Biden Administration challenges court procedure in social media case

The Biden Administration has challenged court procedure in a case curbing the government’s contact with social media companies. In July, a Louisiana court passed an injunction limiting government contact seeking to “coerce” social media companies into removing content. On Friday, the New Orleans 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals modified this court order reducing the number of government departments it is applicable to. This modified injunction has a 10-day stay to allow the US government time to appeal. However, the Biden Administration stated on Monday that under normal court procedure, the modified injunction will not take effect until the 31st of October and asked the court to ensure that the previous injunction is not in effect in the interim period.

In commercial tech news, key US executives met with government officials in Hanoi to discuss investment in aviation and tech. The meeting has come alongside Biden’s visit to Vietnam in which the country’s government upgraded the status of diplomatic relations with the US to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, a status Hanoi has previously used to describe diplomatic relations with only four other countries. At the roundtable event, it was announced that Vietnam Airlines would purchase 50 Boeing 737 Max planes for almost $8bn whilst it was also announced that Microsoft would tailor a new AI service for Vietnam and other emerging markets. The White House also highlighted previously agreed semiconductor deals including Amkor’s $1.6bn chip plant which is being built in Bac Ninh. This adds to Intel's $1.5bn chipmaking facility in the country and comes alongside investment plans by both Marvell and Synopsys.

Read more below for a round-up of the other major policy stories currently shaping the tech sector.

An antitrust trial against Google is beginning today in which it is alleged that Google’s payments to mobile service providers to be the default search engine breached competition law. The trial, which has been described as the US’ most significant antitrust case since the DoJ’s case against Microsoft in 2001, centres around complaints that Google has introduced significant barriers to competitors' access to key markets. Google’s billion-dollar payments to Android companies to be the default search engine on their devices are central to the government’s case.

Reuters reported on Monday that the Reserve Bank of India is planning steps to increase usage of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) launched in December 2022. One of the planned steps to increase the number of transactions using the digital rupee is linking the CBDC to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) which currently sees 300mn transactions each month. Currently averaging 18,000 transactions per day, interoperability with the UPI is viewed as a potential step to reaching the targetted 1mn transactions a day for the CBDC. This is accompanied by ongoing plans to facilitate offline use of the digital rupee.

The EU Commission has paused its investigation into Amazon’s acquisition of consumer robot company iRobot whilst awaiting information from the companies. Microsoft announced the $1.7bn acquisition plan (now reduced to $1.4bn) of iRobot on August 2022 leading to an ongoing antitrust investigation from the US FTC beginning the next month. The EU Commission commenced an investigation into the deal in July this year. The pause of the investigation delays the Commission’s decision deadline allowing the full investigatory timeline once the requested information is provided.

Reporting by Nick Scott. For a further read:

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