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Twitter's shadow banning bug 'unfairly filtered' 600,000 accounts
Twitter's supposed account shadow banning, which the company says was a bug, was "unfairly filtering 600,000 accounts, including some members of Congress" in search auto-complete and results. CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed the figure during his opening statement to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday; he shared the statement in a thread of tweets.
What to expect when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies to Congress
Nearly five months after Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, it is now turn for Twitter boss Jack Dorsey to do the same. On September 5th, he will take the witness stand twice on Capitol Hill, first in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee and then the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dorsey will be alongside Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg for the Intel Committee's "Foreign Influence Operations' Use of Social Media Platforms" hearing, followed by a solo appearance in the Energy and Commerce Committee's own, entitled "Twitter: Transparency and Accountability."
Twitter again says it doesn't 'shadow ban'
Over the last day or so, an article alleged that Twitter was showing bias against conservative political figures by failing to auto-populate their names in the search box. Once the president's account tweeted about it this morning, it officially became a thing, and the company repeatedly tried to explain how multiple factors affected a number of accounts showing up in search, not just those on one particular political side. We've gone in-depth on the issue already, but if you need more information from the source, there's a new blog post from Twitter explaining more about what goes into its search feature and why a certain account might not appear right away. Once again, product lead Kayvon Beykpour and Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde put their names out there proclaiming that Twitter does not "shadow ban," and said that hundreds of thousands of accounts from around the world were affected by the search auto-suggest issue. We'll see if that's enough to put things to rest.
Why are Trump and sex workers angry about shadow banning?
On Thursday morning, United States President Donald Trump tweeted about how Twitter was "shadow banning" prominent republicans, presumably after reading reports that it wasn't auto-suggesting the names of members of his party when people searched for them on its app. "Not good," Trump said. "We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints." But, while some people may appreciate what Twitter is doing, the company says this wasn't done on purpose -- it was simply a side effect of a change it made back in May aimed at cleaning up the platform.
Twitter says supposed ‘shadow ban’ of prominent Republicans is a bug
Yesterday, Vice published an article stating that Twitter was "shadow banning" prominent Republicans from the platform's search function. This accusation set off the president, who took to Twitter to express his displeasure. But it now appears that the original issue was actually a bug, which Twitter is actively working to correct.
'Pokémon Go' update gives cheaters lousy monsters
With a new update, Pokémon Go cheaters won't be banned, but instead thrown into a depressing purgatory. As spotted by Reddit's hardcore Pokémon Go site, Silph Road, Niantic is now "shadowbanning" cheaters by only letting them find humdrum monsters like Pidgey. In a statement, Niantic support said "people who violate the Pokémon Go Terms of Service may have their gameplay affected and may not be able to see all the Pokémon around them."
Global Agenda 2's closed beta expected 'before the end of the year if all goes well'
When last we heard about Global Agenda 2, we learned the promised sequel to 2010's Global Agenda was in line behind profitable MOBA SMITE for attention, and that announcement was made while its developers were admitting Tribes: Ascend was unlikely to ever get more love. But Hi-Rez Studios CEO Erez Goren broke radio silence on GA2 with a slew of spoilers on Reddit yesterday (apparently before he was shadowbanned for "vote manipulation" by angry Tribes players). The highlights? It is in fact a "spiritual" successor to GA. It'll have objective-based, 5v5 PvP with stats leveling during matches. E-sports will be supported, as will spectator mode. Viewpoint is first- and third-person. "Shooting is from first person mostly." There are "no strict classes." There is "no dedicated healer class." You just "select the way you want to play and join the queue." A "dome city area" might serve as a gathering point for players. He rattles off a whole list of weapons and off-hand items. Clever Redditors surmise that the game might actually be named Global Assault. Closed beta is expected "before the end of the year if all goes well." [With many thanks to Sorenthaz for the great tip!]
Transverse used to be Wing Commander Online
Transverse, the new crowdfund project from Piranha Games, could have been called something far different and more familiar: Wing Commander Online. Piranha Creative Director Bryan Ekman confirmed that the studio currently holds the Wing Commander license but decided to go another way: "By late 2013 we found ourselves in possession of an exclusive license to Wing Commander and assembling a small team to craft a new experience. We spent six months developing, designing, and working on a marketing video with help from outsourcing partners [...] We reached a pivotal moment when some of our best design ideas were being pushed to the side as they just didn't fit within the constraints of a WC game. We looked carefully at what our WCO product was, looked at other competing products, and decided that we needed to move away from the Wing Commander universe." Ekman said that if Transverse does not completely fund by the end of its campaign, the studio will fully refund its backers and investigate "traditional models" for investment. In the meantime, the entire studio has been shadowbanned from Reddit for creating a Transverse sub and is looking to overturn the ban.
