FTC appeals judge’s ruling on Microsoft-Activision deal

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it is challenging a judge’s approval of Microsoft’s USD 69 billion Activision Blizzard deal. Microsoft vowed to fight back and said the FTC had a weak case. The judge had dismissed the FTC’s claim that the deal would hurt consumers by giving Microsoft exclusive access to popular games like Call of Duty. The FTC could ask the appeals court to halt the deal by Friday. 

Meanwhile, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said a revised deal could ease its worries, pending a new probe. 

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Some of Twitter's source code was reportedly leaked on Github

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Things continue to work against Twitter as a court filing published on Friday revealed portions of the social media site's source code (the programming that makes it possible) have been leaked online. According to the filings, Twitter claimed copyright infringement to have the offending code taken down from Github's collaborative programming network. The code was removed the same day. But it's unclear how long it was left up and the scope and depth of the leak.

Twitter is also asking the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to reveal the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. Based on the New York Times reports, Twitter executives strongly suspect it's the work of a disgruntled former employee who left "withing the last year." The executives who spoke to NYT primarily worry the stolen code could empower future hacking efforts.

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Epic Games gets sued by Canadian parents claiming 'Fortnite' is too 'addictive'

Source: Epic Games

A Quebec judge is allowing parents to pursue a class-action suit against Epic Games for making Fortnite too "addictive." Quebec Superior Court Justice Sylvain Lussier has authorized a lawsuit originally filed in 2019 against the game developer, alleging Fortnite is so addictive it was causing real-life problems. 

The parents of three children who spent thousands of dollars playing the game say it has caused their kids psychological, financial, and physical harm. They claim their kids spent hundreds of dollars on its in-game currency (called V-Bucks), sometimes without their knowledge. They also said the children would have "panic attacks" over Fortnite, with one of the kids frequently playing until 3 AM playing over 7,781 hours of the game in less than two years. Another is said to have played 59,954. Calex, the firm representing the parents, cited addiction specialist Anita Ghadia-Smith who compared the game to cocaine. 

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Activision Blizzard gets hit with another sexual harassment lawsuit

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Activision Blizzard has been served yet another lawsuit over harassment in the company. The unnamed plaintiff is still an employee of the game developer. She has sued the company in a Los Angeles court, claiming it allegedly enabled sexual harassment and discrimination. According to the complaint, the company retaliated against her when she shared her experiences at a December 2021 press conference. 

Like what's mentioned in past suits, she accused Activision Blizzard of routinely allowing misconduct. This senior administrative assistant in IT was reportedly pressured to join in "cube crawls," where women were harassed and groped and told to tolerate the unwanted sexual advances and excessive drinking. According to the lawsuit, she was asked to keep her complaints private. She supposedly faced an increasingly hostile workplace the more she spoke out about the issue.

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