Reuters

The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not exhaust possible solutions to unlock an iPhone connected to a gunman involved in a late-2015 shooting spree before seeking a court order to compel Apple to help access the device, a US Justice Department internal watchdog said. The conclusion may pose challenges for the Trump Administration in possible future litigation to force companies to help crack into encrypted devices.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he shares the concerns of lawmakers about espionage threats from Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies and plans to take “proactive steps” to ensure the integrity of the US communications supply chain. In a March 20 letter to lawmakers, Chairman Pai offered no specifics on his future actions. He said the FCC does not purchase or use Huawei or ZTE products or equipment, “and I do not expect that would change if a major US communications company partnered with Huawei.”

US District Judge Richard Leon said a trial to decide if AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner is legal under US antitrust law may last six to eight weeks, significantly longer than previously forecast. At a pre-trial hearing, Judge Leon said he will hear up to two days of motions before hearing opening arguments on March 21. Lawyers for the government and both companies did not comment on Leon’s estimate on the length of the trial; they had previously suggested it would last three weeks.

The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selected the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to hear the consolidated challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality rules. A dozen challenges [including one filed by the Benton Foundation] have been filed by 22 state attorneys general, public interest groups, internet companies, a California county and the state’s Public Utilities Commission seeking to block the Trump administration’s repeal of landmark rules designed to ensure a free and open internet from taking effect

Google gives $10,000 in credits each to 35,000 nonprofits worldwide every month to buy ads on its search engine. But Google found that some ads received few clicks and announced in December 2017 that it would stop funding groups that generate clicks off less than 5 percent of their ads in two consecutive months. Grant recipients called it a wake up call to pay attention to Google after years of focusing on social media marketing. But despite rushing to comply, several said they could not do so in only two months and that their accounts may not get funded for March.

Twitter will no longer allow people to post identical messages from multiple accounts, cracking down on a tactic that Russian agents and others have allegedly used to make tweets or topics go viral. Twitter will also not allow people to use software to simultaneously perform other actions such as liking or retweeting from multiple accounts. Twitter said it would give users until March 23 to comply before suspending accounts. It made an exception for bots of broad interest such as earthquake alerts.