costs and burdens of traditional regulation and deliver results faster."

CTA President Gary Shapiro and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai were among those reacting this weekend on Twitter to the shooting last week of two Garmin engineers, both 32 and originally from India, and a bystander in a bar near Garmin’s U.S. headquarters in Olathe, Kansas, in what authorities are calling a possible hate crime (see 1702240066). Srinivas Kuchibhotla died in the shooting and his Garmin colleague, Alok Madasani, was wounded, as was Ian Grillot, 24, the bystander who tried to intervene. “Our hearts go out to family and friends of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the other victims and the entire @Garmin family,” Shapiro tweeted Saturday. "RIP, Srinivas Kuchibotla [sic]," Pai tweeted late Friday. "@Garmin engineer murdered in cold blood in KC was 'simply an outstanding human being.'" The son of immigrants from India, Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas, about 125 miles southwest of Olathe, his FCC bio page says. Alleged gunman Adam Purinton, 51, faces one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of premeditated attempted first-degree murder in Johnson County District Court in Olathe. Purinton made his first court appearance Monday before Judge Charles Droege, who scheduled Purinton for a March 9 "no go" preliminary hearing, where he'll hear his fiirst evidence in the case, court records show.

Pricing will likely be the key factor determining whether flat panel antennas become widely adopted now that a products are to come to market in coming years, and if pricing isn't prioritized, it will be the main reason FPAs won't be successful, said Northern Sky Research analyst Dallas Kasaboski in an NSR blog post Monday. The big investment that has been made in FPA research and development means there's big pressure for commercialization, with performance being the big hurdle to deployment, as evidenced by the lengthy development times "and the current range of readiness of FPA technology," NSR said. It said those performance issues include low throughputs, noise, beam-steering requirements and side-lobe regulation.