Break ‘em up: A report released by the Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has accused Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google of abusing their monopoly power and has called the four companies to effectively be broken up, the New York Times reports. The report calls the four companies “the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.”
India wants in: Meanwhile, Google is reportedly facing an antitrust investigation in India for allegedly abusing its Android operating system’s position in the smart television market, The Economic Times of India says. This is the fourth major antitrust case Google has faced in the huge India market.
Hackers for hire: A mercenary hacking group is operating throughout the Middle East, with Saudi diplomats, Sikh separatists, and Indian business executives among those being targeted, Al Jazeera reports. The diversity of the group Bahamut’s activities makes it appear that it’s not working for a single group or nation, researchers say.
Ready for takeoff: SpaceX’s space-based Internet service is nearly ready for use after the company’s latest launches of Starlink satellites, CEO Elon Musk says. SpaceX has delivered 60 additional satellites into low-Earth orbit this week, bringing the total number to nearly 800, The Independent reports. Musk says a beta rollout in the northern U.S. and potentially southern Canada should be happening soon.
Beware of botnet: Authorities from the U.S., Italy, the Netherlands, France, Japan, and New Zealand have all recently issued warnings about the Emotet botnet, ZDNet reports. The spam botnet has often been linked to the distribution of banking trojans, but recently, it also includes malware-laden spam and sells access to infected computers to criminal groups, including ransomware operators.
How will consolidation impact the Internet? Read the Internet Society Global Internet Report: Consolidation in the Internet Economy.