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The first-ever Xbox transparency report reveals a surge in bot bans
Microsoft has published its first Xbox transparency report, and it's clear the company is banning many more bot accounts than in the past.
TikTok hopes new tools will create kinder, gentler live streams
TikTok has rolled out new tools to promote kindness in livestreams, including a 'would you like to rethink posting this' pop-up for harsher comments.
Zoom adds additional security to fend off trolls
Hosts can suspend meetings while they deal with disruptive users.
ASMR horror film 'Tingle Monsters' captures the terror of online trolls
Most ASMR videos give you tingles. This one will give you chills.
China reportedly spread COVID-19 misinformation
A report by The New York Times claims Chinese operatives helped spread false COVID-19 information via text and social media across the US.
Instagram’s 'huge booty' problem keeps getting worse
There isn't a day when I don't come across comments from bots on Instagram. They're all over the place. But there's nothing they love more than to spam high-profile pages with millions of followers. Whether it's LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, ESPN or Ariana Grande, their posts are often the target of comments such as "We gonna ignore the fact that I've GOT A HUGE BOOTY?" or "DON'T LOOK at my STORY, if you don't want to M A S T U R B A T E !" Behind these, are fake accounts featuring pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, whose primary goal is to get people to sign up for shady porn sites. This has become a serious problem for Instagram, one that seems to be getting worse by the day and that the company needs to get a handle on, before it gets more out of control.
Trolls swamp unused Twitch category with pirated shows and porn
Twitch just learned first-hand about the challenges of moderating live video. Trolls have hijacked the site's largely unused category for Valve's Artifact (which previously had few if any streamers) to livestream material that most definitely violated Twitch's terms of service. Motherboard noted that it started out with memes, but on Memorial Day weekend included pirated Game of Thrones episodes, porn and in one case video from the Christchurch mass shooting.
Bots have invaded Instagram comments
The last thing I expected to find on Instagram was someone telling me not to look at their Story if I didn't want to masturbate. But that comment, which I can only assume was intended reverse psychology, wasn't just directed at me. It was left on a post from Sky Sports and, thanks to the thousands of likes garnered by the comment, it was the first thing the account's 2.7 million followers would see when they looked at the comments on that picture. There are similar comments all over Instagram, particularly on high-profile pages with millions of followers. And they have one thing in common: They're spam profiles with pictures and videos of naked and half-naked women, which were created to get you to look at their accounts and then have you sign up for shady pornographic sites.
Russia worked hard to recruit social media users to campaign for Trump
We already knew that the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is essentially a farm of bots and trolls, exposed 126 million Americans on Facebook to Russian-backed propaganda during the 2016 US presidential election. But today's release of the redacted Mueller report has shed light on new details, including the great lengths the IRA went to in using social media to provoke social discord in the US. The report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, titled "The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election," highlights how the IRA created thousands of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr to create posts in "support for the Trump Campaign and opposition to candidate [Hillary] Clinton."
'Overwatch' endorsements reduced toxic behavior by 40 percent
Blizzard has been waging a war against toxic players for a while, but how is it faring, exactly? Quite well, it seems. The company's Natasha Miller has revealed that the number of matches with "negative behavior" has dropped 40 percent since the addition of endorsements, the "looking for group" feature and penalties for prematurely quitting matches. Players were not only encouraged to play as a team and stick through the entirety of matches, but could find teammates who were more likely to complement their skills and gameplay styles.
Steam mods will filter 'off-topic review bombs' from ratings
One of the issues with relying on user reviews to rate content is the possibility that some of those reviews may not be written in entirely good faith. Recently Rotten Tomatoes took new steps to manage the impact of fake reviews submitted for Captain Marvel, while Netflix responded to several instances of "review bombing" by removing written reviews from its service entirely. Over the years Steam has taken a few different steps to deal with the issue, but now its latest response is a combination of automated scanning and human moderation teams. In a blog post it explained the plan: "we're going to identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score." In practice, what it has is a tool that monitors reviews in real-time to detect "anomalous" activity that suggests something is happening. It alerts a team of moderators, who can then look through the reviews who will investigate, and if they do find that there's a spate of "off-topic reviews," then they'll alert the developer, and remove those reviews from the way the game's score is calculated, although the reviews themselves will stay up.
Twitter bans right-wing activist Jacob Wohl over fake accounts
Twitter has cracked down on one of its more overt offenders. The social network told Daily Beast it has banned conservative activist Jacob Wohl for "multiple violations" of its rules by creating and running numerous fake accounts. He'd admitted to USA Today in an interview that he intended to open fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to manipulate the 2020 election in favor of Trump, and it appears that he didn't waste time. A Daily Beast source said he'd already crafted "several" Twitter accounts before Twitter dropped the hammer.
'Red Dead Online' will turn the tables on griefers
Red Dead Online fans have been fairly vocal about their issues with the game since its launch in November. The in-game economy, lack of missions and griefing are just some of the more commonly cited problems, but Rockstar Games is taking steps to address this. On February 26th Red Dead Online will be getting a big update which, Rockstar hopes, will improve things.
Trolls threaten laid off reporters in coordinated online campaign
Unfortunately, sustained online harassment campaigns are still a reality. NBC News has learned that trolls have launched a coordinated threat campaign against BuzzFeed and Huffington Post (owned by Engadget parent Verizon) journalists recently let go as part of layoffs. They appear to have originated from 4chan and used the same far-right memes before launching into racist and sexist slurs as well as death threats. The attackers have largely targeted writers on social networks like Twitter and Instagram, although they've also used email and even PayPal.
After Math: To infinity... and Taiwan!
Apparently, this was the week to shoot for the Moon, in some ways more literally than others. SpaceX announced on Monday that it'd found its first Guinea Pi- I mean "paying customer" for a slingshot sightseeing trip around the far edge of la luna and back. 3D-printed guns' strongest advocate made a break for the hills (of Taiwan) after being accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old, Telltale Studios told virtually all of its employees to start looking for alternative employment opportunities, and Amazon is hawking a bargain-basement microwave because they'll put a digital assistant in anything these days.
Twitter wants to ‘increase the health of public conversation’
Twitter doesn't only want to be more transparent about the toxic content on its site, it also wants to be more proactive about removing it altogether. Speaking to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce today, as part of a hearing titled "Twitter: Transparency and Accountability," CEO Jack Dorsey said that his company's singular objective is to "increase the health of public conversation." But he said this isn't just about spotting and removing abusive content like harassment, or blocking suspicious accounts. It's also about doing so in a timely, more proactive manner. As it stands, Dorsey said, Twitter relies heavily on users reporting others' bad behavior and that simply needs to change.
Watch tomorrow's Jack Dorsey congressional hearings right here
Another round of social media congressional hearings is upon us. This time, it's Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's turn, who will be testifying alongside Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg before the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 5th. But that hearing, which will focus on foreign election interference, won't be the only one of the day for Dorsey. He's also set to testify alone in a hearing from the House Energy and Commerce Committee entitled "Twitter: Transparency and Accountability." There, he'll be asked questions about how the company's algorithms work to filter out abuse, as well as its decision-making process when it blocks certain content (and accounts) from appearing on its site.
Russian trolls played 'both sides' on vaccine arguments
Russian trolls have been leaping into existing hot-button debates between US internet users and riling up both sides for years, and social platforms are still banning fake accounts and groups. Those haven't been limited to politically-relevant divides, either. A new study has revealed that Russia-backed online agents saw some Americans defend the life-saving, well-researched practice of administering vaccines arguing with medical doubters, and riled up everyone to cause chaos.
Ruby Rose is the latest celebrity driven off Twitter by abuse
It's only been a few days since Ruby Rose was cast as "Batwoman" for the CW series Arrowverse, but the Australian actor has already had to quit Twitter after a stream of abusive messages. Much of the backlash has focused on accusations that Rose -- who identifies as gender fluid and is a prominent LGBTQ activist -- isn't "gay enough" to play the role of Kate Kane (aka Batwoman) who is a lesbian in the comic books. Some others took issue with the fact that, unlike the character in the comics, Rose isn't Jewish. Still others simply questioned her acting ability, leading to the creation of #recastbatwoman campaign on social media.
'Fallout 76' deals with trolls by making them part of the game
When Bethesda mentioned that Fallout 76 was an online game, you could hear alarm bells ringing in fans' heads. How were they going to deal with the inevitable trolls who come in to ruin other players' fun? Now we know: it's making them a part of the game. In a presentation at QuakeCon, game lead Todd Howard revealed that people who kill unwilling victims will get bounties on their heads, with the money coming out of their total cap balance (that is, currency) and reflecting their character level. They'll also be impossible to miss -- you'll see a red star on the map.
