Media News Daily: Top Stories for 02/22/2026

Data Scraper SerpApi Urges Court to Dismiss Google DMCA Lawsuit

Texas-based data scraper SerpApi is asking U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing the company is improperly “weaponizing” the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Google alleges SerpApi bypassed its “SearchGuard” anti-scraping system and CAPTCHA challenges to extract search results at scale. SerpApi contends the DMCA’s anti-circumvention rules apply to breaking encryption, not accessing public webpages, and argues Google lacks standing because it does not own the underlying content displayed in search results. A hearing is expected in May. Read More (MediaPost Rating)

Elon Musk’s X Appeals $140M EU Fine Under Digital Services Act

Elon Musk’s platform X has appealed a €120 million ($140 million) fine imposed by the European Commission for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act. Regulators claim X misled users through its paid verification system and failed to meet transparency requirements. X argues the investigation was flawed and says the appeal could set key precedents for enforcement and penalty standards under the DSA. Read More (The Hill Rating)

Wikipedia Blacklists Archive.today Over Alleged DDoS and Reliability Concerns

Wikipedia editors have voted to blacklist Archive.today, removing hundreds of thousands of links to the web archiving service. The decision follows allegations that the site used JavaScript embedded in CAPTCHA pages to direct DDoS traffic at a blogger’s website and concerns that some archived pages were altered. Editors are now encouraged to replace Archive.today links with original sources or alternative archives such as the Wayback Machine. Read More (TechCrunch Rating)