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Meta approved hate-filled Facebook ads that called for violence in Europe

Meta is again facing allegations it’s not doing enough to prevent the spread of hate speech and violent content in Facebook ads. A new report details eight such ads, targeting audiences in Europe, that were approved despite containing blatant violations of the company’s policies around hate speech and violence.

The report comes from watchdog organization Ekō, which is sharing its work to draw attention to the social network’s “sub-standard moderation practices” ahead of the Digital Services Act (DSA) going into effect in Europe later this week. It details how, over a period of a few days in early August, the organization attempted to buy 13 Facebook ads, all of which used AI-generated images and included text that was clearly against the company’s rules

Ekō pulled the ads before they could be seen by any users. The group requested exact wording of the ads be withheld, but offered descriptions of some of the most egregious examples. Approved ads included one, placed in France, that “called for the execution of a prominent MEP because of their stance on immigration,” as well as an ad targeting German users that “called for synagogues to be burnt to the ground to ‘protect White Germans.’” Meta also approved ads in Spain that claimed the most recent election was stolen and that people should engage in violent protests to reverse it.

“This report was based on a very small sample of ads and is not representative of the number of ads we review daily across the world,” a spokesperson for Meta said in a statement. “Our ads review process has several layers of analysis and detection, both before and after an ad goes live. We’re taking extensive steps in response to the DSA and continue to invest significant resources to protect elections and guard against hate speech as well as against violence and incitement.”

While there were a handful of ads that were stopped by Meta’s checks, Ekō says that the ads were prevented from running because they were flagged as political, not because of the violent and hate-filled rhetoric in them. (The company requires political advertisers to go through an additional vetting process before they are eligible to place ads.)

Ekō is using the report to advocate for additional safeguards under the DSA, a sweeping law that requires tech platforms to limit some kinds of targeted advertising and allow users to opt out of recommendation algorithms. (Several services, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have recently made changes to comply with the latter provision.) It also requires platforms to identify and mitigate “systemic risks,” including those related to illegal and violent content.

“With a few clicks, we were able to prove just how easy it is for bad actors to spread hate speech and disinformation,” Vicky Wyatt, Ekō’s campaign director, said in a statement. “With EU elections around the corner, European leaders must enforce the DSA to its fullest extent and finally rein in these toxic companies.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-approved-hate-filled-facebook-ads-that-called-for-violence-in-europe-030015537.html?src=rss 

Scientists strengthen concrete by 30 percent with used coffee grounds

Humans produce around 4.4 billion tons of concrete every year. That process consumes around 8 billion tons of sand (out of the 40-50 billion tons in total used annually) which has, in part, led to acute shortages of the building commodity in recent years. At the same time, we generate about 10 billion kilograms of used coffee grounds over the same span — coffee grounds which a team of researchers from RMIT University in Australia have discovered can be used as a silica substitute in the concrete production process that, in the proper proportions, yields a significantly stronger chemical bond than sand alone. 

“The disposal of organic waste poses an environmental challenge as it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change,” lead author of the study, Dr Rajeev Roychand of RMIT’s School of Engineering, said in a recent release. He notes that Australia alone produces 75 million kilograms of used coffee grounds each year, most of which ends up in landfills. 

Coffee grounds can’t simply be mixed in raw with standard concrete as they won’t bind with the other materials due to their organic content, Dr. Roychand explained. In order to make the grounds more compatible, the team experimented with pyrolyzing the materials at 350 and 500 degrees C, then substituting them in for sand in 5, 10, 15 and 20 percentages (by volume) for standard concrete mixtures. 

The team found that at 350 degrees is perfect temperature, producing a “29.3 percent enhancement in the compressive strength of the composite concrete blended with coffee biochar,” per the team’s study, published in the September issue of Journal of Cleaner Production. “In addition to reducing emissions and making a stronger concrete, we’re reducing the impact of continuous mining of natural resources like sand,” Dr. Roychand said. 

“The concrete industry has the potential to contribute significantly to increasing the recycling of organic waste such as used coffee,” added study co-author Dr Shannon Kilmartin-Lynch, a Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT. “Our research is in the early stages, but these exciting findings offer an innovative way to greatly reduce the amount of organic waste that goes to landfill,” where it’s decomposition would generate large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/scientists-strengthen-concrete-by-30-percent-with-used-coffee-grounds-221643441.html?src=rss 

BioWare cuts around 50 jobs to become a ‘more agile and focused studio’

Mass Effect and Dragon Age studio BioWare is eliminating approximately 50 positions as parent Electronic Arts attempts to turn it into a “more agile and focused studio.” The reorganization was “unavoidable,” according to BioWare general manager Gary McKay, as it was necessary in order to meet the studio’s evolving needs.

“After much consideration and careful planning, we have built a long-term vision that will preserve the health of the studio and better enable us to do what we do best: create exceptional story-driven single-player experiences filled with vast worlds and rich characters,” McKay wrote in the announcement. “This vision balances the current needs of the studio — namely, ensuring Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is an outstanding game — with its future, including the success of the next Mass Effect.”

McKay noted that BioWare is “committed to supporting” affected staff, adding that “we’ve chosen to act now in part to provide our impacted colleagues with as many internal opportunities as possible.” The affected roles align with similar positions at other EA studios, and workers will be provided with professional assistance if they apply for any. While they will still be credited for their work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, McKay wrote that it’s “unlikely” that everyone affected will be able to find a new position at EA.

The next Mass Effect game, which was announced in 2020, is still in pre-production with a team led by Mass Effect: Andromeda producer Mike Gamble. McKay wrote that the studio’s dedication to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (which will be the first game in the series since 2014) “has never wavered” and that BioWare is “confident” of having enough time to make sure the next entry “reaches its full potential.”

The cuts are related to an announcement that EA CEO Andrew Wilson made in March. Wilson said the company would lay off around 6 percent of its workforce of its nearly 13,000 employees and reduce its office space footprint. BioWare is said to have around 250 workers.

Along with news of the job cuts, it emerged that EA is severing ties with game services company Keywords, which was working with BioWare on Dreadwolf. EA was unable to reach a new agreement with Keywords, an spokesperson told GamesBeat, and the existing contract comes to an end on September 27th.

Among other things, Keywords provides playtesting services. A group of quality assurance contractors in that part of the company voted to form the first video game labor union in Canada last year. EA has reportedly renewed contracts with Keywords since the June 2022 union vote, but it was unable to agree terms this time around amid the BioWare changes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bioware-cuts-around-50-jobs-to-become-a-more-agile-and-focused-studio-211513365.html?src=rss 

Facebook’s ‘state-controlled media’ labels appear to reduce engagement

Facebook’s “state-controlled media” labels appear to reduce engagement with content from authoritarian nations. A new study reveals that, with the added tags, users’ engagement decreased when they noticed content labeled as originating from Chinese and Russian government-run media. However, the labels also appeared to boost user favorability of posts from Canadian state media, suggesting broader perceptions of the country play into the tags’ effectiveness.

Researchers with Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University and the University of Texas at Austin conducted the set of studies which “explored the causal impact of these labels on users’ intentions to engage with Facebook content.” When users noticed the label, they tended to reduce their engagement with it when it was a country they perceived negatively.

The first experiment studied 1,200 people with US-based Facebook accounts — with and without state-controlled media labels. Although their engagement with posts originating from Russia and China went down, it only had that effect if they “actively noticed the label.” A second test in the series observed 2,000 US Facebook users to determine that their behavior was “tied to public sentiment toward the country listed on the label.” In other words, they responded positively to media labeled as Canadian state-controlled and negatively toward Chinese and Russian government-run content.

Meta

Finally, a third experiment examined how broadly Facebook users interacted with state-controlled media before and after the platform added the labels. They concluded the change had a “significant effect” as the sharing of labeled posts dropped by 34 percent after the shift, and user likes of tagged posts fell by 46 percent. The paper’s authors also noted that training users on the labels (“notifying them of their presence and testing them on their meaning”) significantly boosted their odds of noticing them.

“Our three studies suggest that state-controlled media labels reduced the spread of misinformation and propaganda on Facebook, depending on which countries were labelled,” Patricia L. Moravec, the study’s lead, wrote in the paper’s summary.

However, the studies ran into some limitations in determining correlation vs. causation. The authors say they couldn’t fully verify whether their results were caused by the labels or Facebook’s nontransparent newsfeed algorithms, which downlink labeled posts (and make related third-party research exceedingly difficult in broader terms). The paper’s authors also note that the experiments measured online users’ “beliefs, intentions to share, and intentions to like pages” but not their actual behavior.

The researchers (unsurprisingly, given the results) recommend social companies “clearly alert and inform users of labeling policy changes, explain what they mean, and display the labels in ways that users notice.”

As the world grapples with online misinformation and propaganda, the study’s leads urge Facebook and other social platforms to do more. “Although efforts are being made to reduce the spread of misinformation on social media platforms, efforts to reduce the influence of propaganda may be less successful,” suggests co-author Nicholas Wolczynski. “Given that Facebook debuted the new labels quietly without informing users, many likely did not notice the labels, reducing their efficacy dramatically.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facebooks-state-controlled-media-labels-appear-to-reduce-engagement-212703277.html?src=rss 

Razer’s Kishi V2 controller gets an Xbox edition with themed colors and more

Razer is releasing an Xbox Edition of its popular Kishi V2 mobile gaming controller. The device is available in two SKUs, for iPhone and Android phones, and brings plenty of Xbox-centric features into the mix. For instance, the controllers boast iconic Xbox branding and a white color-way to tie it all together.

The Xbox integration isn’t just cosmetic. There’s updated companion software to make the most out of brand collaboration, including full integration with Game Pass and new haptics that correlate to AAA Xbox titles. That gives these controllers cross-compatibility with hundreds of games available via the platform and the magic of cloud streaming. Razer says this refresh has been optimized to ensure lag-free gaming and the various inputs have been enhanced for improved control and precision. There’s also a dedicated Xbox button for powering on the controller and for initiating Game Pass.

The exterior has been switched up for improved ergonomics during those lengthy Game Pass sessions. The analog bumper triggers are more pronounced and the whole thing has a soft feel that should make it rest easy in the hands during use.

Of course, you aren’t tied to Xbox games here. This is still a standard Kishi Pro controller that’s powered by the Razer Nexus app, so you can play PC games, smartphone titles and more. To that end, there’s a virtual controller mode that lets you map out buttons to match a specific game.

Razer’s Kishi controllers have been a big hit for the company, starting with an Android model and eventually including an iPhone version. This newest release accompanies a broader launch for the Kishi V2 Pro model, that features a headphone jack and the aforementioned haptics. The Pro controller isn’t new, exactly, but it used to be exclusively tied to the Razer Edge gaming handheld device. Now you can buy it standalone in this Xbox format or via plainer options. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/razers-kishi-v2-controller-gets-an-xbox-edition-with-themed-colors-and-more-203721252.html?src=rss 

Google TV is integrating NFL Sunday Ticket ahead of the new season

Google TV is about to get a heavy dose of NFL Sunday Ticket. The service, which Google won the bidding rights for last year, will soon be available (and likely promoted with gusto) on the platform. Google also offers the NFL subscription service on YouTube and YouTube TV.

“Starting this football season, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV will be fully integrated into Google TV in the U.S.,” Google TV product managers Nick Staubach and Sal Altayyar wrote in an announcement blog post. “This means you can now access live out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, see top highlights and get recommendations for top games of the week, all right on your Google TV home screen.” The authors added that YouTube TV subscribers who add an NFL Sunday Ticket subscription would soon see the service in the app’s live tabs.

Google won the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, reportedly outbidding Apple and Amazon in late 2022 after DirecTV held the rights for nearly three decades. Annual packages for the service currently start at $399 through YouTube or $299 when bought alongside a separate ($73 / month) YouTube TV membership. Packages that include the NFL RedZone channel (for “whip-around coverage of every game on Sunday afternoon”) add an extra $40 onto each plan.

Google also announced today that it’s adding more than 25 new free channels to Google TV. The company (strangely) didn’t specify the channels, but it mentioned that it would include shows like Top Gear and Baywatch. The unknown networks will join Google TV’s lineup of over 800 FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-tv-is-integrating-nfl-sunday-ticket-ahead-of-the-new-season-190358886.html?src=rss 

‘Ahsoka’ is both solid Star Wars and proof that there’s too much Star Wars

208 episodes of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Three Tales of the Jedi shorts. Two episodes of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. One movie. That’s everything you’ll need to see to truly understand everything going on in the new Ahsoka series on Disney+. For Star Wars diehards, especially those raised on the animated shows spearheaded by Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni, it’s everything they’ve hoped for. Everyone else, though, may find themselves adrift.

Ahsoka deftly brings animated characters to live action — Rosario Dawson remains a beguiling Ahsoka, and she’s joined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, and Natasha Liu Bordezzo as the impulsive Sabine Wren — and it wastes no time introducing intriguing villains (especially Baylan Skoll, a former Jedi portrayed by the late Ray Stevenson). The series is a direct sequel to Rebels in almost every way. But while that’s great news for fans, the downside is that newcomers to the wider Rebels verse, even those who’ve seen Ahsoka in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, will have a hard time finding any emotional stakes.

Photo by Lucasfilm

With the previous live action Star Wars TV shows (including the enjoyable-yet-unneccessary Obi-Wan Kenobi series), Filoni and co-producer Jon Favreau tried to ease general audiences into deeper aspects of Star Wars lore. That was most successful in the first season of The Mandalorian, which was filled with new characters and simple emotional stakes. (Protect Baby Yoda, no matter what it takes!) But Filoni eventually managed to bring in some characters from his animated shows, including the nefarious bounty hunter Cad Bane.

For better or worse, Ahsoka feels like a riskier project than any of those other live action shows. Almost everyone refers to events and major characters from Rebels, without explaining much about who they are. We know that Grand Admiral Thrawn seems like a major new antagonist, but the show never says why. We later learn that Ahsoka is driven to find him because that may reveal the location of Ezra Bridger, the main character of Rebels who disappeared at the end of that series. Sabine and Ahsoka share some pensive moments reflecting on their lost friend, but we don’t get much about their shared relationship beyond that.

Photo by Lucasfilm

At times watching Ahsoka is like being invited to a party where everyone else are old friends, and who refuse to explain their in-jokes or shared history. It’s not their problem if you’re not having as much fun as them. Deal with it. I had similar issues with The Mandalorian’s third season relying too much on The Book of Boba Fett, but at least those were shows airing in close proximity. Ahsoka hinges on direct continuity from an animated series that began in 2014 and ran for four years.

Of course, the series may get better down the line. Ahsoka is Filoni’s baby, after all, and he’s too talented of a storyteller to have her tread water for a season. And I’ll admit, even the excellent Andor took a few episodes to really rev things up. I just hope this show weaves character motivations into its plot more effectively moving forward.

In the first two episodes, Ahsoka is basically sent on a fetch quest when a new trio of villains pops up. There’s some investigative work that sheds light on the post-Empire world (would former members of the Empire really want to support the New Republic?), but much of the time I felt like I was waiting for something, anything to happen. At least the handful of action scenes spice up the proceedings – Dawson’s months of training really show in her lightsaber duels. And there are hints of interesting character dynamics moving forward. 

In the years since Rebels ended, it turns out Ahsoka started training Sabine as a Jedi, but then abandoned her. It’s a reflection of Ahsoka’s own story, where she started as Anakin Skywalker’s padawan before a (very complicated) series of events pushed her out of the Jedi Order. Can Ahsoka make up for her mistakes, or is she doomed to fail her student like her master failed her?

At the very least, Ahsokai’s first two episodes are far more intriguing than the Book of Boba Fett or Obi-Wan’s intros. Both of those shows felt superfluous – did we really need Boba Fett’s backstory and redemption tale? Did seeing another Obi-Wan and Darth Vader duel really accomplish anything? At least Ahsoka is trying to push Star Wars into new territory. It’s just too bad that everyone isn’t invited for that journey.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ahsoka-review-star-wars-disney-193023619.html?src=rss 

WhatsApp lets you create groups without naming them

WhatsApp will now let you create small groups without first naming them. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in a Facebook post (viaTechCrunch). You previously had to choose your group’s name when setting it up.

TechCrunch reports that unnamed groups have a cap of six members instead of the named groups’ limit of 1,024 participants. In addition, WhatsApp will reportedly auto-generate placeholder names for unnamed groups based on their members. (For example, “Rocco & Li-Chen” for a chat between them in Zuckerberg’s sample image below.) Depending on how they’ve saved members’ contacts, the group name will also appear differently for each member.

Meta / Mark Zuckerberg

When joining an unnamed group that includes people who haven’t saved your contacts, it will reportedly display your phone number to the group. This suggests the feature is designed more for established friends, family or colleagues and less for strangers.

TechCrunch reports that the feature will roll out globally “over the next few weeks.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-lets-you-create-groups-without-naming-them-174420165.html?src=rss 

Apptronik’s Apollo is the latest humanoid robot to beat Tesla to market

Apptronik unveiled a new workforce robot today. Named Apollo, the machine is designed to “work in environments designed for, and directly alongside, humans.” The android is initially intended to move and carry cases and totes in logistics and manufacturing settings. But the Austin-based Apptronik sees Apollo expanding into “construction, oil and gas, electronics production, retail, home delivery, elder care” and more. Apollo follows Xiaomi’s reveal of the CyberOne robot last year, which looked remarkably similar to the still-unreleased Tesla Bot.

The 5-foot-8, 160-lb Apollo can lift up to 55 lbs. (Apptronik says it optimized efficiency by making its arms lighter than the weight they can lift.) It uses swappable batteries — running up to four hours per pack — which should provide more flexibility than robots that require wall charging before springing back into action. “In short, this battery-based approach means greater work output for Apollo and greater operational efficiency for customers,” Apptronik wrote in a press release today.

Apptronik

Apptronik views Apollo as a robot that can adapt to the job. The company says it built “modularity into Apollo’s design, empowering users to decide whether Apollo is best used for their applications as a true bi-pedal walking humanoid, a torso that operates on wheels or one mounted in a stationary location.” The robot has digital panels on its face and chest to provide a “friendly, human-like countenance” to make workers feel comfortable working alongside it (as it potentially moves towards automating their jobs).

Apptronik hasn’t announced public pricing for the robot. You can read more about Apollo on the company’s product page.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apptroniks-apollo-is-the-latest-humanoid-robot-to-beat-tesla-to-market-164246161.html?src=rss 

Nintendo Switch developers can now use Denuvo to curb piracy

Don’t tell anyone, but the Nintendo Switch emulation scene has been thriving pretty much since day one, due to an early hardware vulnerability. It’s relatively simple to pirate Switch titles and play them on PCs, portable consoles like the Steam Deck and even lower-powered Android phones. This is a problem for the big N, and it’s addressing it by partnering up with cybersecurity company Irdeto and its anti-tampering software suite Denuvo.

Denuvo is one of the more popular software suites to minimize tampering and associated emulation. This is a middleware that developers pay for and integrate into the actual game code, thus making it much harder to emulate on other devices. The tools are common with PC titles but, until now, were unavailable for Switch developers.

Though Denuvo is useful beyond the prevention of emulation, that seems to be the primary intent here, with Irdeto touting a new dev portal called the Nintendo Switch Emulation Protection program. The company calls it a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy.” It also notes that Switch piracy hurts PC sales as well, as the games pirated from Nintendo’s console are playable on PC, bypassing Steam, Epic and other official online retailers.

Now, this might be good news for Switch devs, but Denuvo has a spotty track record, despite boasting that it has protected more than 1,000 games from emulation. This is DRM software, plain and simple, so it’s known to slow down performance when installed, leading some publishers to actually remove the middleware post-launch. Additionally, there’s been some high-priority misfires with the software, with hackers cracking Middle-Earth: Shadow of War in less than a day, and that’s with Denuvo installed. It’s also known for being quite expensive, likely putting the software out of reach for smaller studios and development teams.

The Nintendo Switch is over six years old, with a successor expected in the nearish future. In other words, why did this take so long? Nobody knows. Like it or not, the developers portal goes live this week.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-switch-developers-can-now-use-denuvo-to-curb-piracy-170254484.html?src=rss 

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