The Federal Communications Commission is recommending a $300 million fine following the largest robocall operation the agency has ever investigated.
Meanwhile, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is released from jail after securing $250 million bail while awaiting trial.
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Biggest robocall fine in history proposed
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a record fine of nearly $300 million on Wednesday for an alleged robocall program that included billions of car warranty-related calls.
According to the agency, the proposed $299.997 million fine follows the largest robocall operation the FCC has ever investigated. They claimed that Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones made more than 5 billion robocalls to sell vehicle service contracts that were falsely marketed as car warranties.
“Maybe it happened to you last year,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “You’ve picked up the phone and someone you don’t know who you didn’t ask to call tells you they’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty. It is a fraud.”
- The Commission claimed that the two people violated federal laws against robocalling and spoofing through their company Sumco Panama.
- The couple allegedly began calling back in 2018 and made 5.19 billion calls to 550 million phone numbers between January 2021 and March 2021.
Read more here.
FTX founder released on $250 million bail
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried can be released on $250 million bail and placed in house custody while awaiting trial in a sprawling fraud case, a New York judge ruled on Thursday.
At the request of prosecutors, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Gabriel Gorenstein agreed to the bond price and said Bankman-Fried could live at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, before the trial, according to The Associated Press.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was expected to be released on Thursday. As part of the deal, he will be wearing an electronic surveillance bracelet.
- Deputy U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told the judge that a key reason for Bankman-Fried’s release on bail was that he had agreed to be extradited by the Bahamas on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
- Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this month ahead of his extradition Wednesday evening, is facing multiple charges in court, including campaign finance violations, money laundering and wire fraud.
Read more here.
BYTEDANCE IMPROPERLY ACCESSED US USERS’ DATA
According to internal emails reviewed by The New York Times, employees of the Chinese parent company of the video sharing platform TikTok were given inappropriate access to user data from American citizens.
ByteDance explained in the emails that an internal investigation revealed that employees gained access to the data of two US journalists and people associated with them over the summer.
According to The Times, the employees, who were part of a company surveillance program, investigated the journalists, one now at Forbes and the other at the Financial Times, to find the sources of alleged leaks.
Forbes reported on Thursday that two other journalists from the company were followed by ByteDance employees.
All three Forbes journalists were formerly with BuzzFeed News, which reported in June that ByteDance had repeatedly accessed user data from American citizens.
Read more here.
TWITTER IS ADDING “SHOW COUNT” FEATURE
Musk has announced on Twitter that the platform will introduce a “number of views” feature that allows users to see how many people have viewed their tweet.
Musk said the decision was made because “over 90% of Twitter users read but don’t tweet, reply or like as these are public actions,” and that it will show how “alive” Twitter is.
The owner and CEO of Twitter compared the feature to the number of video views on Twitter and other platforms. Musk also explained that the view count feature will be called “Impressions.”
Read more here.
KRIMSKRAMS
A commentary to read: Strategy, not economics, should regulate high-tech trade with China
Notable links from around the web:
Insiders fear that CISA is too distracted from critical cyber missions (CyberScoop/Suzanne Smalley, Nihal Krishan, and AJ Vicens)
Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest is the culmination of an epic flameout (Vox/Whizy Kim)
Microsoft is using the “Nice Guy” strategy to shut down Activision Megadeal (The New York Times/Karen Weise and David McCabe)
One more thing: FTX executives plead guilty
Two senior executives at cryptocurrency exchange FTX pleaded guilty to criminal charges on Wednesday.
US Attorney Damian Williams in the Southern District of New York announced that both Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, have pleaded guilty to allegations related to their role in the collapse of the company.
Read more here.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading. Check out CNNBreakingNews’ Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. I’ll see you tomorrow.