Hillicon Valley — FTC issues ‘Epic’ kids’ privacy fine

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hit developer Epic Games with a record
$520 million fine over allegations of violating kids’ privacy rules.  

Meanwhile, Elon Musk asked users if he should step down as Twitter CEO, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging Tesla’s board to look into whether the billionaire’s acquisition of Twitter creates a conflict of interest for the company. 

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Epic Games to pay $520M privacy fine 

Epic Games, the developer behind the hit video game “Fortnite,” will pay $520 million to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve allegations the company violated child privacy protection laws and duped consumers into paying for products they didn’t ask for. 

In a Monday release, the FTC said Epic Games will pay a $275 million financial penalty for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and another
$245 million for tricking players into paying for unwanted services and letting children “rack up” unauthorized charges without parental consent. 

The $245 million settlement, which will be used to refund customers, is the largest refund in a gaming case and the largest administrative order in FTC history. 

FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Monday that “protecting the public, and especially children and teens, from online privacy invasions is a top priority for the Commission.”

Read more here.

Twitter poll: Musk should step down

A majority of respondents said Elon Musk should step down as head of Twitter in a poll he posted on the platform. 

Musk published the 12-hour poll on his account on Sunday evening, and with 17.5 million total votes cast, 57.5 percent said Musk should step down while 42.5 percent said he should not do so. 

“I will abide by the results of this poll,” Musk said in his Sunday tweet before the results flooded in. 

The newly minted Twitter CEO has warned of the platform’s financial state as he attempts to shift its revenue from advertising to Twitter’s new monthly subscription service, warning the company is close to filing for bankruptcy. 

“The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,” Musk tweeted on Sunday night. 

Read more here. 

WARREN WARNS AGAINST CONFLICT OF INTEREST  

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has sent a letter to the chairman of Tesla’s board raising concerns that CEO Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is hurting shareholders and creating serious conflicts of interest that may violate the law. 

Warren’s letter comes as Tesla stock has lost almost a third of its value after Musk completed his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion on Oct. 27.  

In a letter to Tesla board Chairman Robyn Denholm, Warren writes that she is concerned the company’s board of directors “has failed to meet” its “legal duty” to ensure that Musk, as the controlling shareholder of Tesla, “does not treat the company as a private plaything.”  

• “I am writing regarding concerns that Tesla’s Board of Directors has failed to meet this legal duty with regard to the actions of Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, in the aftermath of his purchase of Twitter,” she wrote.  
  
• She asks how Tesla’s board is dealing with “conflicts of interest, misappropriation of corporate assets, and other actions by Mr. Musk that appear not to be in the best interests of Tesla and its shareholders.”   

Read more here. 

UN URGES MUSK TO RESPECT FREE SPEECH  

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk urged Twitter CEO Elon Musk to respect users’ free speech rights in response to the suspension of a number of prominent tech journalists from the platform. 

Volker Türk, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, weighed in after Musk polled users and lifted the suspensions of journalists the Twitter owner accused of “doxxing” him by reporting on an account that used publicly available data to track the billionaire’s private jet. 

“Good news that journalists are being reinstated @Twitter, but serious concerns remain,” Türk wrote in a tweet on Saturday.  

“Twitter has a responsibility to respect human rights: @elonmusk should commit to making decision based on publicly-available policies that respect rights, including free speech. Nothing less,” Türk concluded. 

Read more here. 

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: Artificial intelligence and the looming misinformation society 

Notable links from around the web: 

Meta is facing the test of its lifetime (Vox / Shirin Ghaffary) 

How Bots Pushing Adult Content Drowned Out Chinese Protest Tweets (The New York Times / Stuart Thompson, Muyi Xiao, Ishaan Jhaveri and Paul Mozur) 

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? (MIT Technology Review / Eileen Guo) 

😎 Lighter click: We have some questions…

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.