Friend requests are returning to Xbox

Posted on 11/09/2024 by Anna Washenko

Xbox is changing its process for forming connections on the gaming platform. Its new method works like, well, just about every other social platform, where you'll send a friend request that is either accepted or denied.

That sounds like the obvious way for this feature to function, but Xbox adopted a more passive approach to friends for the recent console generation. The way it works in the current system is that anybody can add another Xbox account to their follow list. When two accounts followed each other, they were upgraded to friends.

The change shouldn't yield much of a difference in players' social tab. If you're already friends, you'll stay friends. If you aren't mutuals, you'll continue following the account. That means you can still keep an eye on updates from individuals, clubs and games within the Xbox ecosystem.

Xbox is also launching new privacy and notification options to help manage the return of friendship, so players can set who is able to follow them or send them friend requests. The blog post didn't give a release date for when the new friends system will get a public rollout, but it is available starting this week as a preview for people in the Xbox Insiders program.

Today's announcement is the latest in a wave of Xbox news in the past month. The company also introduced the Game Pass Standard plan and opened pre-orders for the all-digital Xbox Series X.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/friend-requests-are-returning-to-xbox-220614785.html?src=rss

Bluesky now lets you upload videos, but there are some caveats

Posted on 11/09/2024 by Lawrence Bonk

It’s easy to forget that there’s another social network besides Threads for people tired of Elon Musk’s totally normal X platform. Bluesky is a fine alternative, as it definitely “feels” like Twitter. However, it has been lacking some of the features that made Twitter such an internet hotspot back in the day. Well, we just got a big one. The company just announced that users can now upload video content.

There are some caveats. First of all, the videos have to be under a minute. That’s a fairly huge hurdle for just about every piece of content other than TikTok-style shorts. As a comparison, Meta’s Threads allows for five minute videos. Also, the videos autoplay by default, though that can be handled in the settings. Finally, there’s a hard limit of 25 videos per user each day, though the company says it could tweak that in the future.

The platform supports most of the major video file types, including .mp4, .mpeg, .webm, and .mov files. Users can also attach subtitles to each video, which is a nice little bonus. There are some guardrails in place to protect against “spam and abuse.” Only users who have verified their email address can upload videos and illegal content will be “purged” from the infrastructure. There’s also a way to submit reports to the moderation team. Additionally, each video will be scanned for CSAM by Hive and Thorn.

Update to version 1.91 of the mobile app to get started, though it also works via the desktop client. Not every user will be able to access this feature right away, as version 1.91 will be a gradual rollout to “ensure a smooth experience.”

Bluesky recently added direct messages into the mix, which is something Threads doesn’t have. The platform may be a distant third, when compared to X and Threads, but it’s certainly growing. A massive influx of Brazilian users recently joined the social media site after X was banned in the country.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-now-lets-you-upload-videos-but-there-are-some-caveats-185702403.html?src=rss

Australia’s Prime Minister wants to ban social media for children

Posted on 10/09/2024 by Danny Gallagher

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised to introduce legislation that would prevent children under a certain age from using social media. Reuters reported that Albanese issued his statement in a TV interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC).

Albanese says the Australian government would start its social media initiative by testing age verification technology sometime this year. He also didn’t state a specific age limit but estimated he’d like the ban to be for children younger than 14-16 because “we know that social media is causing social harm.”

Meta issued a statement in response to the PM’s proposal noting that Facebook and Instagram already have a minimum age requirement of 13 years for users. The social media company also noted it wants to empower young people to benefit from social media with parental controls and monitoring “instead of just cutting off access.”

Lawmakers in the US and other countries have suggested and tried to implement a federal age limit on social media access. Last year, US Senator Josh Hawley introduced two bills to Congress that would prohibit teenagers under 16 from using social media. The state of Utah also passed laws in 2023 requiring teens to have parental consent and provide a copy of an ID instead of just inputting their birthday to access their accounts. The following year, Utah repealed the ID requirements.

Social media use has become a greater health issue as experts raise concerns about its effects on younger users’ mental well being. An open letter signed by 42 US attorneys general supported US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s proposal to require social media websites to post visible health warnings the way that cigarette makers are required to do so on their products’ packaging.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/australias-prime-minister-wants-to-ban-social-media-for-children-212139064.html?src=rss

Australia’s Prime Minister wants to ban social media for children

Posted on 10/09/2024 by Danny Gallagher

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/australias-prime-minister-wants-to-ban-social-media-for-children-212139064.html?src=rss

YouTube will limit fitness and weight video recommendations to European teens

Posted on 05/09/2024 by Mariella Moon

YouTube has introduced additional safeguards for teens on its website, which includes limiting the content they see that could lead them to form negative beliefs about themselves. As the Google-owned video sharing platform explains, teenagers are more likely to be critical of themselves if they see repeated messages about ideal social standards. In response, YouTube is now limiting repeated recommendations of videos featuring specific fitness levels or body weights, as well as those that display "social aggression in the form of non-contact fights and intimidation" for European users. As The Guardian notes, this rule is already being enforced in the US.

The website said it decided on those video categories after reviewing which ones "may be innocuous as a single video, but could be problematic for some teens if viewed repetitively." In addition, it has deployed crisis center panels across Europe that will give teens a quick way to connect with live support from recognized crisis service partners. A panel could show up on younger users' interface if they watch videos related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, among other sensitive topics. It could also pop up in their search results if they look for topics linked to specific health crises or emotional distress.

Aside from limiting potentially harmful recommendations, YouTube is adding a new parental control feature that would let parents link their accounts to their teens' for users in the US and other regions. Parents or guardians will see their child's channel activity, such as the number of comments, uploads and subscriptions, in the Family Center hub. YouTube will also send them an email if their teen uploads a video or a Short, and if they start a livestream, even if they're set to private.

The website told TechCrunch, though, that the alerts the parents receive will not include information on the content of comments and uploads. Parents will also not be able to change their kids' age on their accounts. This feature is a further expansion of the parental controls YouTube introduced in 2021. Back then, the website opened a public beta for supervised accounts that allowed guardians to control the kinds of videos their kids can see.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-will-limit-fitness-and-weight-video-recommendations-to-european-teens-123003587.html?src=rss

DraftKings gets slapped with fine for online slots that paid zilch

Posted on 03/09/2024 by Danny Gallagher

DraftKings and White Hat Gaming must pay the state of Connecticut a total of $22,500 in fines after its online slot machine failed to issue players a win for a whole week. NBC News reported that the state’s Department of Consumer Protection uncovered the non-paying slot machine and issued the fines.

The sports betting and gambling website received a $19,000 fine and White Hat Gaming received a $3,500 fine. The website promised its players that its Deal or No Deal Banker’s Bonanza online slot machine would pay out 95 cents for every dollar it took from players. However, a Department of Consumer Protections report found that the slot machine didn’t pay out one red cent from August 15-21 last year. A total of 522 players put almost $24,000 into the machine for more than 20,569 spins during the period the machine refused to pay out any winnings.

An improperly loaded file caused the machine to glitch and refuse to let players win the advertised amount. Once the faulty file was located and identified as the cause of the glitch, DraftKings and White Hat Gaming relaunched the game on August 22, 2023.

The report also found that DraftKings and White Hat Gaming did not disclose the faulty machine to state officials until the Consumer Protections department requested the information last year. One player told the gaming website that they played “a couple hundred spins” at 20 cents per spin and the machine never paid out a “single winning spin or partial win,” according to the report. DraftKings officials responded to several complaints with messages like “I understand it can be frustrating to have a bit of a cold streak, but I can assure you there is nothing wrong with the game itself.”

The slot machine continued to withhold its winnings for another week until White Hat Gaming identified the glitch and repaired the software a second time. White Hat also says in the state’s report that all customers received refunds “without any notification from DraftKings,” according to the report.

A spokesperson for the Department of Consumer Protection also told NBC News that White Hat Gaming “responded swiftly” to investigators’ inquiries. However, DraftKings’ response “was not satisfactory” hence the higher fine.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/draftkings-gets-slapped-with-fine-for-online-slots-that-paid-zilch-222651632.html?src=rss

Bluesky added over 2 million Brazilian users after Brazil banned Elon Musk’s X

Posted on 03/09/2024 by Mariella Moon

In a post on its own social network, Bluesky has revealed that it has added 2.6 million users over the past few days. That's a lot of growth in such a short time for a platform that only has around 8.8 million users overall. In a blog post, the company said over 85 percent of the new users are Brazilian, which works out well in excess of 2 million.

If you'll recall, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes recently ordered the country's internet service providers to block X after the website formerly known as Twitter refused to ban specific accounts accused of spreading disinformation.

Moraes also ordered Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores and for people caught using VPN to access the website to be fined R$50,000 ($8,900). Brazil's Supreme Court has just upheld the ban on X after its judges voted unanimously in favor of the measure, according to the BBC. X owner Elon Musk accused Moraes of destroying democracy "for political purposes." The website also created a new profile called "Alexandre Files," which it said would shine a light "on the abuses of Brazilian law committed by Alexandre de Moraes."

After X became inaccessible in Brazil, users in the country found new homes elsewhere. Bluesky experienced a huge spike in the number of unique daily likes and posters, as well as in the number of unique followers, on the last days of August. While the website isn't quite as robust as Twitter yet, it recently teased that its next major app updated will come with video features, which could help keep its new users around.

Some other stats around Bluesky's meteroric rise show the impact of this influx of people to the platform. Comparing a 96-hour period from August 30 to September 2 to a similar period a month earlier, engineer Jaz said likes on the platform had risen from 13 million to 104.6 million, follows grew from 1.4 million to 100.8 million, and reposts increased from 1.3 million to 11 million. Bluesky developer Paul Frazee warned that users may see outages and performance issues as the platform has "never seen traffic like this."

Bluesky is a decentralized social network that was previously funded and was founded in 2019 by Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey. The website launched as an invite-only social network, but it finally opened to the public earlier this year. It also introduced new features most users would look for if they're set on leaving X, including direct messaging. While DMs only worked between two users upon launch, the website promised to roll out group messaging, media support and end-to-end encryption "down the line." Dorsey, however, exited the Bluesky board in May and later claimed that the website was "literally repeating all the mistakes" he made while running Twitter.

Update, September 4, 3:10PM ET: This story was updated after publishing. A section in the original story which inferred that the influx of users was likely Brazilian in origin was replaced with a statistic from Bluesky published on September 4 which confirmed this to be true. At the same time, further details were added to the story on the rise of follows, likes and reposts on the platform.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-added-over-2-million-brazilian-users-after-brazil-banned-elon-musks-x-140032042.html?src=rss

Social media companies can’t be forced to block teens from seeing ‘harmful’ content, judge rules

Posted on 02/09/2024 by Karissa Bell

A federal judge has ruled that social media companies can’t be required to block certain types of content from teens. The ruling will prevent some aspects of a controversial social media law in Texas from going into effect.

The ruling came as the result of tech industry groups’ challenge to the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, a Texas law that imposes age verification requirements and other policies for how social media companies treat teenage users. But, as The Verge points out, the measure also requires companies to “prevent the known minor’s exposure to harmful material,” including content that “glorifies” self-harm and substance abuse.

It’s that latter requirement that was struck down, with the judge saying that “a state cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech it wishes to block teenagers from discussing online.” The judge also criticized the language used in the law, writing in his decision that terms like “glorifying” and “promoting” are “politically charged” and “undefined.”

At the same time, the judge left other aspects of the law, including age verification requirements and bans on targeted advertising to minors, in place. NetChoice, the tech industry group that challenged the law, has argued that measures like the Scope Act require major tech companies to increase the amount of data collected from minors.

The Texas law, originally passed last year, is one of many across the country attempting to change how social media platforms deal with underage users. New York recently passed two laws restricting social media companies’ ability to collect data on teenage users, and requiring parental consent for younger users to access “addictive” features like algorithmic feeds. California lawmakers also recently passed a measure, which has yet to be signed into law by the governor, that requires social media companies to limit notifications to minors and restrict them from “addictive” algorithms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/social-media-companies-cant-be-forced-to-block-teens-from-seeing-harmful-content-judge-rules-221321184.html?src=rss

The world’s largest TV and movie piracy streaming ring is dead

Posted on 29/08/2024 by Danny Gallagher

The highly illegal but very popular media streaming site Fmovies and an affiliated network of pirated movie and TV show websites have been shut down. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition of movie studios and entertainment companies including Disney, NBCUniversal and MGM, announced the dismantling of the illegal streaming site, several of its other websites including bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer and aniwave and its video hosting provider vidsrc.to, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The Fmovies operation was based in Vietnam. Hanoi police arrested two unidentified men in connection with the pirated media empire who are awaiting charges.

Fmovies launched in 2016 and racked up 374 million monthly visits more than 6.7 billion visits from January 2023-June 2024. Data from SimilarWeb ranked Fmovies as the 280th most visited website in any category and the 11th most popular TV, movies and streaming website. ACE called the Fmovies syndicate “the largest piracy ring in the world,” according to a statement released earlier today.

The website even has its own subreddit where users could request and share links to TV shows and movies. As authorities closed in on the Fmovies operators, Reddit users started posting notices that the syndicate’s streaming sites weren’t working or starting to shut down. When news of Fmovies’ demise started to surface, users started asking for suggestions of alternate pirating sites.

ACE Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin called the shutdown and arrests “a stunning victory for casts, crews, directors, studios and the creative community across the globe.”

The walls seem to be closing around some of the web’s bigger media pirates. ACE claimed an earlier victory on August 15 following the shutdown of the aniwave illegal anime streaming website. Another pirate website, fboxz.to, shut down a few days later and posted a goodbye note on its homepage telling its visitors to “Please pay for the movies/shows, that’s what we should do to show our respect to people behind the movies/shows,” according to TorrentFreak.

The past month hasn’t been kinder to online pirates either. Earlier this month, the US extradited Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload who was the poster child for online piracy in the 2010s, from New Zealand to face charges for operating his video downloading empire.

Authorities arrested Dotcom in 2012 in his New Zealand home on counts including racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering and copyright distribution. His indictment claims that Megaupload caused $500 million in damages and made $175 million in advertising and subscription revenue from its illegal media library.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/the-worlds-largest-tv-and-movies-piracy-streaming-ring-is-dead-230141145.html?src=rss