FCC Chair Ajit Pai today announced a procedural change that could made it harder for the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau to issue fines or enter into settlements with companies that have violated the agency's rules. Under the new rules, the Enforcement Bureau won't be able to settle matters until the Commission has approved the settlement. "This will help promote Commissioners’ involvement in and accountability for important enforcement decisions,” Pai stated.

Maryland blogger Webster Tarpley has agreed to pay Melania Trump "a substantial sum" to settle a defamation lawsuit, her lawyers said today. Trump is still pursuing a $150 million defamation complaint against Daily Mail owner Mail Media Inc. She is represented by Charles Harder, who successfully sued Gawker for posting excerpts of Hulk Hogan's sex tape.

Nearly 100 tech companies are urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reject President Donald Trump's request to immediately restore a travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries. The companies, including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Uber, say in a friend-of-the-court brief that the travel ban is unconstitutional and violates immigration laws.

The patent troll Blackbird Technologies has sued Netflix over its use of technology that allows people to download movies for offline viewing. Blackbird Technologies owns US Patent No. 7,174,362, which is said to cover "methods and systems of digital duplication," according to Ars Technica. The patent has previously been used to sue Target Ticket and DirecTV Everywhere."

Consumer Technology Association president Gary Shapiro urged lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee to scrap the new broadband privacy rules. He said that the privacy order, which requires carriers to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before drawing on their Web history for ad targeting, "threatens the current and future viability of and the innovations that have come from a vibrant Internet," Multichannel News reports.

A New York man is suing Grindr for allegedly allowing his ex-boyfriend to harass him by impersonating him and setting up fake profiles. The plaintiff alleges that Grindr's refusal to remove the fake profiles has endangered him. “Plaintiff is not safe in his own home,” the complaint states, according to Consumerist. “The men who respond to the ad are intimidating and often on drugs or seeking drugs.”