Google will face off in court Tuesday against government officials who have accused the company of antitrust violations in its massive search business, kicking off a long-anticipated legal showdown that could reshape one of the internet’s most dominant platforms.
The trial beginning this week in Washington before a federal judge marks the culmination of two ongoing lawsuits against Google that started during the Trump administration. Legal experts describe the actions as the country’s biggest monopolization case since the US government took on Microsoft in the 1990s.
In separate complaints, the Justice Department and dozens of states accused Google in 2020 of abusing its dominance in online search by allegedly harming competition through deals with wireless carriers and smartphone makers that made Google Search the default or exclusive option on products used by millions of consumers. The complaints eventually consolidated into a single case.
Google has maintained that it competes on the merits and that consumers prefer its tools because they are the best, not because it has moved to illegally restrict competition. Google’s search business provides more than half of the $283 billion in revenue and $76 billion in net income Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recorded in 2022. Search has fueled the company’s growth to a more than $1.7 trillion market capitalization.
Now, the company is set to defend itself in a multiweek trial that could upend the way Google distributes its search engine to users. The case is expected to feature testimony from high-profile witnesses including former employees of Google and Samsung, along with executives from Apple, including senior vice president Eddy Cue. It is the first case to go to trial in a series of court challenges targeting Google’s far-reaching economic power, testing the willingness of courts to clamp down on large tech platforms.
“This is a backwards-looking case at a time of unprecedented innovation,” said Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker, “including breakthroughs in AI, new apps and new services, all of which are creating more competition and more options for people than ever before. People don’t use Google because they have to — they use it because they want to. It’s easy to switch your default search engine — we’re long past the era of dial-up internet and CD-ROMs.”
The trial may also be a bellwether for the more assertive antitrust agenda of the Biden administration.
In its initial complaint, the US government alleged in part that Google pays billions of dollars a year to device manufacturers including Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung — and browser developers like Mozilla and Opera — to be their default search engine and in many cases to prohibit them from dealing with Google’s competitors.
As a result, the complaint alleges, “Google effectively owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for roughly 80 percent of the general search queries in the United States.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Google’s Android operating system deals with device makers are anticompetitive, because they require smartphone companies to pre-install other Google-owned apps, such as Gmail, Chrome or Maps.
At the time the lawsuit was first filed, US antitrust officials did not rule out the possibility of a Google breakup, warning that Google’s behavior could threaten future innovation or the rise of a Google successor.
Separately, a group of states, led by Colorado, made additional allegations against Google, claiming that the way Google structures its search results page harms competition by prioritizing the company’s own apps and services over web pages, links, reviews and content from other third-party sites.
But the judge overseeing the case, Judge Amit Mehta in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, tossed out those claims in a ruling last month, narrowing the scope of allegations Google must defend and saying the states had not done enough to show a trial was necessary to determine whether Google’s search results rankings were anticompetitive.
Despite that ruling, the trial represents the US government’s furthest progress in challenging Google to date. Mehta has said Google’s pole position among search engines on browsers and smartphones “is a hotly disputed issue” and that the trial will determine “whether, as a matter of actual market reality, Google’s position as the default search engine across multiple browsers is a form of exclusionary Conduct.”
In January, meanwhile, the Biden administration launched another antitrust suit against Google in opposition to the company’s advertising technology business, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly. That case remains in its early stages at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Elon Musk should be forced to testify in an expansive US government probe of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, the US government said.
The government said mass layoffs and other decisions Musk made raised questions about X’s ability to comply with the law and to protect users’ privacy.
The US government’s attempt to compel Musk’s testimony is the latest turn in an investigation that predates Musk’s acquisition of X that has intensified due to Musk’s own actions, according to a court filing by the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission.
The court filing dated Monday cites depositions with multiple former X executives, including its former chief information security officer and former chief privacy officer, who testified that a barrage of layoffs and resignations following Musk’s $44 billion takeover may have hindered X from meeting its security obligations under a 2011 FTC consent agreement.
Twitter and its outside attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to testimony cited in the filing, there were so few employees left after the departures that anywhere from 37% to 50% of the company’s security program lacked effective management and oversight, with no one available to take responsibility for those controls. Other planned upgrades to the company’s security program were “impaired,” the filing said, citing a deposition by the former chief information security officer, Lea Kissner.
In another example, Musk personally tried to rush the rollout of Twitter Blue, the company’s paid subscription service, the filing said. That forced the company’s security team to bypass the required security and privacy checks that were a part of Twitter’s own policies and that had been mandated in the FTC order, according to the testimony of Damien Kieran, the former chief privacy officer.
The filing also alleges that Musk’s move to grant several journalists access to internal company records — access that would culminate in the so-called Twitter Files claiming to show evidence of politically motivated censorship — initially involved a plan that could potentially have led to the exposure of private user data in violation of the FTC order.
According to the filing, Musk’s plan originally called for providing access through a dedicated company laptop with “elevated privileges beyond just what a[n] average employee might have.”
“Longtime information security employees intervened and implemented safeguards to mitigate the risks,” the filing said, but even then, the former employees testified, the process raised doubts about Musk’s commitment to privacy and security.
X has moved to block Musk from being forced to testify and has asked a federal court to invalidate the entire FTC order requiring it to safeguard user privacy, accusing the FTC of asking too many questions in its probe.
But in its filing, the US government said its interest in Musk’s testimony is well-justified based on the appearance of a “chaotic environment” at X driven by “sudden, radical changes at the company” following Musk’s acquisition.
“The FTC had every reason to seek information about whether these developments signaled a lapse in X Corp.’s compliance” with the 2011 order, the filing said. Confirmed violations of the FTC order could lead to billions of dollars in fines for X, as well as potential legal ramifications for individual executives such as Musk if they are deemed personally responsible for them.
The FTC investigation traces back to bombshell allegations — raised by Twitter’s former security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko and predating Musk’s acquisition — that for years Twitter has failed to live up to its legally binding commitments to the FTC to protect user privacy and security. Those allegations were first reported last year by CNN and The Washington Post.
The investigation has proven politically charged as Musk — and his allies including Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee — have responded to the probe by publicly accusing the FTC of harassment and overreach.
You’re about to see people in public tapping two fingers together in the air.
Over the past few days, I’ve been taking phone calls, playing music and scrolling through widgets on the new Apple Watch Series 9 without ever touching the device. I’ve used it to silence my watch’s alarm in the morning, stop timers and open a notification while carrying too many bags.
It may sound like a gimmick — and it most certainly feels strange to do it in public — but considering the small size of the Apple Watch screen, the tool offers an effective hands-free way to interact with the device.
Apple’s latest lineup of smartwatches, the Watch Series 9 and high-end Ultra 2, feature a new gesture tool called Double Tap, allowing users to tap their index finger and thumb together twice, to control the device. It can also scroll through widgets, much like turning the digital crown.
The feature isn’t entirely new; the previous generation of Apple Watch Ultra was capable of similar pinch-and-clench gestures via its Assistive Touch accessibility tool. But Apple’s decision to bring a feature like this to the forefront hints at an increasingly touch-free future. It also comes three months after the company unveiled the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, which will launch next year, with a similar finger tap control.
Double Tap works in combinationwith the latest Apple Watch accelerometer, gyroscope and optical heart rate sensor, which looks for disruptions in the blood flow when the fingers are pressed together. That data is processed by a new machine learning algorithm and runs on a faster neural engine, specialized hardware that handles AI and machine learning tasks.
While the concept is similar, gesture controls are different on the Vision Pro, which will track users’ eyes and hand movements. Apple told CNN it added gesture control to the headset because it needed a different, seamless interface for users to interact with, whereas Double Tap is more about simplifying the Apple Watch experience.
When the Apple Watch’s display is turned on, the device automatically knows to respond when it senses the fingers are touched together. It essentially works as a “yes” or “accept” button; that means if a call comes through, you can Double Tap to accept it (covering the watch with your full hand, however, will silence it quickly). If a song is playing, you can pause it by double tapping, and then again to start it.
Although you can subtly flick on the display and do the gesture close to your body, trying to conceal the movement when around other people, I found it works much better when it’s raised a bit higher. This, however, makes the action more obvious — and it’s something that will take a little getting used to seeing in person.
“This is also about social acceptance. At the moment, I find the idea of people making this gesture more often than not in public a bit funny. But time will tell if users find it acceptable,” said Annette Zimmerman, an analyst at Gartner Research. “I think Apple is very use-case driven and focuses on user feedback on things they could improve.”
Similarly, it took a while for people to get used to the design of Apple’s AirPods when they were announced in 2016; many criticized how they looked dangling out of users’ ears. Now they’ve become part of modern culture.
Other learning curves exist with the Double Tap feature. Because I am right handed and wear an Apple Watch on my left hand, tapping my left fingers together to trigger the control takes an extra second or two of mental coordination.
The future of hands-free devices
Apple isn’t the only tech company developing gesture controls like this. Samsung TVs, some smartphones and Microsoft’s mixed reality headset all incorporate some hand gesture functionality. But this is Apple’s biggest push to date, and adding it to a flagship device like the Apple Watch will soon put all eyes on the concept of hand gestures.
“It’s a great move by Apple as it differentiates the company from other brands when it comes to innovation and ease of usability. It also shows Apple’s commitment in the fields of artificial intelligence,” said Sachin Mehta, senior analyst at tech intelligence firm ABI Research. “The new double tap gesture is not a surprise as Apple keeps on developing a unified and intuitive user experience across its product line up. It will cement the Apple Watch as the smartwatch to have.”
It works differently on the Vision Pro, which will track a user’s eyes and hand movements to make punching and swiping controls. The headset needed a different user interface for users to interact with it, and gestures give that control even when aface is covered by the hardware.
Further showing how Apple is thinking about gesture control long term, it recently filed for patentsfocused on gesture controls, including for the Apple TV. That said, Mehta believes there’s no question “we expect more gesture features in Apple’s product lineup in the future.”
In addition to Double Tap, the Apple Watch Series 9 features Apple’s powerful new in-house silicon chip and ultrawideband connectivity. It will let users log health data with their voice, use “name drop” to share contact information by touching another Apple Watch and raise their wrist to automatically brighten the display. The Series 9 will come in colors such as pink, navy, red, gold, silver and graphite.
Apple also showed off the second iteration of its rugged Ultra smartwatch line, featuring the updated S9 custom chip and a new ultrawideband chip which uses radio waves to communicate. It also features more information on the display for more intensive tracking.
The Apple Watch Series 9 will start at $399 and the Ultra is priced at $799. Although they start shipping on Friday, September22, the Double Tap feature will launch via a software update next month.
Huawei has disappointed legions of fans — and US officials — eager to know more about its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which has quickly become a symbol of the tech rivalry between the United States and China since it went on sale last month.
Huawei’s consumer chief, Richard Yu, showed off a slew of new products including a tablet, smartwatch, earphones and even a challenge to Tesla (TSLA) on Monday, without going into detail about its flagship device, which has provoked calls in Washington for more sanctions against the Chinese tech and mobile giant.
The United States has spent years trying to hobble Huawei’s ability to access the most advanced semiconductors, and the unveiling of its 5G phone in August has taken Western observers by surprise.
The launch event became the most discussed topic on Chinese social network Weibo, racking up six billion views and 1.6 million posts. Meanwhile, a hashtag titled “#HuaweiConferenceWithoutMentioningMobilePhones,” trended on Weibo, with 24.5 million views.
“You’re telling me there will be no talk about the phone?” one user wrote on the social network.
Huawei quietly started selling the Mate 60 Pro in August, without a formal launch event or sharing full technical specifications.
Yu said onstage that the company was “working overtime” to urgently produce devices in the Mate 60 series “to allow more people to buy and use our products.”
But “today, we will not introduce” those devices, he added.
At one point, Huawei whetted viewers’ appetite by unveiling a new premium collection called Ultimate Design, introduced by Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau.
The line consists of a luxury smartphone and smartwatch. Few details were released, though the company said the watch was made using bars of real gold — giving it a hefty price tag of 21,999 Chinese yuan ($3,009).
Ben Sin, an independent tech reviewer, said he was “baffled” as to why Huawei did not discuss its smartphones.
The company “knows everyone wants to know more about the chip [in the Mate 60 Pro], so them not talking about it is almost like defiance,” he said.
Analysts who have examined the handset have said it includes a 5G chip, suggesting Huawei may have found a way to overcome American export controls.
Huawei, formerly the world’s second largest maker of smartphones, has been attempting a comeback in China’s smartphone market after being hit by US export restrictions, which were first imposed in 2019.
The company’s woes later forced it to sell off its budget mobile brand, Honor, leaving it in bad shape.
But it is starting to find its way back.
The firm’s smartphone sales grew in China by 58% in the second quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, according to Counterpoint Research. Its share of the Chinese market rose from 6.9% to 11.3% over that period.
Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint, said Huawei benefited from “its high brand exposure to” wealthy Chinese consumers. Because of this, Huawei’s market share in China is expected to further grow in 2024, he added.
Huawei’s new phone is a boon for the company and may even pose a challenge to Apple’s (AAPL) market share in China, Lam said.
The Shenzhen-based company has seen a recent “surge in sales” for its Mate 60 series, with weekly sales almost tripling to 225,000 units, according to Counterpoint.
Yu demonstrated a number of other new products, starting with the latest version of its MatePad Pro, describing it as the lightest and thinnest tablet of its kind in the world. He said the device had been 10 years in the making.
In addition, the company unveiled a new smart TV, wireless earphones and other gadgets.
Huawei also took an aggressive swipe at Tesla, saying it would release its first sedan, the Luxeed S7, in November. The car will surpass Tesla’s Model S “in every specification,” said Yu.
The company plans to release the Aito M9, an SUV, in December. Huawei has partnered with Chinese automakers to produce the two previously announced electric vehicles.
Yu also announced Huawei was “ready to launch” an updated operating system, HarmonyOS NEXT.
The system will include “native applications,” Yu said, without elaborating.
Speculation has mounted that Huawei may be building an operating system that won’t be compatible with any Android apps.
Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Taiwan is investigating whether four of its firms broke US sanctions or its own investment rules when they provided services to Chinese companies that are reportedly helping Huawei build chip factories.
Emile Chang, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official in charge of reviewing investments, told CNN Friday that an “administrative probe” had been initiated this week into four Taiwanese companies named in a media report.
The investigation will focus on whether their business activities in China were consistent with approvals they had been granted by the ministry, he said.
If any of them are found to have violated the rules, each company is subject to a maximum fine of 25 million New Taiwan dollars ($777,000).
The ministry will also look into whether the companies — Topco Scientific, United Integrated Services, L&K Engineering Co and Cica-Huntek Chemical Technology — violated any US sanctions, Chang added.
All four companies deny any wrongdoing. In separate statements, they said they were involved only in wastewater management, interior decoration or construction work approved by Taiwan, and did not provide semiconductor materials or equipment.
In recent years, Huawei has become a symbol of the tech rivalry between the United States and China. Washington and its allies in Europe and Asia have sought to curb its access to advanced chips and chipmaking technology due to fears that the telecoms company spies for the Chinese government.
Huawei has always denied the allegations. It has not responded to a CNN request for comment.
Formerly the world’s second largest maker of smartphones, the company has been attempting a comeback after being hit by US export restrictions, which were first imposed in 2019.
Many Taiwanese companies, including chip giant TSMC and Apple supplier Foxconn, operate in China and are closely integrated into its supply chains. However, the island’s government keeps a close eye on what its companies are doing and does not allow its most advanced technology to be produced there.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua was asked by a lawmaker about a Bloomberg report that the four companies had allegedly supplied services to help Huawei build infrastructure for a network of chip making plants in China.
Wang responded by saying the four companies had apparently provided Huawei with “wastewater and environmental protection equipment” for its factories, which she said was ostensibly different from the critical technologies the Taiwan government designated that could potentially impact national security.
For years, Taiwan’s companies have been treading a fine line between engaging China’s commercial opportunities and avoiding potential violations of export controls, particularly as Beijing has ramped up military pressure on the island.
Cross-strait relations are a key issue in Taiwan’s presidential election, which is due in January.
China remains Taiwan’s largest trading partner. But China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan, home to 24 million residents, as its territory — despite never having controlled it. It has long vowed to “reunify” Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.
As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the end of its first week, millions have turned to platforms including TikTok and Instagram in hopes of comprehending the brutal conflict in real time. Trending search terms on TikTok in recent days illustrate the hunger for frontline perspectives: From “graphic Israel footage” to “live stream in Israel right now,” internet users are seeking out raw, unfiltered accounts of a crisis they are desperate to understand.
For the most part, they are succeeding, discovering videos of tearful Israeli children wrestling with the permanence of death alongside images of dazed Gazans sitting in the rubble of their former homes. But that same demand for an intimate view of the war has created ample openings for disinformation peddlers, conspiracy theorists and propaganda artists — malign influences that regulators and researchers now warn pose a dangerous threat to public debates about the war.
One recent TikTok video, seen by more than 300,000 users and reviewed by CNN, promoted conspiracy theories about the origins of the Hamas attacks, including false claims that they were orchestrated by the media. Another, viewed more than 100,000 times, shows a clip from the video game “Arma 3” with the caption, “The war of Israel.” (Some users in the comments of that video noted they had seen the footage circulating before — when Russia invaded Ukraine.)
TikTok is hardly alone. One post on X, formerly Twitter, was viewed more than 20,000 times and flagged as misleading by London-based social media watchdog Reset for purporting to show Israelis staging civilian deaths for cameras. Another X post the group flagged, viewed 55,000 times, was an antisemitic meme featuring Pepe the Frog, a cartoon that has been appropriated by far-right white supremacists. On Instagram, a widely shared and viewed video of parachuters dropping in on a crowd and captioned “imagine attending a music festival when Hamas parachutes in” was debunked over the weekend and, in fact, showed unrelated parachute jumpers in Egypt. (Instagram later labeled the video as false.)
This week, European Union officials sent warnings to TikTok, Facebook and Instagram-parent Meta, YouTube and X, highlighting reports of misleading or illegal content about the war on their platforms and reminding the social media companies they could face billions of dollars in fines if an investigation later determines they violated EU content moderation laws. US and UK lawmakers have also called on those platforms to ensure they are enforcing their rules against hateful and illegal content.
Since the violence in Israel began, Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the social media watchdog group Center for Countering Digital Hate, told CNN his group has tracked a spike in efforts to pollute the information ecosystem surrounding the conflict.
“Getting information from social media is likely to lead to you being severely disinformed,” said Ahmed.
Everyone from US foreign adversaries to domestic extremists to internettrolls and “engagement farmers” has been exploiting the war on social media for their own personal or political gain, he added.
“Bad actors surrounding us have been manipulating, confusing and trying to create deception on social media platforms,” Dan Brahmy, CEO of the Israeli social media threat intelligence firm Cyabra, said Thursday in a video posted to LinkedIn. “If you are not sure of the trustworthiness [of content] … do not share,” he said.
‘Upticks in Islamophobic and antisemitic narratives’
Graham Brookie, senior director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, told CNN his team has witnessed a similar phenomenon. The trend includes a wave of first-party terrorist propaganda, content depicting graphic violence, misleading and outright false claims, and hate speech – particularly “upticks in specific and general Islamophobic and antisemitic narratives.”
Much of the most extreme content, he said, has been circulating on Telegram, the messaging app with few content moderation controls and a format that facilitates quick and efficient distribution of propaganda or graphic material to a large, dedicated audience. But in much the same way that TikTok videos are frequently copied and rebroadcast on other platforms, content shared on Telegram and other more fringe sites can easily find a pipeline onto mainstream social media or draw in curious users from major sites. (Telegram didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
Schools in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States this week urged parents to delete their children’s social media apps over concerns that Hamas will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days. Photos of dead or bloodied bodies, including those of children, have already spread across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X this week.
And tech watchdog group Campaign for Accountability on Thursday released a report identifying several accounts on X sharing apparent propaganda videos with Hamas iconography or linking to official Hamas websites. Earlier in the week, X faced criticism for videos unrelated to the war being presented as on-the-ground footage and for a post from owner Elon Musk directing users to follow accounts that previously shared misinformation (Musk’s post was later deleted, and the videos were labeled using X’s “community notes” feature.)
Some platforms are in a better position to combat these threats than others. Widespread layoffs across the tech industry, including at some social media companies’ ethics and safety teams, risk leaving the platforms less prepared at a critical moment, misinformation experts say. Much of the content related to the war is also spreading in Arabic and Hebrew, testing the platforms’ capacity to moderate non-English content, where enforcement has historically been less robust than in English-language content.
“Of course, platforms have improved over the years. Communication & info sharing mechanisms exist that did not in years past. But they have also never been tested like this,” Brian Fishman, the co-founder of trust and safety platform Cinder who formerly led Facebook’s counterterrorism efforts, said Wednesday in a post on Threads. “Platforms that kept strong teams in place will be pushed to the limit; platforms that did not will be pushed past it.”
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, said in a letter Wednesday to the European Commission that the platform has “identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-related accounts” and is working with several third-party groups to prevent terrorist content from spreading. “We’ve diligently taken proactive actions to remove content that violates our policies, including: violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media,” she said. The European Commission on Thursday formally opened an investigation into X following its earlier warning about disinformation and illegal content linked to the war.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that since Hamas’ initial attacks, the company has established “a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation. Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”
YouTube, for its part, says its teams have removed thousands of videos since the attack began, and continues to monitor for hate speech, extremism, graphic imagery and other content that violates its policies. The platform is also surfacing almost entirely videos from mainstream news organizations in searches related to the war.
Snapchat told CNN that its misinformation team is closely watching content coming out of the region, making sure it is within the platform’s community guidelines, which prohibits misinformation, hate speech, terrorism, graphic violence and extremism.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Large tech platforms are now subject to content-related regulation under a new EU law called the Digital Services Act, which requires them to prevent the spread of mis- and disinformation, address rabbit holes of algorithmically recommended content and avoid possible harms to user mental health. But in such a contentious moment, platforms that take too heavy a hand in moderation could risk backlash and accusations of bias from users.
Platforms’ algorithms and business models — which generally rely on the promotion of content most likely to garner significant engagement — can aid bad actors who design content to capitalize on that structure, Ahmed said. Other product choices, such as X’s moves to allow any user to pay for a subscription for a blue “verification” checkmark that grants an algorithmic boost to post visibility, and to remove the headlines from links to news articles, can further manipulate how users perceive a news event.
“It’s time to break the emergency glass,” Ahmed said, calling on platforms to “switch off the engagement-driven algorithms.” He added: “Disinformation factories are going to cause geopolitical instability and put Jews and Muslims at harm in the coming weeks.”
Even as social media companies work to hide the absolute worst content from their users — whether out of a commitment to regulation, advertisers’ brand safety concerns, or their own editorial judgments — users’ continued appetite for gritty, close-up dispatches from Israelis and Palestinians on the ground is forcing platforms to walk a fine line.
“Platforms are caught in this demand dynamic where users want the latest and the most granular, or the most ‘real’ content or information about events, including terrorist attacks,” Brookie said.
The dynamic simultaneously highlights the business models of social media and the role the companies play in carefully calibrating their users’ experiences. The very algorithms that are widely criticized elsewhere for serving up the most outrageous, polarizing and inflammatory content are now the same ones that, in this situation, appear to be giving users exactly what they want.
But closeness to a situation is not the same thing as authenticity or objectivity, Ahmed and Brookie said, and the wave of misinformation flooding social media right now underscores the dangers of conflating them.
Despite giving the impression of reality and truthfulness, Brookie said, individual stories and combat footage conveyed through social media often lack the broader perspective and context that journalists, research organizations and even social media moderation teams apply to a situation to help achieve a fuller understanding of it.
“It’s my opinion that users can interact with the world as it is — and understand the latest, most accurate information from any given event — without having to wade through, on an individual basis, all of the worst possible content about that event,” Brookie said.
Potentially exacerbating the messy information ecosystem is a culture on social media platforms that often encourages users to bear witness to and share information about the crisis as a way of signaling their personal stance, whether or not they are deeply informed. That can lead even well-intentioned users to unwittingly share misleading information or highly emotional content created with the intention of collecting views or monetizing highly engaging content.
“Be very cautious about sharing in the middle of a major world event,” Ahmed said. “There are people trying to get you to share bullsh*t, lies, which are designed to inculcate you to hate or to misinform you. And so sharing stuff that you’re not sure about is not helping people, it’s actually really harming them and it contributes to an overall sense that no one can trust what they’re seeing.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino, leader of the platform formerly known as Twitter, said the company is keeping an eye on new competitor Threads, despite the sharply slowing growth of the rival app from Meta.
“Threads did jump in with a ton of hype and a launch pad from their Instagram users … [but] it’s dropped off dramatically,” Yaccarino told CNBC Thursday in her first interview as CEO of the company now called X.
“But you can never, ever take your eye off any competition because they’ll continue iterating and as much as the launch has stalled, we’re keeping an eye on everything that they’re doing.”
Still, Yaccarino said X remains largely focused on its own future as the company chases profitability, and that Threads may be looking at its past.
“What we can see is that [Threads] may be building to what Twitter was — enter rebrand, enter X — and we’re focused on what X will be, and it’s an entirely different roadmap and vision,” she said.
Staving off competition from Meta’s Threads and other rival platforms is just one of the things Yaccarino is now tasked with after taking over from owner Elon Musk as X’s CEO in June. In just her first two months, the company underwent a massive rebrand from Twitter to X in hopes of transforming into an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat, and has continued to warn of challenges reviving its core advertising business. Musk, who is now the company’s chief technology officer, has also been preparing for a cage fight with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Yaccarino joined the company after months of turmoil caused by Musk’s takeover, including mass layoffs, controversial policy decisions and various legal battles.
But on Thursday, she doubled down on the company’s vision and explained why it retired its highly recognized brand name.
“The rebrand really represented a liberation from Twitter, a liberation that allows us to evolve past a legacy mindset and to reimagine how everyone … around the world is going to change how we congregate, how we transact, all in one place,” Yaccarino said, adding that users would soon be able to make video calls and payments through the platform.
“It’s developing into this global town square that is fueled by free expression, where the public gathers in real time,” she said.
Yaccarino said that the company is returning to growth mode after months of slashing costs through ongoing layoffs, infrastructure and office space reductions and, in some cases, allegedly holding back on paying its bills and employee severance. Twitter’s staff has shrunk from nearly 8,000 employees to just around 1,500 workers since Musk’s takeover, Yaccarino said.
“Are we hiring? Yes,” Yaccarino said. “I get to come in and shift from this cost discipline to growth … the future is bright.”
Threatening to stand in the way of that evolution are the company’s very real business challenges. Musk last month disclosed in a post that, due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue and a “heavy debt load,” the platform is still losing money. After Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the company’s value now stands around $15 billion, according to a May disclosure from a Fidelity fund.
Yaccarino, a former marketing executive with NBCUniversal, was brought on to Twitter in part to help revive its advertising business. And she said on Thursday that the company is “close to breakeven.”
“Coca Cola, Visa, State Farm is a huge partner, they’re coming back — the last bunch of weeks, continued revenue growth,” Yaccarino said.
But maintaining the ad business has been an uphill battle for the site since Musk’s takeover. Hordes of advertisers halted spending on the platform over concerns about content moderation, mass layoffs and general uncertainty about the company’s future. Musk has also defended his own controversial tweets, telling CNBC in May, “I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
Yaccarino pointed to the company’s “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach” policy that aims to limit the reach of so-called lawful but awful content on the platform and to protect brands from having their ads appear alongside such content. X on Tuesday rolled out additional brand safety controls for advertisers, including the ability to avoid having their ads show next to “targeted hate speech, sexual content, gratuitous gore, excessive profanity, obscenity, spam, drugs.”
“I wrap my security blanket around you, my brand and my CMO, and say your ads will only air next to content that is appropriate for you,” Yaccarino said Thursday.
Microsoft has made a major concession to UK authorities in a bid to remove the last remaining regulatory obstacle to its huge takeover of Activision Blizzard.
The companies have submitted a new proposal to the UK antitrust watchdog — the only regulator worldwide standing in the way of the $69 billion deal — that would see Activision’s (ATVI) cloud streaming rightsoutside the European Union and three other European countries sold to a rival, Ubisoft Entertainment. Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post Tuesday that the companies believe the new proposal “presents a substantially different transaction” for the CMA to consider than its previous merger agreement.
“We believe that this development is positive for players, the progression of the cloud game streaming market, and for the growth of our industry,” Smith said.
CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator would now consider the new proposal.
“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.”
Under the restructured deal, Ubisoft — a French video game developer — will be able to license out Activision’s content to any cloud gaming provider outside the European Economic Area, including in the United Kingdom. Shares in Ubisoft jumped 7%in Paris Tuesday.
“This will allow gamers to access Activision’s games in different ways, including through cloud-based multigame subscription services,” Cardell said.
Microsoft and Activision agreed last month to extend their merger deadline by three months to October 18, to allow more time to come to an agreement with the CMA. October 18 is now also the statutory deadline for a CMA decision on the new merger proposal, and Microsoft said it expects the agency’s review process to be completed ahead of that date.
Microsoft (MSFT) announced the planned acquisition of Activision early last year. The transaction was valued at $69 billion at the time, making it one of the tech industry’s largest deals.
Activision Blizzard is one of the world’s biggest video game developers, producing games such as “Candy Crush,” “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and “Overwatch.”
In an effort to help prevent the spread of misinformation, Google on Tuesday unveiled an invisible, permanent watermark on images that will identify them as computer-generated.
The technology, called SynthID, embeds the watermark directly into images created by Imagen, one of Google’s latest text-to-image generators. The AI-generated label remains regardless of modifications like added filters or altered colors.
The SynthID tool can also scan incoming images and identify the likelihood they were made by Imagen by scanning for the watermark with three levels of certainty: detected, not detected and possibly detected.
“While this technology isn’t perfect, our internal testing shows that it’s accurate against many common image manipulations,” wrote Google in a blog post Tuesday.
A beta version of SynthID is now available to some customers of Vertex AI, Google’s generative-AI platform for developers. The company says SynthID, created by Google’s DeepMind unit in partnership with Google Cloud, will continue to evolve and may expand into other Google products or third parties.
Deepfakes and altered photographs
As deepfake and edited images and videos become increasingly realistic, tech companies are scrambling to find a reliable way to identify and flag manipulated content. In recent months, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket went viral and AI-generated images of former President Donald Trump getting arrested were widely shared before he was indicted.
Vera Jourova, vice president of the European Commission, called for signatories of the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation – a list that includes Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok – to “put in place technology to recognize such content and clearly label this to users” in June.
With the announcement of SynthID, Google joins a growing number of startups and Big Tech companies that are trying to find solutions. Some of these companies bear names like Truepic and Reality Defender, which speak to the potential stakes of the effort: protecting our very sense of what’s real and what’s not.
The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), an Adobe-backed consortium, has been the leader in digital watermark efforts, while Google has largely taken its own approach.
In May, Google announced a tool called About this image, offering users the ability to see when images found on its site were originally indexed by Google, where images might have first appeared and where else they can be found online.
The tech company also announced that every AI-generated image created by Google will carry a markup in the original file to “give context” if the image is found on another website or platform.
But as AI technology develops faster than humans can keep up, it’s unclear whether these technical solutions will be able to fully address the problem. OpenAI, the company behind Dall-E and ChatGPT, admitted earlier this year that its own effort to help detect AI-generated writing, rather than images, is “imperfect,” and warned it should be “taken with a grain of salt.”
Apple plans to update iPhone12software for users in France after the country’s regulators ordered a pause on sales of the 2020 model over radiation concerns.
“We will issue a software update for users in France to accommodate the protocol used by French regulators. We look forward to iPhone 12 continuing to be available in France,” an Apple (AAPL) spokesperson told CNN Friday.
France’s National Frequency Agency, the ANFR, ordered Tuesday an immediate withdrawal of the iPhone 12 from the French market, saying it exceeded European radiation exposure limits. The ANFR also ruled that for iPhone 12s already in use, Apple must adopt “all necessary corrective measures to bring the telephones into conformity as soon as possible” or it would have to recall the devices.
Apple told CNN Friday that the suspension of saleswas related “to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and not a safety concern.”
“Since it was introduced in 2020, iPhone 12 has been certified and recognized as meeting or exceeding all applicable SAR regulations and standards around the world,” Apple said.
SAR is a measure of the rate of energy absorption by the body from the source being measured, according to the French regulator. But experts and regulators generally say not to worry.
“After discussions and as requested by the ANFR, Apple has assured me that it will be rolling out an update for the iPhone 12 in the next few days,” France’s minister for the digital economy Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.
The French regulator is preparing to rapidly test this update, “which will eventually bring the model in line with the European standards applied in France” and subsequently allow Apple to resume sales, he added.
The sales suspension came on the same day Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro, its newest iterations of the iconic product, at its annual keynote event in California.
Apple’s iPhone 15 lineup hit stores Friday as people waited in long lines across China, Europe and the US to be among the first to get their hands on one of the company’s next-generation smartphones.
Leading up to launch day, analysts at firms such as Wedbush Securities have reported iPhone 15 pre-orders tracking much stronger than originally expected, with a heavy demand on its premium iPhone 15 Pro offerings, especially the Pro Max. Delivery and shipment times have moved to late October through mid-November for various Pro models.
The new iPhones come as Apple’s sales fell for the third consecutive quarter last month. iPhone revenue came in at $39.7 billion for the quarter, marking an approximately 2% year-over-year decline, as people update their devices less often.
According to Wedbush estimates, about 250 million iPhones have not been upgraded in more than four years. Advancements made to the processor and camera system, along with discounts from mobile carriers, could be more than enough reason for people to finally upgrade this year.
The iPhone 15 Pro starts at $1,099, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199. Apple’s entry level iPhones, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, cost $799 and $899, respectively.
Here’s a closer look at what’s new:
The latest iPhones are packed with subtle but significant design changes. To start, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max now feature a titanium casing, allowing the design to be slimmer and thinner than before.
Other design changes on the premium models include a more-advanced 48 megapixel main camera with a larger sensor and a new telephoto lens for 5x optical zoom camera, exclusively on iPhone 15 Pro Max. The new Pro models’ design also features contoured edges and a customizable Action button, which gives the ring/silence button additional controls, from starting a voice memo to writing a note. The Pro line comes in four colors: white, black, natural and blue.
Meanwhile, the basic iPhone 15 phones now include updated image stabilization for taking photos and videos, 2x optimization and updated portraits with richer color and better low-light performance. They will also come with the “Dynamic Island” tool — home to alerts, notifications and other controls, in place of the notch — which were previously only available on the iPhone 14 Pro.
The iPhone 15 lineup also includes an Ultra-Wideband chip to power a handful of new features, including one that makes it easier to find friends who share their location in crowded areas.
The iPhone 15 comes in 5 colors (white, black, pink, green and yellow) and in two sizes: A 6.1-inch screen for the iPhone 15 and 6.7 inches for iPhone 15 Pro.
Perhaps the biggest change coming to the iPhone 15 models is that they will now use a USB-C charging cord, ending an 11-year run with Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging cable.
Now Apple customers can use the same USB-C chargers to power their iPhones, iPads and Mac computers — no more scrambling to find the right charger for each device. Apple said a dedicated USB-C controller will allow for transfer speeds of up to 20 times faster than with USB-2 technology for the iPhone 15 Pro.
The switch comes less than a year after the European Union voted to approve legislation to require smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, portable speakers and other small devices to support USB-C charging by 2024. The first-of-its-kind law aims to pare down the number of chargers and cables consumers must contend with when they purchase a new device, and to allow users to mix and match devices and chargers even if they were produced by different manufacturers.
Apple is also selling a $29 USB-C Lightning adapter to let people connect their existing Lightning accessories to a USB-C-enabled iPhone or iPad to charge or share data.
The company told CNN that iPhone users can recycle their old Lightning chargers via its in-store recycling program.
Netflix will send out its last red envelope on Friday, marking an end to 25 years of mailing DVDs to members.
The company announced earlier this year it is shutting down its DVD-by-mail service, 16 years after it gradually shifted its focus to streaming content online. Netflix will continue to accept returns of customers’ remaining DVDs until October 27.
Introduced in 1998 when Netflix first launched, the DVD service promised an easier rental experience than having to drive to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. The red envelopes, which have long been synonymous with Netflix itself, littered homes and dorm rooms across the country.
Although the idea of receiving a DVD in the mail now may sound almost as outdated as dial-up internet, some longtime customers told CNN they continued to find value in the DVD option.
Colin McEvoy, a father of two from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a self-described film fanatic, said he rushed through 40 movies in the last few weeks to get through the remainder of his queue before the service ends. McEvoyhas remained faithful to Netflix’s DVD service so he can keep watching Bollywood and obscure independent films not often found on streaming services.
“I was basically watching them as soon as I got them, and then returning the discs as quickly as possible to get as many as I could,” said McEvoy, who has been using Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service since 2001, just three years after it launched.
“I remember I was in high school when I first signed up for it, and the concept was so novel I had to really convince my dad that it was a legit service and not some sort of Internet scam,” said McEvoy, who uses an old Xbox360to play his Netflix DVDs. “Now I have friends who’ve seen my red Netflix envelopes arrive in the mail, and either didn’t remember what they were or couldn’t believe that I still got the DVDs in the mail.”
Some other Netflix users stood by its DVD service not only for the selection but for added perks. Brandon Cordy, a 41-year-old graphic designer from Atlanta, previously told CNN he stuck with DVDs because many digital rentals don’t come with special features or audio commentaries.
There are other factors, too. Michael Inouye, an analyst at ABI Research, said some consumers may still not have access to reliable or fast enough broadband connections, or simply prefer physical media to digital, much in the way that some audio enthusiasts still purchase and collect CDs and records.
For Netflix, however, the offering has made less sense in recent years.“Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the DVD business continues to shrink, that’s going to become increasingly difficult,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post in April.
Shutting down its DVD business could help Netflix better focus resources as it expands into new markets such as gaming as well as live and interactive content. Its DVD business has also declined significantly in recent years. In 2021, Netflix’s non-streaming revenue – mostly attributable to DVDs – amounted to 0.6% of its revenue, or just over $182 million.
The cost to operate its DVD business may also be a factor, especially as Netflix rethinks expenses broadly amid heightened streaming competition and broader economic uncertainty. “Moving plastic discs around costs far more money than streaming digital bits,” said Eric Schmitt,senior director analyst at Gartner Research. “Removing and replacing damaged and lost inventory are also cost considerations.”
Even before Netflix announced the news, some longtime subscribers said they could see the writing on the wall.
“The inventory of available titles, while still vast, had been contracting some over the years with some movies that were once available no longer being so,” Cordy said. “Turnaround times to get a new movie or movies also started to take longer, so I knew it was only a matter of time. But I didn’t want it to end if I could help it.”
Other DVD subscribers were hoping for a happy ending. Bill Rouhana, the CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment – which owns DVD rental service Redbox – told The Hollywood Reporter in April he hoped to purchase Netflix’s DVD business. “I’d like to buy it… I wish Netflix would sell me that business instead of shutting it down,” he said. Redbox remains popular despite the shift in streaming, but took a hit during the pandemic because of the lack of new movies and TV shows to fill the boxes.
A Netflix spokesperson told CNN it has no plans to sell the DVD business and will be recycling the majority of its DVDs through third-party companies that specialize in recycling digital and electronic media. It will also donate some of its inventory to organizations focused on film and media.
Netflix is also offering subscribers a “finale surprise” where they could opt-in to receive up to 10 DVDs selected at random from their queue.
McEvoy, who already subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, the Criterion channel and Mubi, said he’s now testing out other services such as Eros (Indian cinema) and Viki (Korean and Chinese films) for harder-to-find content. Still, he said, he’s “sad” to see Netflix’s DVD service depart.
“I absolutely would not have been able to find all of those movies [I’ve watched] if not for the Netflix DVD service,” he said.
If you hear a screeching alert go off on your cell phone – and everyone else’s cell phone – this Wednesday at 2:20 pm ET, don’t panic.
The federal government said it will conduct on Wednesday afternoon a nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The EAS portion of the test will send an emergency alert to all radios and televisions, while the WEA portion of the test will direct alerts to all consumer cell phones.
“The purpose of the Oct. 4 test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is conducting the test in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission, said in a statement.
Here’s what to know.
Beginning at approximately 2:20 pm ET this Wednesday, all wireless phones should receive an alert and an accompanying text message that reads: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
The free text message will be sent in either English or Spanish, depending on the language settings of your device. The text will be accompanied by a unique tone and vibration that is meant to make the alert accessible to the entire public, including people with disabilities, FEMA said.
The test will be broadcast by cell towers for approximately 30 minutes beginning at 2:20 pm ET, FEMA said. During this time, all compatible wireless phones that are switched on, within range of an active cell tower, and whose wireless providers participates in WEA tests should receive the text message.
Meanwhile, all radios and televisions will also broadcast a test emergency alert at the same time as part of the broader test. This message, which will run for approximately one minute, will state: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”
As the agency has said, no action is required by you after you receive the emergency alert test on your phone or hear it through the radio or TV.
Wednesday’s test is set to be the seventh-ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System – the alerts that are sent through radio and television broadcasters. It is the third nationwide test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts, but only the second to be sent to consumer cellular devices.
There have indeed been multiple high-profilemistakes, attributed to errors at the state-level, associated with mobile emergency alert systems that hit cell phones.
Perhaps the most infamous incident was a 2018 misfire in Hawaii that set off a wave of short-lived panic across the state. On the morning of January 13, 2018, a Hawaii state emergency management worker accidentally pushed the wrong button in the emergency operation center, sending out a false warning alerting of an incoming ballistic missile threat. The employee who pushed the wrong button was ultimately fired, state officials said.
And earlier this year in Florida, state emergency management officials issued an apology after Floridians were awoken at 4:45 a.m. by a test emergency alert sent to their phones. State officials said the test alert was meant to run only on TV and not meant to disturb anyone who was sleeping. Florida also said it was ending its contract with the software company blamed for shooting off the pre-dawn test alert to cell phones.
Last year, a FEMA official told CNN that vulnerabilities in software that TV and radio networks around the country use to transmit emergency alerts could potentially allow a hacker to broadcast fake messages over the alert system. The agency at the time urged operators of these devices to update their software to address the issue. The advisory did not say, however, that alerts sent over text messages could be impacted. The official also said at the time that there is no evidence that malicious hackers have actually exploited the vulnerabilities.
Schools in Israel, the UK and the US are advising parents to delete their children’s social media apps over concerns that Hamas militants will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days.
A Tel Aviv school’s parent’s association said it expects videos of hostages “begging for their lives” to surface on social media. In a message to parents, shared with CNN by a mother of children at a high school in Tel Aviv, the association asked parents to remove apps such as TikTok from their children’s phones.
“We cannot allow our kids to watch this stuff. It is also difficult, furthermore – impossible – to contain all this content on social media,” according to the parent’s association. “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
Hamas has warned that it will post murders of hostages on social media if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning.
There are additional concerns that terrorists will exploit social media algorithms to specifically target such videos to followers of Jewish or Israeli influencers in an effort to wage psychological warfare on Israelis and Jews and their supporters globally.
During the onslaught on Saturday, armed Hamas militants poured over the heavily-fortified border into Israel and took as many as 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back to Gaza. The surprise attacks killed at least 1,200 people, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and injured thousands more.
Since Israel began airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave Saturday, at least 1,055 people have been killed in Gaza, including hundreds of children, women, and entire families, according to the Palestinian health ministry. It said a further 5,184 have been injured, as of Wednesday.
As the war wages on, some Jewish schools in the US are also asking parents not to share related videos or photos that may surface, and to prevent children – and themselves – from watching them. The schools are also advising community members to delete their social media apps during this time.
“Together with other Jewish day schools, we are warning parents to disable social media apps such as Instagram, X, and Tiktok from their children’s phones,” the head of a school in New Jersey wrote in an email. “Graphic and often misleading information is flowing freely, augmenting the fears of our students. … Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children on a daily basis about what they are seeing, even if they have deleted the most unfiltered apps from their phones.”
Another school in the UK said it asked students to delete their social media apps during a safety assembly.
TikTok, Instagram and X – formerly known as Twitter – did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how they are combating the increase of videos being posted online and for comment on schools asking parents to delete these apps.
But X said on its platform is has experienced an increase in daily active users in the conflict area and its escalation teams have “actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct.” It did not respond to a request to comment further or define “actioned.”
“We’re also continuing to proactively monitor for antisemitic speech as part of all our efforts,” X’s safety team said. “Plus we’ve taken action to remove several hundred accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics.”
The company added it remains “laser focused” on enforcing the site’s rules and reminded users they can limit sensitive media they may encounter by visiting the “Content you see” option in Settings.
Still, misinformation continues to run rampant on social media platforms, including X.
A post viewed more than 500,000 times – featuring the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack – claimed to show an airplane being shot down. But the clip was from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.
Another video that is purported to show Israeli generals after being captured by Hamas fighters was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video, however, instead shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday, the European Union warned Elon Musk of “penalties” for disinformation circulating on X amid Israel-Hamas war.
The EU also informed Meta CEO Zuckerberg on Wednesday of a disinformation surge on its platforms – which include Facebook – and demanded the company respond in 24 hours with how it plans to combat the issue.
In an Instagram story on Tuesday, Zuckerberg called the attack “pure evil” and said his focus “remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”
The European Union has told Meta it has a week to explain in greater detail how it is fighting the spread of illegal content and disinformation on its Facebook and Instagram platforms following the attacks across Israel by Hamas.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it had sent the formal request for information to Meta (META) Thursday.
The commission also asked TikTok for more information on the steps it had taken to prevent the spread of “terrorist and violent content and hate speech,” it said, but without referring to the Israel-Hamas war.
Last week, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to several social media companies, including Meta and TikTok, giving them 24 hours to detail the measures they were taking to comply with EU rules on content moderation enshrined in the recently enacted Digital Services Act (DSA).
On Friday, Meta said its teams had been working “around the clock” since the attacks by Hamas on October 7 to monitor its platforms and outlined some of its actions against misinformation and content that violates its policies and standards.
And on Sunday, TikTok announced that it had, among other measures, launched a command center to coordinate the work of its “safety professionals” around the world and improve the software it uses to automatically detect and remove graphic and violent content.
But the European Commission has made it clear it needs more information. In its Thursday announcement, the body gave both Meta and TikTok until October 25 to respond to its requests and warned that it had the power to impose financial penalties if it was not satisfied with their responses.
Both companies also have until November 8 to detail how they intend to protect the “integrity of elections” on their platforms, the commission said.
Both Meta and TikTok are bound by obligations set out in the DSA, a landmark piece of legislation, enacted in August, that seeks to more stringently regulate large tech companies, and protect people’s rights online.
The commission’s formal requests come a week after it issued a similar ultimatum to X, the company formerly known as Twitter, asking for information on how it intends to stop the spread of illegal, misleading, violent and hateful content.
The commission said it had opened an investigation into X’s compliance with the DSA. It has not announced parallel investigations into Meta or TikTok.
Get your thumb ready for next month. Apple
(AAPL) is making a subtle change to the iPhone’s software that will likely mess with your muscle memory: The big red “end call” button is moving.
The iPhone’s phone app will get a series of updates coming to iOS 17, including an updated design that repositions the hang up button to the bottom right of the screen, next to other functions. The button currently sits separately at the bottom middle of the phone app, underneath the buttons to mute, access the keypad or add a call.
The new call screen, which is already available for download in a beta version for developers, sparked some strong reactions among iOS users on social media: “iOS 17 has the FaceTime button where the end call button used to be,” tweeted one user. “Muscle memory be damned.”
The change is likely to streamline the look of the phone app and put all functions in one place. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
At its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in May, the company showed off a slew of new tools coming to iOS 17 that make calling and messaging others more personalized and customized. iPhone users, for example, will be able to design contact “posters,” a custom image to appear when they call someone or receive their call.
Meanwhile, a new feature called Live Voicemail will transcribe a caller’s message in real time, so users can decide whether to ignore or take the call, and a tool called NameDrop will let users share their contact information by holding two iPhones close together. In addition, FaceTime will support the ability to leave video messages when someone isn’t available to chat.
Other changes coming to iOS 17 include a more accurate autocorrect, improved dictation in iMessage, and a more responsive Siri. Apple typically launches its latest mobile operating system in September, following its annual iPhone event.
More than 20 million US households are now receiving discounts on internet service as part of a federal program created to close the digital divide, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The milestone highlights the cost of reliable internet service for low-income families, an issue that the government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) seeks to address by providing $30-a-month subsidies to eligible US households. Recipients living on tribal lands can receive even more, up to $75 per month to help cover internet access costs.
US residents can can qualify for the program if they meet certain eligibility requirements, such as participating in other government assistance programs including SNAP or Medicaid, if their income is below a certain level or if they have recently received federal Pell grants.
The FCC announcement comes nearly two years after the bipartisan infrastructure law first set up the program, replacing an earlier pandemic-era aid initiative. And Americans have signed up for the program at a rapid pace.
In early 2022, just months after the infrastructure bill became law, the FCC said more than 10 million households had signed up for the ACP.
Then, this February, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the figure had grown to more than 16 million households saving a total of $500 million a month on internet service.
The program has continued to gain more than half a million new households a month since then.
“For a long time, closing the digital divide focused on one part of the equation—the lack of physical infrastructure to get online,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “But we know that for many people, even when there was technically access, the cost to get online was too high.”
Despite the program’s bipartisan popularity and its rapid uptake by consumers, the new enrollment figures still only represent about 40% of the estimated 50 million households in the United States that may be eligible for assistance through the ACP, according to research by the consumer advocacy group Common Sense Media.
And the ACP’s future is uncertain: Once the program runs out of the $14 billion that Congress initially allocated for it, millions of low-income Americans could lose their monthly discounts. The more households that sign up, the faster the program will exhaust its funding. Policy analysts widely anticipate the ACP running out of money in 2024, setting up pressure on Congress to extend the program.
The ACP isn’t the only way the US government has recently moved to expand internet access. Billions of dollars in infrastructure funding are set to flow to states in the coming months as part of a separate initiative to encourage broadband buildouts. All US states and territories have been awarded at least some funding under the program overseen by the Commerce Department known as the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The iPhone redefined the term “cell phone.” Apple’s trademark product revolutionized the mobile phone industry, shifting from flip phones and keyboards to large screens and powerful cameras.
With 1.2 billion units reportedly sold, the iPhone is arguably the most popular tech device in the world.
With Apple set to unveil the iPhone 15 on Tuesday — chock full of rumored new features like a USB-C charging port, new colors and better battery performance — here is a look back at every iPhone to hit stores.
Apple releases the original iPhone, a much-anticipated device that combines an iPod, phone and what then-company chairman Steve Jobs calls an “internet communicator.”
“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years,” Jobs told the crowd when unveiling the new $399 product, a 16 GB phone with a relatively terrible 2.0 megapixel camera and relatively large 3.5” screen.
With the second version of the iPhone, Apple introduces the App Store and 3G connectivity. The new device, half the cost of the original iPhone, sold more than 3 million within a month, far outpacing its predecessor and expectations.
The 3GS introduces capabilities to record videos, as well as basic voice control (though Siri is still years away). The first “S” update to the iPhone also doubles the storage system, offering users an upgraded 32GB.
A completely redesigned device hits the shelves: thinner and sleeker with a better battery, camera and screen, the iPhone 4 starts to resemble the phone many of us use today. And with the addition of a front-facing camera, selfies and FaceTime calls enter into the chat.
“I grew up with the Jetsons dreaming about video phones,” said Jobs at the announcement. “It’s real now.”
Apple introduces the world to Siri, its now-iconic voice assistant, and the iMessage feature that allows iPhone users to message each other freely. Users are also given iCloud, making it possible to automatically sync all Apple devices.
With the iPhone 5 comes the Lightning cable, a shift away from the larger charging port used in Apple’s original iPhones and iPods. The 5 also gets a larger screen and LTE connectivity, making the phone much faster than its predecessors.
The 5S added the Touch ID feature, Apple’s first foray into biometric data usage as a replacement for passwords. Apple iPhone fans are also offered gold versions for the first time.
In a flash of colorful plastic glory, the iPhone 5C hits the markets as a low-cost alternative to the 5S. Available in green, blue, pink, yellow and white, the 5C is shortlived. Apple discontinues the product a couple of years later.
2014: iPhone 6/6Plus, bigger and bendier
The first Plus option comes out, offering a much taller, thinner phone – but also one more prone to bending. Customers are quick to complain about bending iPhones after the 6/6Plus hit the market.
Apple releases the 6S and 6S Plus with a rose gold option, as well as adds new features like 3D touch and doubled memory capabilities. Plus, the bend problem is fixed.
Taking a step back, the iPhone SE is a cheaper, smaller device than the 6S, giving customers a chance to enjoy Apple’s phones at a much lower cost.
In traditional Apple fashion, the company does away with the traditional headphone jack, forcing customers to buy dongles that adapt older headsets or lightning-plug earbuds. The 7 is also the first water-resistant iPhone. It features a more static home button that cannot be pressed down, only touched, and the first dual camera lens with portrait mode.
Apple moves away from its tradition of releasing S versions on off years, instead leaping right to the 8 and 8Plus. This is the first iPhone to support wireless charging.
Goodbye home button, hello notched screen. The X revolutionizes the Apple product once again for its 10th anniversary, turning the iPhone into something that looks very similar to today’s versions. An extra lens also added portrait mode to the front facing camera, a fan favorite for iPhones to come.
After a massive physical overhaul with the X, Apple releases a largely unchanged Xs and XS Max other than an internal hardware update. Displays also became edge to edge, maximizing screen space.
Announced alongside the XS, the XR is smaller and cheaper, though still larger than the 8 Plus. And although it comes with only one back camera lens, the phone is available in six colors like blue, yellow and red.
The 11 also offers six colors to choose from, as well as better dual camera capabilities with ultra-wide len options. Starting at $699, it is one of Apple’s cheaper core line phones. Meanwhile, the 11 Pro and Pro Max boast a three-lens camera and Apple’s most advanced retina display to date.
In a throwback to its older devices, Apple shrinks down its phones to put out the SE second generation, complete with a now-retro home button. Even at a lower cost, the SE is tricked out with some of Apple’s flashiest features like an advanced camera and wireless charging.
The iPhone 12 mini is smaller than the usual iPhone but packs a powerful punch. With all of the features enjoyed by the iPhone 12 minus a little size and some battery life, the mini gives people everything they want while taking up less space in their pocket.
With the iPhone 12 series, Apple continued to upgrade its camera and display, plus introduce its proprietary MagSafe charging options. The 12 has two camera lenses while the Pro and Pro Max have three plus night mode and enhanced zoom range. The 12 and the 12 Pro are the same size, while the Pro Max is significantly larger. The 12 series also marks the end of Apple including an in-box charger with each iPhone purchase.
The iPhone 13 stays at the same price as the iPhone 12 with double the storage space, as well as featuring a much smaller top notch. Battery life and camera features are also majorly improved. The mini continues to be a powerful phone in a small package, and the Pro and Pro Max offer even better cameras.
The SE is back and better than ever, though still complete with a home button and Touch ID. It enjoys a lot of the same features seen in the higher-end iPhones: potrait mode, HD video, long battery life, et cetera.
2022: iPhone 14 series, goodbye, Mini- and SIM cards
Doing away with the iPhone Mini for the Pro, Apple brings back the larger Pro, as well as adds a slew of safety features like Emergency SOS via satellite. The Pro and Pro Max feature a “Dynamic Island” top notch that free floats from the top of the phone to better integrate into whatever is going on onscreen, as well as a better camera and display. A physical SIM card tray is also gone with the 14, pushing users towards eSIMs only.
Apple is fighting France’s claims that the iPhone 12 surpasses European radiation exposure limits after French regulators on Tuesday ordered a pause on sales and a fix to phones already sold to customers.
France’s National Frequency Agency said it “has demanded that Apple withdraw the iPhone 12 from the French market, effective 12 September 2023, as measures show the specific absorption rate exceeds the set limits.” The agency said the iPhone 12 is not compliant with European Union regulations.
“Apple must immediately adopt all necessary measures to prevent the iPhone 12 in the supply chain from being made available on the market,” ANFR added.
Disputing the agency’s claims, Apple said it had already given the agency multiple lab results conducted by the company and independent third parties that showed the device’s compliance with relevant SAR regulations and global standards.
The company said it was contesting the AFNR’s review results and would continue to work with the agency to demonstrate the phone’s compliance.
SAR is a measure of the rate of energy absorption by the body from the source being measured, according to the ANFR. But experts and regulators generally say not to worry.
“To date, and after much research performed, no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies,” according to the World Health Organization. “Provided that the overall exposure remains below international guidelines, no consequences for public health are anticipated.”
ANFR ruled that for iPhone 12s already in use, Apple “must adopt all necessary corrective measures to bring the telephones into conformity as soon as possible, otherwise, Apple will have to recall the equipment.”
The measure was effective from Tuesday, with the regulator adding it would ensure the product is no longer offered for sale in all distribution channels in France from that day.
France’s Minister for the Digital Economy Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed in a tweet that iPhone 12 sales are “halted in France until Apple offers an update for all affected devices.”
“The @anfr found that the iPhone 12 was emitting a level of waves slightly higher than the authorized threshold,” Barrot wrote in another tweet, translated from French. “This level is more than 10 times lower than the level at which there could be a health risk.”
The announcement came as Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, Apple’s newest iteration of its iconic product, at its annual keynote event in California on Tuesday.
Amazon’s Alexa is about to bring generative AI inside the house, as the company introduces sweeping changes to how its ubiquitous voice assistant both sounds and functions.
The company announced a generative AI update for Alexa and, subsequently, of all Echo products dating back to 2014, at a press event Wednesday at its new campus in Arlington, Virginia. Alexa will be able to resume conversations without a wake word, respond more quickly, learn user preferences, field follow-up questions and change its tone based on the topic. Alexa will even offer opinions, such as which movies should have won an Oscar but didn’t.
Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text and images, in response to user prompts.
“It feels just like talking to a human being,” an Amazon executive claimed.
The updates come as Amazon tries to keep pace with a new wave of conversational AI tools that have accelerated the artificial intelligence arms race in the tech industry and rapidly reshaped what consumers may expect from their tech products. The company did not disclose when the updates will make their way into products.
In a live demo, Dave Limp, senior VP of devices and services at Amazon, asked Alexa about his favorite college football team without ever stating the name. (Limp said he previously told Alexa and it remembered). If his favorite team wins, Alexa responds joyfully; if they lose, Alexa will respond with empathy.
When Limp said “Alexa, let’s chat,” it launched a special mode that allowed for a back-and-forth exchange on various topics. Notably, Limp paused several times to address the audience and resumed the conversation with Alexa without using the “Alexa” wake word, picking up where they left off.
The demo wasn’t without hiccups – Alexa’s response time at times lagged –but the voice assistanthad far more personality, spoke in a more natural and expressive tone, and kept the conversation flowing back and forth.
Although the company did not outlinespecific safeguards – some other large-language models have previously gone off the rails – it said on its website “it will design experiences to protect our customers’ privacy and security, and to give them control and transparency.”
The company also said new developer tools will allow companies to work alongside its large-language model. In a blog post, Amazon said it is already partnering with a handful of companies, such as BMW, to develop conversational in-car voice assistant capabilities.
Rowan Curran, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the news marks a major step forward in bringing generative AI to the home and allowing it to accomplish everyday tasks. By connecting speech-to-text to external systems and byusing a large language model to understand and produce natural speech, this is “where we can begin to see the future of how we will use this technology near-ubiquitously in our everyday lives.”
Some US users will get access to the changes through a free preview on existing Echo devices. Over the years, Alexa has been infused in countless Echo products, from its speaker and hub lineup to clocks, microwaves,and eyeglasses.
Amazon also said it will be bringing generative AI to its Fire TV platform, allowing users to ask more natural, nuanced or open-ended questions about genres, storylines and scenes or make more targeted content suggestions.
Alexa launched nearly a decade ago and, along with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’sCortana, and other voice assistants,were promised to change the way people interacted with technology. But the viral success of ChatGPT has arguably accomplished some of those goals faster and across a wider range of everyday products.
The effort to continue updating the technology that powers Alexa comes at a difficult moment for Amazon. Like other Big Tech companies, Amazon has slashed staff in recent months and shelved products in an urgent effort to cut costs amid broader economic uncertainty. The Alexa division did not escape unscathed.
Amazon confirmed plans in January to lay off more than 18,000 employees. In March, the company said about 9,000 more jobs would be impacted. Limp previously told CNN his division lost about 2,000 people, about half of which were from the Alexa team.
Still, he emphasized innovation around Alexa has not stalled. “We’re not done and won’t be done until Alexa is as good or better than the ‘Star Trek’ computer,” Limp said. “And to be able to do that, it has to be conversational. It has to know all. It has to be the true source of knowledge for everything.”
