"In his public capacity as a sheriff of a major county, Sheriff Dart is not permitted to issue and publicize dire threats against credit card companies that process payments made through Backpage's website," an appeals court wrote on Monday.

The FCC recently signaled that it might consider whether to prohibit wireless companies from blocking text messages. Advocates say texting is a common carrier service, but the telecoms say the ability to block texts reduces spam.

In a move that signals a focus on Web privacy, the Federal Communications Commission has tapped Jonathan Mayer to serve as chief technologist of its enforcement bureau.

"The Montana Standard," a daily newspaper in Butte, Montana, has decided to replace commenters' pseudonyms with their real names.

When T-Mobile announced BingeOn, industry observers quickly sounded alarms about whether the service would violate open Internet principles.

Comcast confirmed today that it's not counting data streamed through its new online video service, Stream, against consumers' monthly data allotments.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's crusade against daily fantasy sports sites, which has already resulted in lawsuits against DraftKings and FanDuel, could also ensnare Yahoo.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued fantasy sports FanDuel and DraftKings on Tuesday for accepting sports bets and running misleading ads. Within hours, FanDuel stopped allowing state residents to enter paid contests.

Ad networks, publishers and other companies that collect data from someone's laptop in order to serve ads to that same person's smartphone must notify people about the practice.

Judges on a federal appeals panel suggested that Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart took his campaign against Backpage too far by demanding that Visa and Mastercard stop processing payments for the company.