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Twitter makes it easier to report threats to the police
While Twitter has already simplified reporting abusive tweets, that's not enough if you're facing a very serious threat -- you want something that the police can use to get an arrest or restraining order. Thankfully, Twitter has delivered something that might help. A new email option lets you send yourself a copy of a threat report that you can take to law enforcement. While it only provides a basic summary of what happened, it both serves as an official record and helps officers understand what to do if they need private account information to make a bust.
Twitter makes reporting trolls easier, cracks down on repeat offenders
In the ongoing battle agains trolls, abusive users and other rule-breakers, Twitter has expanded how it can attempt to squash tweet-based troubles. If someone is impersonating another through a Twitter account, or leaking sensitive personal data, anyone can now report it -- not just whoever is suffering from it. Perhaps more importantly, new "enforcement actions" will allow the company to deal with regular trouble-makers: those that simply create a new Twitter account when their previous one gets closed down.
Twitter's upgrades can't hide its problem nabbing new users
For a company that's embedded itself so thoroughly in the fabric of modern communication, Twitter sure is having trouble getting more people to use it. The company just released its latest batch of quarterly financials, and while it handily generated more revenue and earnings per share than Wall Street analysts expected (think $479 million in revenue over the past three months), it's still not picking up new users as fast as everyone wants it to. This past quarter saw total user numbers surge to 288 million -- that's a 20 percent leap over this time last year, but only an increase of about 4 million users since Twitter's last quarterly info dump. Curiously, it looks like nearly all of those new users came from outside US borders, making this quarter the first with negligible US growth since Twitter's IPO. Dick Costolo must be thrilled. People already have it out for him as it is.
Twitter CEO admits 'we suck at dealing with trolls,' vows to fix it
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has admitted that "we suck with dealing at trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. He added that the problem has caused "core user after core user" to flee the platform and took personal responsibility. Though Twitter has suffered from issues around abuse and trolling for years -- with the recent GamerGate abuse of Anita Sarkeesian being just one egregious example -- the apparent breaking point for Costolo was a recent Guardian story by feminist writer Lindy West. In it, she talked about her interview on This American Life with a troll who assumed the identity of her beloved, deceased father on Twitter.
Bloomberg: Twitter is reconnecting its firehose to Google
Tomorrow Twitter will release its latest quarterly earnings figures, but ahead of that Bloomberg has word that the service is bringing its "firehose" of data back to Google's search results. The two have been estranged ever since 2011 when Google announced its agreement to access Twitter's data directly had expired. As a result, it suspended the "realtime" search feature that included up-to-the-minute results from social media. Of course back then Google was still going all-in on Google+, Twitter had expanded relationships with Bing and Yahoo, and webOS was still kicking. Now, Google has backed off of the hard sell for its social media platform, Twitter finally launched a decent search tool and there has been significant turnover in the executives at both companies. According to the report, at some point in the first half of this year Google will again include Tweets as soon as they're posted, so there's one more reason to check for typos before hitting Enter. Update: In another curiously-timed release, The Verge has obtained an internal memo from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo admitting that "we suck" at dealing with online abuse. There's no word on how it will fix its practices going forward, but at least there's recognition of the problem. Update 2: Twitter's Dick Costolo has confirmed the company's deal with Google in its quarterly earnings call. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
Twitter makes it easier to report abusive tweets
If you've ever been the victim of harassment on Twitter, you know how hard it has been to report abuse until now; you couldn't really do much on mobile, and the complicated process made it difficult to flag all but the scariest threats. Thankfully, Twitter is at last simplifying the reporting process to give you a better defense against abusers. You now need less initial information to make a complaint, and the reporting system is easier to understand as a whole. You should also have less trouble reporting harassment when you aren't the target, and a mobile-native interface lets you deal with troublemakers away from a computer.
UK wants tougher prison sentences for internet trolls
Online harassers in the UK may soon face much harsher consequences for their scare tactics. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling tells the Daily Mail that a newly proposed measure will let magistrates send cases of internet abuse and threats to crown courts, boosting the maximum prison time for those cases from six months to two years. The measure likely won't intimidate the most determined of trolls if it takes effect, but it could serve as a warning to "casual" abusers who don't think they'll pay a price for their long-distance hate campaigns. Given how nightmarish internet threats have become as of late, the proposed tougher sentencing might be well-timed. [Image credit: Eirik Solheim, Flickr]
EVE Evolved: Three exploitable game features
If there's one thing EVE Online players are good at, it's finding ways to get an advantage over each other. The hyper-competitive PvP sandbox breeds players with an investigative streak who will constantly figure out ways to bend and abuse new features to make ISK or get an edge over other players in combat. The most obvious cases include abusing bugs, as happened in 2009's starbase exploit that corporations used to generate valuable tech 2 materials out of thin air and 2010's MonkeySphere exploit that let players hide themselves from the local chat channel and sneak up on unsuspecting victims. Most cases of abusing features for profit or advantage aren't as clear-cut as these obvious exploits, as some have negative consequences but still use completely legitimate game mechanics. When players figured out how to abuse Faction Warfare's kill LP rewards to farm five trillion ISK, for example, they did so using in-game mechanics that just hadn't really been thought through. Many more subtle cases of broken game mechanics that undermine EVE's core design ethos still exist, some of which have been recently introduced and others that have managed to remain unchallenged for years because there isn't really a good alternative. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at three features in EVE Online that I think fundamentally break the design ethos of the game but don't have very clear solutions.
Flameseeker Chronicles: When good Guild Wars 2 commentary goes bad
I'm aware that not everybody who reads this column loves Guild Wars 2, and I'm cool with that. Occasionally I'm baffled by a comment or two left by people who apparently just swung by to give a brief, negative review of the game, completely independent of the topic of the article they left it on, but that's mostly harmless. I appreciate the vast majority of thoughtful comments, whether positive or negative; I like to think that most of you love MMOs as much as I do, and I believe that a person doesn't necessarily have to like a game in order to have something insightful to say about it and its role in influencing the industry. I mention all of this because I want to make it clear that when I talk about toxic GW2 commentary, I don't mean people leaving negative criticism in general, or saying that they don't like the game. In fact, the majority of what I'd like to discuss comes from people who apparently play the game regularly and who are deeply invested in it. Some of them say that they love it. And because they love it, it's easy to see why they might feel protective of it and take perceived threats to it personally.
Samsung's report on Chinese suppliers makes for grim reading, especially between the lines
On the face of it, Samsung's latest report on working conditions at the factories of its Chinese suppliers follows just the kind of careful, lawyer-scrutinized language we'd expect from a big multinational. It repeats the manufacturer's earlier insistence that no children have been employed, while at the same time admitting that there have been "several instances of inadequate practices at the facilities" concerning workers being made to do too much overtime, not being given proper contracts, and being fined if they turn up late or are absent -- issues which had already been revealed at one supplier, and which Samsung promises to fix by the end of 2014. Burrow further into the document, however, and Samsung's list of promised "corrective actions" implies that its internal investigation has uncovered evidence of other serious problems. These include "physical and verbal abuse," sexual harassment, a lack of first-aid equipment and inadequate safety training. Some information is also conspicuous by its absence -- at least in the short report linked below -- including clarity on how widespread any of these failings were among the 109 companies (and 65,000 employees) that have now been audited. Did they crop up at just a handful of factories, or were they endemic across China? We have no idea, but given how much data Samsung has now dutifully amassed, it surely does. We've asked the company for more detail and will update if we hear back.
iRobot's DARPA-funded mechanical hand can take a beating, lift 50 pounds
Most companies might think twice about inflicting blunt force trauma upon their carefully crafted prototypes, but most companies just don't love baseball the way iRobot does. While developing a mechanical hand for DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation program, iRobot took a metal baseball bat to its three-fingered prototype. No need to cringe, though -- the artificial appendage came away virtually unscathed. The hand's durability comes from its flexible feelers, fingers molded from soft polymers with embedded tactile sensors. Rather than bending at metallic joints, these digits are pulled tight by inexpensive cables made from fishing line -- not only can they take a beating, but should one snap, they're easy to replace. The soft fingers can pick up small objects, such as keys or credit cards and can hold about 50 pounds before slipping up. The hand's current iteration is in use on a DARPA test robot, but you can see the prototype take its licks in the video after the break.
Papo & Yo review: Father knows beast
The abuse of a child by a parent is one of the worst betrayals a human being can face. Our families are meant to be the one guaranteed bit of love we have in this often cruel world – people who will support and embrace us even when the rest of creation has turned its back. But the tragedy of an abusive parent (usually driven by alcohol, drugs, or their own traumatic experience) casts a person that's meant to be a child's loving caretaker into the role of an enemy. Parental abuse turns what's meant to be one of the purest relationships of love into one of anger, distrust, and violence.Papo & Yo is a game about that tragedy. It's about a relationship that is by turns loving, gentle, and even playful, but can instantly turn into something ugly and full of violence and pain.As a video game, Papo & Yo can be lacking – the mechanics are simple, and while the technology is capable of creating some beautiful moments, it's just as capable of being frustrating. As an expression of autobiographical emotion for creator Vander Caballero, however, and a rendition of the complicated relationship between a young son and his abusive father, Papo & Yo succeeds in the strongest ways.%Gallery-157413%
MMO Family: Why safe chat isn't so safe (and why that's OK)
One of the toughest issues that game developers have to treat when it comes to kid-friendly MMOs is chat. I touched on this in a past column, but it's worth further discussion. If you're making a game where lots of players are interacting and doing stuff together, you need to allow them to communicate, otherwise you're pretty much making a single-player game with the other players as background scenery. On the other hand, when it comes to kids MMOs, having open communication means other players can use it to harass each other. Worse is the scenario of the deranged adult abusing it to exploit young people. As a result, virtually every kid-friendly MMO has some sort of filter in place that restricts what players can say to each other. But are these chat filters really that effective? Are kids better off without them? Let's take a look in today's MMO Family.
Humble Indie Bundle 4 abused by Scrooge-like Steam scamming
This is how nice things like Humble Indie Bundles stop happening: the Humble Indie Bundle 4, which also supports charities like the Red Cross and Child's Play, has people abusing the system for grinchy gain. Here's how the scam worked: oogie-boogies purchased the bundle for a penny, then used the Steam codes from the bundle "to 'legitimize' automated Steam accounts in order to increase their odds of winning prizes in Valve's current raffle promotion." "This is unfair to legitimate entrants and is definitely not what we wanted to encourage with Humble Indie Bundle 4," wrote organizers on the Humble Bundle blog. "It's a lose-lose situation for the indie developers, charities, Valve, and Humble Bundle." New orders now have a required purchase price of $1 to obtain Steam keys. For those who can't afford the dollar (*glares at your $5 mocha*), a Steam key can be provided by contacting the support team and promising "not to resell" or "otherwise abuse it." It's a fair compromise to a sad situation that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Brooklyn filmmaker working on app to help prevent sexual assault
When it comes to creating innovative apps to address municipal, environmental or social issues, the answer increasingly comes down to crowdsourcing. The public problem-solving site ChallengePost serves as a platform for innovative ideas from developers, working in areas as varied as the NYC subway system, the city's data feeds or the Surgeon General's Healthy Apps initiative. In a recent app challenge on the site, the US Department of Health and Human Services asked developers to address the issues of sexual assault and dating violence among college-age women. With nearly one in five women reporting a sexual assault while in college, effective intervention strategies are critical to make sure that young women can get out of potentially abusive situations -- and reach out for the help they need when they need it. The competition resulted in two winning apps, both of which are now moving into the development phase. OnWatch, the first winner, is a customized version of the existing subscription-based personal alerts app WatchMe 911. WatchMe 911 is free to download from the App Store and offers different pricing levels depending on the features you need. OnWatch/WatchMe puts a comprehensive set of assault prevention resources into one app. The app includes options to call friends, alert contacts to your location, send SMSes automatically if you don't cancel them at a predetermined time, and more. The app's design isn't obfuscated in any way, so someone watching your phone will know that you're calling for help (or broadcasting your location); this might serve as a deterrent. The other winning app, Circle of 6, takes a much simpler approach to the challenge of communication in a potentially dangerous situation. It asks you to select six trusted contacts that you could call on for assistance if you found yourself in trouble. Once they're in place, a tap on the center button gives three clear options: Car, Call or Chat. The car button means "come get me" -- it sends out an SMS with your location and a pickup request, asking for assistance getting home safely. The Call button also sends an SMS, but asking for a return call to interrupt a worsening encounter. The Chat button requests advice and information, which will also link to resources on sexual assault. Since Circle of 6 doesn't telegraph its function through its UI the way that OnWatch does, the app can be used surreptitiously even in situations where a potential assailant is keeping an eye on the phone. [In an unfortunate coincidence, the Circle of 6 app shares its name -- but not its subject matter -- with a book about the murder of an NYPD officer in the 1970s.] Circle of 6 is the work of a four-person team led by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman, who screens her documentary The Line on college campuses and leads an initiative to help end sexual violence. The app project is looking for grant funding now, and the team hopes to have a working version up on the iOS App Store by February, with Android and other platforms to follow. For more information on the project, you can check out the Circle of 6 Facebook page. If you've spotted an app that you think addresses a social issue or point of concern in an innovative way, let us know in the comments or send in a tip. [via NY Daily News & the Bellingham Herald]
Drama Mamas: How to help an abused guildie
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Again, we have another serious topic -- and again, we'd really love some lighthearted, fun candidates for next week, please. I'm in a guild that is mostly comprised of married couples. I am particularly close to one woman in particular. We're the night-owls of the group, up after everyone else goes to bed, and we chat a lot. She has recently disclosed some pretty awful marital abuse and power-and-control-gaslighting stuff as well as sexual abuse, marital rape, etc. Everyone else in the guild thinks they're together, and makes the usual references and requests that you'd make of a married couple like "hey, can you click the accept-rez thing for her?" or "do you know when he'll be back from work?" but the thing is - she's already LEFT her husband - he just won't let her TELL anyone! He's still in guild with us, and still uses our raids as an opportunity to harass her, because he knows she'll be there, and knows she "can't" say anything.
Wintek workers still experience effects from n-hexane exposure, Apple issues a report
It's been a few months since we checked in on the workers at Wintek, where they manufacture touchscreens for the likes of Apple. As you might remember, the former company was facing a lawsuit for chemical poisoning that occurred between May 2008 to August 2009 when the company substituted alcohol for n-hexane in the manufacturing process. Both Apple and Wintek maintain that ultimately a total of 137 people had been hospitalized, and all have recovered -- but as Reuters points out, daily exposure to the chemical has been known to cause "long-term and possibly irreversible nerve damage," and Wintek employees have maintained that the company has left them holding the bag for symptoms that could very well flare up again in the future (or, in some cases, never really went away). "We are unable to cope with the medical costs of treatment in the future," said Guo Ruiqiang, a worker at the plant. "We can only stay in the factory and see what happens. We just feel very helpless now." For Apple's part, the company has mandated that Wintek "work with a consultant to improve their Environmental Health and Safety processes and management systems" in anticipation of a complete reaudit of the facility in 2011. [Warning: PDF More Coverage link]
Internet content filters are human too, funnily enough
Algorithms can only take you so far when you want to minimize obscene content on your social networking site. As the amount of user-uploaded content has exploded in recent times, so has the need for web content screeners, whose job it is to peruse the millions of images we throw up to online hubs like Facebook and MySpace every day, and filter out the illicit and undesirable muck. Is it censorship or just keeping the internet from being overrun with distasteful content? Probably a little bit of both, but apparently what we haven't appreciated until now is just how taxing a job this is. One outsourcing company already offers counseling as a standard part of its benefits package, and an industry group set up by Congress has advised that all should be providing therapy to their image moderators. You heard that right, people, mods need love too! Hit the source for more.
44 Chinese workers sue Wintek over screen cleaner poisoning
If you've got an early Apple iPad, chances are its screen was cleaned with a banned substance called n-hexane, which releases a toxic nerve gas upon use. 2,000 workers at Wintek's East China LCD plant went on strike in January, claiming the substance was poisoning them, and now 44 of those reportedly affected are planning to sue. According to reports, the screen cleaner was originally used because it performed better than alcohol, but Wintek has since fired the factory manager who suggested n-hexane and discontinued its use. That didn't keep 62 workers from winding up in the hospital, however. The Guardian interviewed two hospitalized workers last week, and you'll find their stories at our more coverage link below. We're sure you'll agree these Chinese labor violations are getting out of hand -- let's hope this lawsuit spurs government and industry to do something concrete about worker abuse.
NCsoft scrambles to reduce server queues: Private store tweaks incoming
If one thing has marred the otherwise polished launch of Aion it is the extremely long server queues players face when trying to log in and play what they paid for. NCsoft responded a couple days ago saying that they are aware of the problem and working on solutions such as increased server caps and even opening a new server in both North America and Europe. Today they just announced a maintenance patch that addresses a major cause of their queue problem: Private stores will now have 30-minute timer to prevent them from being abused.Private stores are a great concept. Players can set up shop anywhere in the world to sell their spare goods and make a pretty penny. Unfortunately, a feature of these stores is that they prevent you from idling out of the game. This feature really compounds the current server queue problem. To avoid going through the queue process again, many players simply set up a private store and go AFK for hours at a time. One store we came across had this description set: "AFK at work, making you queue." This is even more evidence that MMO players will often take the path of least resistance for personal gain. Devs really need this hammered into their heads.
