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Meta will soon offer Stories and Reels in chronological order, among other changes, to comply with the European’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the company announced. The changes were expected after the European Commission announced that it had reached an agreement in April to create new rules that would require platforms like Facebook to offer alternative systems “not based on profiling” as a key requirement. 

Meta said it has mobilized over 1,000 people to “develop solutions to the DSA’s requirements.” Some of the changes will increase transparency about how its systems work and provide users more options to tailor their experiences on Facebook and Instagram. At the same time, it’s establishing an “independent compliance function” to ensure it meets ongoing regulatory obligations. 

Starting later this month, Meta will offer Reels, Stories, Search and other parts of Facebook and Instagram that are unranked by Meta using its AI recommendation process. “For example, on Facebook and Instagram, users will have the option to view Stories and Reels only from people they follow, ranked in chronological order, newest to oldest,” wrote Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg. 

It’s not clear how Meta will implement the change. The main Feed on Instagram already allows users to sort by Following instead of using the algorithm-based approach. However, the “Following” feature is effectively a secondary page on Instagram, and the app always defaults to the algorithmic “For You” option when first opened. Facebook is even more of a hassle, forcing you to select a menu, go into Feeds and tap “Friends” rather than “All.” 

Users will also be able to view Search results based only on the words they enter, rather than results personalized specifically to them based on their previous activity and personal interests. The company is also providing more information about how its AI systems rank content via 22 system cards for Facebook and Instagram, adding to its “Why Am I Seeing This” feature. 

“These cards provide information about how our AI systems rank content for Feed, Reels, Stories, and other surfaces; some of the predictions each system makes to determine what content might be most relevant to people; and the options available to help customize an experience on Facebook and Instagram,” Meta said.

Meta is also expanding its Ad library to display and archive all ads (for one year) that target EU users, including date run, parameters used for targeting (age, gender, location), who received the ad and more. It’s also rolling out two new tools for researchers that include publicly available content from Pages, Posts, Groups and Events. 

The company said that it “welcomes the principles of transparency, accountability and user empowerment at the heart of the DSA,” adding it has “long advocated for a harmonized regulatory regime.” However, Meta previously expressed extreme displeasure when Apple introduced changes that allowed users to easily opt out of targeted advertising starting with iOS 14. To that end, observers will no doubt be keenly interested in how the changes are implemented and whether they follow the letter, if not the spirit, of the new law.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facebook-and-instagram-will-offer-chronological-stories-and-reels-to-comply-with-eu-law-103612256.html?src=rss 

Microsoft is significantly restructuring its Activision Blizzard merger proposal by selling cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to rival Ubisoft, it wrote in a blog post late yesterday. That would address a key concern of UK regulators, which blocked the deal in part become of Microsoft’s potential dominance in cloud gaming — but nothing is likely to be approved until October 18th. 

“As a result of the agreement with Ubisoft, Microsoft believes its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard presents a substantially different transaction under UK law than the transaction Microsoft submitted for the CMA’s consideration in 2022,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote. 

If the merger goes through, Microsoft would transfer “cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment SA, a leading global game publisher. The rights will be in perpetuity,” Smith added. That means Microsoft wouldn’t be able to make Activision Blizzard games exclusive for Xbox Cloud Gaming, nor have any say on how they’re released on rival services. It will also allow Ubisoft to offer Activision Blizzard cloud gaming services on Apple and other non-Windows systems. 

As for the terms of the transaction, “Ubisoft will compensate Microsoft for the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzard’s games through a one-off payment and through a market-based wholesale pricing mechanism, including an option that supports pricing based on usage,” Smith said. 

In its own blog post, Ubisoft indicated that Activision Blizzard titles will be available across a range of services if the deal goes through. “With a single subscription to Ubisoft+ Multi Access, players will soon be able to play their favorite Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard games across multiple platforms including PC, Xbox consoles and Amazon Luna, and on the PlayStation platform through Ubisoft+ Classics,” wrote Ubisoft’s Daniel O’Connor.

The UK’s CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) blocked the proposed merger earlier this year citing cloud gaming monopoly concerns as the primary issue. However, after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lost its own appeal to block the merger, the CMA agreed to extend negotiations until August 29th. “Based upon the discussion to date, both sides — Microsoft and the CMA — have confidence that Microsoft notifying a restructured transaction is capable of addressing the concerns that the CMA has identified,” the CMA said in July. 

The UK regulator will now examine the restructured deal and deliver a decision by October 18th, it said in an article published today. “This is not a green light. We will carefully and objectively assess the details of the restructured deal and its impact on competition, including in light of third-party comments,” said CMS chief executive Sarah Cardell. “Our goal has not changed — any future decision on this new deal will ensure that the growing cloud gaming market continues to benefit from open and effective competition driving innovation and choice.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-will-sell-activision-blizzard-streaming-rights-to-ubisoft-in-attempt-to-win-uk-approval-075237079.html?src=rss 

Those who follow publications like Engadget on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will know that the articles they share on the platform appear with a text snippet, an image and a sometimes-truncated version of their headline. That may not be the case in the near future. According to Fortune, the company is planning to implement major changes to the way shared articles appear on a tweet (or a post, as it’s now called) by removing their text elements and leaving just their lead images with an overlay of the URL. In a post about the update, Elon Musk has confirmed that X is working on the new format and that the idea came from him directly.

That corroborates Fortune’s report, which says Musk is pushing for the new format. It also says that the change going to happen even though X ran it by advertisers who didn’t like it. The company’s main reason for removing the text in shared tweets is apparently to make posts look less compact and to fit more of them in the portion of the timeline that appears on screen. Musk also thinks it could help lessen instances of clickbait shared on the website. As the publication explains, X’s current format typically cuts part of the headline in shared articles, which works to the advantage of websites that write clickbait headlines and posts. 

It’s also very much possible that X is implementing this change to encourage not just news publications, but also individuals, to write meatier posts on the website itself. After all, they will have to add context to the URL they share in order to get readers to click through the lead image. Musk has been encouraging users to post long-form pieces directly on the platform and allows Blue subscribers to write as many as 25,000 characters in a single post. More recently, Musk tweeted that journalists who want “more freedom to write and a higher income” should publish directly on X. As 9to5Mac notes, though, X recently had some issues paying creators part of its ad revenue-sharing program, because the number of interested users far exceeded its expectations. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-plans-to-remove-news-headlines-and-text-in-shared-articles-063101122.html?src=rss