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Twitter's Explore tab starts sorting stories into sections
Twitter has updated its Explore tab for iOS, sorting entries into separate sections depending on their topics. The platform says it implemented the change to make Explore easier to, well, explore and to give you a quick way to find stories you'd actually like to read. Twitter launched Explore early last year to put the trending topics and the biggest news on the platform, as well as search, in one location. The company started serving ads within the tab back in July in an effort to make some cash from the feature.
Facebook reportedly pressured Palmer Luckey to support a politician
When Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey left Facebook, neither said exactly why. The implication that it was due to his quiet donation to a group spreading pro-Trump memes. Now, however, we might have a better idea -- and it raises questions about Facebook's behavior as much as it does Luckey's. The Wall Street Journal has obtained emails and sources indicating that Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, pressured Luckey to publicly support libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson after word of the donation got out. Moreover, Luckey's exit wasn't voluntary. The company placed him on leave and eventually fired him, albeit with an exit package worth "at least" $100 million.
Facebook's Portal video chat displays go on sale in the US
Facebook's Portal and Portal+ smart displays are now available in the US via Amazon, Best Buy and their own, ahem, portal. The social network created the devices with video chats in mind, giving them AI-powered cameras that can track you as you move around while talking to friends and family. It can call anyone on Messenger, not just someone who also has a Portal, so you can use it to call most people in your friends list. Engadget Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar got the chance to see it in action in October and found that the picture on screen shifted smoothly to keep the person in frame. He said it looked even better in portrait mode -- almost as if the other person were truly in the same room.
Facebook delays identity checks for UK political ads following abuses
Facebook is delaying its identity checks for political ads in the UK. The internet giant told The Guardian in a statement that it was delaying the requirement to December after realizing people could "game the disclaimer system" by entering bogus information. It'll institute the requirement after it adds "enforcement systems" to ensure accuracy, according to a spokesperson. The move came after a series of exposés that showed how easy it was to attach fake identities to disclosures, both in the UK and in the US.
Facebook referred to EU regulator over ad targeting methods
Facebook is about to face more scrutiny over its ad targeting methods. Just days after fining Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office has referred the social network to the Irish Data Protection Commission, the European Union's main body for investigating Facebook under GDPR rules. The ICO has "ongoing concerns" about Facebook's systems for ad targeting, such as how it tracks "browsing habits, interactions and behavior" across the internet.
'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' will offer its own social video hub
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's social element won't be limited to trash-talking your opponents. Nintendo is developing a Smash World service that will give you the chance to post and watch videos (including mobile viewing) on top of "other fun features." If you pull off a devastating win, you could gloat about it in front of the entire world. More details are coming in the future, but the offering will be free and should be available sometime in 2019, well after the game's December 7th debut.
Twitter test makes it easier to see the latest tweets first
Twitter did start to restore some sense to timelines by letting you disable its "best tweets first" option, but it's buried in the settings. What if you just wanted to flick it on and off? You might just get that chance. Twitter is testing a toggle right in the title bar that switches you between the latest tweets and top tweets with a couple of taps. You could quickly view the highlights if you think there's a tweet you missed, and revert to the chronological order to view posts the way they were meant to be seen.
Vimeo makes it easy for companies to post videos to LinkedIn
Get ready to see more video sales pitches on LinkedIn. Vimeo has expanded its social publishing features to let companies post videos directly on their LinkedIn pages. It's the first time any video service has had an "end-to-end integration" with LinkedIn, Vimeo said. Pioneering or not, it's helpful if you want to spice up your creative portfolio or advertise a business to would-be workers.
Twitter explains why the switch to 280 characters was a good idea
When Twitter expanded its character limit from 140 to 280, the platform got a lot of flak. It wasn't that people hated the change -- it's more because the social network was (and still is) struggling with toxicity and deeper issues than its short character limit. Users made it clear that they would have preferred getting solutions for the platform's real problems instead. Now, Twitter has published an update breaking down why expanding its character limit was a good idea.
PayPal bans Gab in wake of Pittsburgh mass shooting
Internet giants are continuing their crackdown on hate speech following the anti-Semitic mass shooting in Pittsburgh. PayPal has banned the social network Gab, a known haven for hate speech, after reports revealed that the shooter was a frequent poster and had signaled his intentions shortly before the attack. While PayPal didn't provide an immediate reason for the ban in its message to Gab, the payment platform told The Verge in a statement that it didn't accept a site that was "explicitly allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance."
Snapchat helped register 418,000 US voters in two weeks
It's easy to be cynical when you hear about voter registration campaigns from social networks. How many people really sign up because of a digital nudge? Quite a few, apparently. Snap told the New York Times that its Snapchat campaign had helped 418,000 people register in the space of a two-week period, many of them in hotly contested states like Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas. The initiative had combined a registration button on users' profiles with snap videos asking them to register.
Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe leaves Facebook
Add another person to the list of high-profile leaders departing Facebook. Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe is leaving both his own team and the social network. He didn't say where he was going next or why he was exiting, but he noted that this would be his "first real break" in the space of 20 years. This is a chance to step away from the grind for a while, in other words. With that said, there are hints that it's about more than some overdue rest and relaxation.
Facebook reportedly aims to buy a 'major' cybersecurity company
Facebook is still reeling from the hack that exposed 29 million users, but it may have a solution: go shopping. Sources talking to The Information claim that Facebook is accelerating plans to buy a "major" cybersecurity company, and has already offered deals to "several" companies. While the tipsters haven't named candidates, Zuckerberg and team are reportedly likely to buy software that could fold into its existing services, such as tools for signalling hacking attempts or securing individual accounts.
Facebook carried ads from mysterious pro-Brexit group for months
While Facebook might be making strides in clamping down on fake news and shady political ads, there appear to have been holes in its strategy. The UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee has published data showing that Facebook carried ads for a "hard Brexit" (that is, a UK exit from the European Union with few if any deals) from a mysterious organization, Mainstream Network, for 10 months. There's no clear indication as to who's behind the group, but it had a wide reach -- the £257,000 it spent (about $336,000) helped it reach up to 11 million people across the country.
Saudi Arabia reportedly asked Twitter employee to spy on dissidents
Saudi Arabia may have done more than use large-scale social media campaigns to stifle political opposition. New York Times sources claim the country was "grooming" a Twitter engineer, Ali Alzabarah, to snoop on the accounts of dissidents and other targets. Western officials reportedly warned Twitter in late 2015 that Alzabarah had not only grown close to Saudi intelligence agents, but had agreed to spy on multiple user accounts. The social network suspended him and conducted an investigation that turned up no evidence of handing data to the Saudis, but they fired him all the same in December the same year.
Twitter suspends bots spreading pro-Saudi tweets about missing journalist
Twitter has suspended hundreds of accounts suspected to be bots, which had been tweeting pro-Saudi sentiments regarding the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. According to NBC News, it presented the company with a spreadsheet of hundreds of accounts compiled by IT professional Josh Russell. Those accounts were tweeting and re-tweeting the same pro-Saudi government posts and in the same order, like a botnet would.
Tumblr fixes security flaw that exposed account info
Tumblr just fixed a flaw that could have revealed much more than bloggers were comfortable with sharing. A security researcher talking to the social site (which is owned by Engadget's parent brand Oath, and thus Verizon) discovered a security hole in the "recommended blogs" module that let you obtain sensitive account information. If a blog showed up in the module, you could use a debugging tool to obtain someone's current and past email addresses, their obscured password, their name and the IP address from their last sign-in. You could also see their self-reported location, although that hasn't been an option for a while.
Twitter publishes over 10 million tweets linked to election meddling
Twitter has previously cracked down on accounts linked to election interference campaigns and provided snippets of their tweets, but now it's flinging the gates wide open. The social network has published data sets with over 10 million tweets from 4,611 accounts behind "inauthentic" activity, 3,841 of which are from the Russia-linked Internet Research Agency with the remaining 770 possibly tied to Iran. The library also includes over 2 million GIFs, videos and recorded Periscope livestreams. As for why Twitter is doing this? Simply speaking, it can't study this data all by itself.
Twitter faces Irish investigation over user tracking
Twitter is the latest internet giant facing scrutiny over its data transparency in Europe. Ireland's Data Protection Commission has launched an investigation into the social network after it declined to provide t.co web link tracking data to researcher Michael Veale, potentially violating the EU's allowance for requests under GDPR. The privacy expert said that Twitter rejected his request citing an exception to GDPR for demands that would involve "disproportionate effort." Veale, however, believed that Twitter was misinterpreting the law to limit the information it handed over.
Facebook's gaming hub comes to Android in limited beta
Facebook's new gaming hub is now available as a mobile app -- for a handful of people, that is. Sensor Tower and TechCrunch have noticed that Fb.gg has launched on Android in a limited beta test. It's ultimately a phone-optimized version of the portal you've seen on the web, although that's not a bad thing. It offers fast access to streams from people you follow, and gives you a chance to play Instant Games during downtime.
