theverge--2020-07-23--Twitter says advertisers stopped spending money in reaction to protests

Twitter ’ s advertising revenue was hit hard by the pandemic , and the company says that the “ US civil unrest ” in May and June also made matters worse .
Advertising revenue declined 15 percent year-over-year in the final three weeks of June , Twitter said , as brands slowed or paused spending entirely .
“ Demand gradually improved once brands returned after the protests subsided , ” Twitter said this morning in its Q2 2020 earnings report .
Brands have been known to block ads from appearing near terms like “ Black Lives Matter , ” “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” At the same time , several huge advertisers including Starbucks , Unilever , and Coca-Cola paused advertising across most social media platforms in June .
The advertising pause was initially focused on concerns over hate groups on Facebook , but they expanded to include other platforms at a time when companies may have wished to limit their spending anyway .
With the exception of “ late May to mid-June , ” Twitter says advertising revenue has been improving since its low point at the very start of the pandemic in March .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovery , ” Twitter said , but it hasn ’ t been enough to make up for the steep losses .
Twitter ’ s total revenue fell by 19 percent during its second quarter , once again pushing the company into the red — its second loss in a row after remaining profitable since the end of 2017 .
Advertisers have been tightening their budgets as the pandemic forces consumers , particularly in the US , to clamp down on spending .
That ’ s meant fewer ad sales for Twitter , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Advertising revenue fell 23 percent from the same quarter in 2019 .
The problems started last quarter , when the pandemic hit in the final weeks of Twitter ’ s reporting period .
It was enough to wipe out $ 20 million to $ 80 million in expected revenue and slash all growth in ad revenue over the prior year .
At the time , Twitter declined to estimate how much it might earn in Q2 , given the uncertainties of the pandemic .
One bright spot that Twitter is highlighting is user @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million daily users , up from 166 million the prior quarter .
It also reflects the largest year-over-year growth ( up from 139 million ) since Twitter started reporting daily users in 2019 ( which it started doing because its prior usage stat , monthly users , kept going down ) .
To make up for falling ad revenue , Twitter is working on new money-making features .
On a call with investors , Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned subscriptions and commerce as possible opportunities , as well as helping sites managed paywalled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely see some tests this year , ” Dorsey said .
The pandemic struggles also come as Twitter faces down two other serious threats : fallout from the unprecedented hack earlier this month that saw breaches of top user accounts , and the eyes at activist investor firm Elliott Management , which earlier this year tried to push out Dorsey .
Twitter and Elliott eventually came to an agreement on user growth and revenue targets that would keep Dorsey on top , but it ’ s likely Twitter will miss whatever revenue target @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic .

Twitter’s advertising revenue was hit hard by the pandemic, and the company says that the “US civil unrest” in May and June also made matters worse. Advertising revenue declined 15 percent year-over-year in the final three weeks of June, Twitter said, as brands slowed or paused spending entirely. “Demand gradually improved once brands returned after the protests subsided,” Twitter said this morning in its Q2 2020 earnings report.
Brands have been known to block ads from appearing near terms like “Black Lives Matter,” “George Floyd,” and “protest.” At the same time, several huge advertisers including Starbucks, Unilever, and Coca-Cola paused advertising across most social media platforms in June. The advertising pause was initially focused on concerns over hate groups on Facebook, but they expanded to include other platforms at a time when companies may have wished to limit their spending anyway.
Twitter’s bright spot was a record for daily users
With the exception of “late May to mid-June,” Twitter says advertising revenue has been improving since its low point at the very start of the pandemic in March. There was a “gradual, moderate recovery,” Twitter said, but it hasn’t been enough to make up for the steep losses. Twitter’s total revenue fell by 19 percent during its second quarter, once again pushing the company into the red — its second loss in a row after remaining profitable since the end of 2017.
Advertisers have been tightening their budgets as the pandemic forces consumers, particularly in the US, to clamp down on spending. That’s meant fewer ad sales for Twitter, which are its primary source of revenue. Advertising revenue fell 23 percent from the same quarter in 2019.
The problems started last quarter, when the pandemic hit in the final weeks of Twitter’s reporting period. It was enough to wipe out $20 million to $80 million in expected revenue and slash all growth in ad revenue over the prior year. At the time, Twitter declined to estimate how much it might earn in Q2, given the uncertainties of the pandemic.
One bright spot that Twitter is highlighting is user growth. The company grew to 186 million daily users, up from 166 million the prior quarter. It also reflects the largest year-over-year growth (up from 139 million) since Twitter started reporting daily users in 2019 (which it started doing because its prior usage stat, monthly users, kept going down).
To make up for falling ad revenue, Twitter is working on new money-making features. On a call with investors, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned subscriptions and commerce as possible opportunities, as well as helping sites managed paywalled access to stories. “You will likely see some tests this year,” Dorsey said.


theverge--2020-07-23--US Army pauses video game streams after accusations of violating free speech

The US Army has paused streaming video games on Twitch as an outreach and recruitment tool after facing criticism for banning viewers who asked its streamers about US war crimes .
The pause was first reported by esports consultant Rod “ Slasher ” Breslau who said the Army team was stopping streaming , social activity , and participation in the upcoming Twitch Rivals competition .
Breslau said there was “ no official time frame for a return ” and that Twitch had not cancelled its official partnerships with US Army and Navy esports teams .
“ The team has paused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” A spokesperson for the US Army confirmed the news to GameSpot : “ The team has paused streaming to review internal policies and procedures , as well as all platform-specific policies , to ensure those participating in the space are clear before streaming resumes.
” The “ policies and procedures ” being referred to include how military streamers handle critics on their channels .
Streamers from the US Army and Navy , which include active duty and reserve personnel , have banned viewers for asking about US war crimes and for bringing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former Navy SEAL charged with war crimes after being accused of stabbing a 17-year-old prisoner to death and posing with the corpse .
( Gallagher was later acquitted of most charges following intervention by President Trump . )
Although Twitch streamers are generally free to moderate their channels as they see fit , the US military is a branch of the government and must obey different rules , say civil rights lawyers .
A video game stream counts as an open forum for debate , they argue , and so the military must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speech .
US military streams must uphold the first amendment , say lawyers “ The Army and Navy can ’ t constitutionally delete comments or ban people from these Twitch channels simply for asking questions about issues they would rather not address , ” said Katie Fallow , senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute , in a statement .
The Army , meanwhile , argues that questions about war crimes constitute harassment , and so violate Twitch ’ s terms of service .
“ The eSports Team blocked the term ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after discovering the trend was meant to troll and harass the team , ” Kelli Bland , a spokesperson for the Army , told The New York Times .
“ Twitch members used creative spelling to continue related posts .
Following the guidelines and policies set by Twitch , the US Army eSports Team banned a user from its account due to concern over posted content and website links that were considered harassing and degrading in nature.
” The US Army has also been accused of sharing fake prize giveaways In addition to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been accused of using fake prize giveaways to push its viewers towards recruitment pages .
The practice was highlighted by a report in The Nation , which said that automated links dropped into Army streams told users they could win an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller .
When viewers clicked the link , though , they were redirected to a recruitment form with no information on the prize giveaway .
The Army says the URLs tracked users in order to allot prizes , but Twitch forced them to remove the links , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the military to reform its streaming policies could even tip over into legislation .
As first reported by Motherboard , US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( D-NY ) is planning to file an amendment to an upcoming appropriations bill that would prevent the military using the funds in the bill to “ maintain a presence on Twitch.com or any video game , e-sports , or live-streaming platform.
” “ It ’ s incredibly irresponsible for the Army and the Navy to be recruiting impressionable young people and children via live streaming platforms , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not a game , and the Marine Corps ’ decision not to engage in this recruiting tool should be a clear signal to the other branches of the military to cease this practice entirely.
” ( The Army esports team mostly streams video game shooters like Call of Duty . )
It ’ s unclear , though , if the amendment will survive the process of approval for the bill , which will have to pass through both the House and the Senate before it can become law .
We ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Navy for comments on this story and will update it if we hear more .

The US Army has paused streaming video games on Twitch as an outreach and recruitment tool after facing criticism for banning viewers who asked its streamers about US war crimes.
The pause was first reported by esports consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau who said the Army team was stopping streaming, social activity, and participation in the upcoming Twitch Rivals competition. Breslau said there was “no official time frame for a return” and that Twitch had not cancelled its official partnerships with US Army and Navy esports teams.
“The team has paused streaming to review internal policies and procedures”
A spokesperson for the US Army confirmed the news to GameSpot: “The team has paused streaming to review internal policies and procedures, as well as all platform-specific policies, to ensure those participating in the space are clear before streaming resumes.”
The “policies and procedures” being referred to include how military streamers handle critics on their channels. Streamers from the US Army and Navy, which include active duty and reserve personnel, have banned viewers for asking about US war crimes and for bringing up figures like Eddie Gallagher, a former Navy SEAL charged with war crimes after being accused of stabbing a 17-year-old prisoner to death and posing with the corpse. (Gallagher was later acquitted of most charges following intervention by President Trump.)
Although Twitch streamers are generally free to moderate their channels as they see fit, the US military is a branch of the government and must obey different rules, say civil rights lawyers. A video game stream counts as an open forum for debate, they argue, and so the military must uphold the first amendment right to free speech.
US military streams must uphold the first amendment, say lawyers
“The Army and Navy can’t constitutionally delete comments or ban people from these Twitch channels simply for asking questions about issues they would rather not address,” said Katie Fallow, senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, in a statement.
The Army, meanwhile, argues that questions about war crimes constitute harassment, and so violate Twitch’s terms of service.
“The eSports Team blocked the term ‘war crimes’ in its Twitch channel after discovering the trend was meant to troll and harass the team,” Kelli Bland, a spokesperson for the Army, told The New York Times. “Twitch members used creative spelling to continue related posts. Following the guidelines and policies set by Twitch, the US Army eSports Team banned a user from its account due to concern over posted content and website links that were considered harassing and degrading in nature.”
The US Army has also been accused of sharing fake prize giveaways
In addition to accusations of censorship, the US Army has been accused of using fake prize giveaways to push its viewers towards recruitment pages. The practice was highlighted by a report in The Nation, which said that automated links dropped into Army streams told users they could win an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. When viewers clicked the link, though, they were redirected to a recruitment form with no information on the prize giveaway. The Army says the URLs tracked users in order to allot prizes, but Twitch forced them to remove the links, citing a lack of transparency.
Pressure for the military to reform its streaming policies could even tip over into legislation. As first reported by Motherboard, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is planning to file an amendment to an upcoming appropriations bill that would prevent the military using the funds in the bill to “maintain a presence on Twitch.com or any video game, e-sports, or live-streaming platform.”
“It’s incredibly irresponsible for the Army and the Navy to be recruiting impressionable young people and children via live streaming platforms,” Ocasio-Cortez told Motherboard. “War is not a game, and the Marine Corps’ decision not to engage in this recruiting tool should be a clear signal to the other branches of the military to cease this practice entirely.” (The Army esports team mostly streams video game shooters like Call of Duty.)
It’s unclear, though, if the amendment will survive the process of approval for the bill, which will have to pass through both the House and the Senate before it can become law.


theverge--2020-07-23--How to watch the next Xbox Series X game showcase

Microsoft is hosting its second virtual event focused on games coming to the Xbox Series X console this week .
Unlike the last one that focused on third-party titles that will be available during the Series X ’ s launch window , Microsoft has made it very clear that we should expect to see an extended look at Halo Infinite , and we ’ ll likely see other first-party games made by Xbox Game Studios .
Perhaps that means we ’ ll see real-time gameplay of Senua ’ s Saga : Hellblade 2 , Rare ’ s Everwild , Psychonauts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fable game .
Additionally , Microsoft has released more than 70 playable demos to let you go hands-on with games coming to Xbox One later this year .
How do I watch the Xbox Series X game showcase ?
What time does the game showcase begin ?
It starts at 12PM ET / 9AM PT on Thursday , July 23rd .
If you want to watch a pre-show hosted by Geoff Keighley , that begins an hour earlier on YouTube .
We ’ ll add a link for that once it becomes available @

Microsoft is hosting its second virtual event focused on games coming to the Xbox Series X console this week. Unlike the last one that focused on third-party titles that will be available during the Series X’s launch window, Microsoft has made it very clear that we should expect to see an extended look at Halo Infinite, and we’ll likely see other first-party games made by Xbox Game Studios. Perhaps that means we’ll see real-time gameplay of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Rare’s Everwild, Psychonauts 2, and maybe even a new Fable game.


theverge--2020-07-23--Latest iOS 14 beta offers more evidence of a 5.4-inch iPhone

iOS 14 ’ s third beta contains more evidence that Apple has an iPhone with a 5.4-inch display on the way , 9to5Mac reports .
The reasoning is a little complicated , so bear with us .
9to5Mac is basing its hunch on iOS ’ s Display Zoom feature , which you can use to make your phone ’ s text , buttons , and icons bigger .
Display Zoom works by pretending your phone has a smaller physical display , so if you ’ re using an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a 6.5-inch screen , Display Zoom shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the iPhone 11 Pro , essentially magnifying the elements .
9to5Mac discovered a new smaller resolution in iOS 14 beta 3 that enables Display Zoom for the iPhone X , XS , or 11 Pro for the first time .
The display resolution of 960 x 2079 pixels scales back to fit nicely inside an iPhone with a 5.4-inch display , leading 9to5Mac to speculate that Apple could have a phone with this screen size on the way .
It ’ s not that much to go on , but the sleuthing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ predictions from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo .
In June last year , Kuo predicted that we ’ d see a 5.4-inch iPhone with 5G support and an OLED display in 2020 , and earlier this year he said that the phone is due to go into mass production in September .
If reports are to be believed , the 5.4-inch iPhone , could be among as many as four new iPhones to be announced later this year .

iOS 14’s third beta contains more evidence that Apple has an iPhone with a 5.4-inch display on the way, 9to5Mac reports.
The reasoning is a little complicated, so bear with us. 9to5Mac is basing its hunch on iOS’s Display Zoom feature, which you can use to make your phone’s text, buttons, and icons bigger. Display Zoom works by pretending your phone has a smaller physical display, so if you’re using an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a 6.5-inch screen, Display Zoom shows the interface designed for the 5.8-inch display of the iPhone 11 Pro, essentially magnifying the elements.
Corroborating previous reports from Ming-Chi Kuo
9to5Mac discovered a new smaller resolution in iOS 14 beta 3 that enables Display Zoom for the iPhone X, XS, or 11 Pro for the first time. The display resolution of 960 x 2079 pixels scales back to fit nicely inside an iPhone with a 5.4-inch display, leading 9to5Mac to speculate that Apple could have a phone with this screen size on the way.


theverge--2020-07-23--Getting rid of QAnon won’t be as easy as Twitter might think

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Every tech platform has two policies about what they will allow : the policy that ’ s written , and the policy that ’ s enforced .
Ideally there would be no gap between these , but in practice it almost can ’ t be helped .
To take one dumb example , the embryonic audio social network Clubhouse posted its first set of community guidelines the other week .
One of these rules says “ we prohibit the spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or news.
” In theory , this means that only the truth is allowed on Clubhouse .
Not a bad policy , really , but when you ’ re building a network that someday anyone will be able to use to essentially broadcast their phone calls , I imagine that Clubhouse will find it extremely hard to enforce .
Of course people will lie on Clubhouse .
They will lie all the time .
The question is who will be punished for doing so .
I thought about all this on Tuesday night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accounts and put restrictions on 150,000 more related to the sprawling conspiracy theory slash alternate reality game slash religion QAnon .
Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny had the scoop at NBC News : The ban on “ swarming ” is particularly significant .
Often conspiracy theorists will falsely declare various celebrities and politicians as being at the heart of some lunatic Satan-worshiping scheme , and their followers will descend on the timelines of the accused — and their friends and family — to wreak havoc .
And yet , how will swarming be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tweeting it , which means the update itself was brief to the point of being opaque .
You will be suspending if you are found to be “ coordinating abuse around individual victims.
” OK .
But what if you ’ re just one of thousands of accounts in the victim ’ s mentions tweeting “ stop eating babies ” ?
I don ’ t see anything in the policy about that — perhaps because , from an enforcement , perspective , it could be difficult to determine what makes abuse “ coordinated.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Twitter itself has not yet defined what it means by coordination .
In any case , it seems that Twitter won ’ t be the only network to take a harder stance against QAnon .
Facebook plans to escalate its own enforcement against its adherents , Kate Conger reports at the New York Times .
She also offers a good concise description of what QAnon is , for those still unaware : All of this is welcome news , since QAnon conspiracists have increasingly been associated with real-world violence .
( Pizzagate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a gunman shooting up a pizza restaurant . )
At the same time , QAnon is also a political movement .
By some counts , there are a dozen Republicans now running for national office who profess allegiance to QAnon .
Some are expected to win seats in Congress .
And so will they be affected by the ban ?
“ A Twitter spox tells me that ‘ currently candidates and elected officials will not be automatically included in many of these actions broadly , ’ ” CNN ’ s Oliver Darcy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these QAnon adherents who win Congressional seats could continue to use Twitter to promote the idea that there is a “ deep state ” devoted to child murder , potentially inciting their followers to violence .
It ’ s an admittedly difficult position for Twitter ( or Facebook ) to be in — the bar for de-platforming an elected official should be high .
And yet it ’ s hard to imagine that members of the QAnon caucus won ’ t clear it .
It ’ s easy to announce some strict new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some praise .
But we ’ ve seen enough of these adjustments recently — I ’ m thinking here of Facebook ’ s Boogaloo ban — to know that the devil is very much in the details .
I believe Twitter intends to eliminate as much QAnon content from the platform as it can .
But I ’ m less sure , looking at its flimsy tweets on the subject , how it will .
On Tuesday I wrote about the New York Times ’ Kevin Roose and his tweets about the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aggravated company executives by painting what they say is a misleading picture of the News Feed .
I got an unusually polarized response , and wanted to share it here .
The pro-Roose side , which you can get a flavor of in the responses to CNN reporter Oliver Darcy ’ s tweet about my story , is about what you would expect : Facebook bad , go Kevin .
Meanwhile , people in Facebook ’ s orbit criticized me for going too easy on Roose ’ s tweets .
The data he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing the spread of stories on social networks .
But what it measures is activity on Facebook publisher pages , not links shared throughout the ecosystem overall .
And the people who interact heavily with Facebook publisher pages are not typical Facebook users — they ’ re more partisan than average , and that distorts the picture painted in the lists , people told me .
But because that picture fits reporters ’ general view of Facebook , which is that it is is a powerful engine for promoting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we ’ ve all accepted the idea that CrowdTangle data is a good gauge of what ’ s popular on Facebook .
I don ’ t know .
Open CrowdTangle .
“ The easiest way to keep track of what ’ s happening on social media , ” a banner blares .
Log in , and a prominent tab called “ Leaderboard ” links you to a list of publishing categories that you can sort by interactions or views .
There is not a disclaimer when you log in that says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data paints a misleading picture of what ’ s really happening on Facebook.
” Instead it offers a bunch of data in attractive charts about content that very much appears to be popular .
Hence the leaderboard !
Anyway , if Facebook wants to do something about the way reporters like Roose represent data on a tool that Facebook itself owns , it seems to me that they could start with the tool rather than the tweets .
Last month I wrote about how the independent developer Basecamp successfully bent Apple ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company ’ s anticompetitive practices surrounding its own email app and certain revenue it hoped to extract from Basecamp ’ s email app Hey .
Now an antitrust hearing has been scheduled on Monday in the House of Representatives , where Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify and take questions on App Store competition .
Ahead of that , today Apple held a briefing to announce that it had commissioned a study of the commissions taken by various other e-commerce players .
Economists at something called the Analysis Group were called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken by Google , Airbnb , and other platforms , and they did , and on Wednesday they published a PDF .
They were neither asked nor allowed to comment on the significance of the findings or the fairness of the App Store .
Anyway , OneZero ’ s Will Oremus had my thoughts exactly when he said : “ I wrote in depth about the antitrust case against Apple in February .
The core argument was never that the 30 % rate was out of line with the industry .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pay it , even while competing with Apple ’ s own apps that do not.
” Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms .
Trending up : Facebook is creating new teams at Facebook and Instagram to study racial bias in its products .
The “ equity and inclusion team ” at Instagram will examine how Black and Hispanic users in the US are affected by the company ’ s algorithms .
( Deepa Seetharaman and Jeff Horwitz / The Wall Street Journal ) ⭐ Slack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European Commission , accusing the tech giant of using its market power to try to crush competition .
Unlike the other big tech companies , Microsoft has escaped antitrust scrutiny so far .
New York Times reporter Steve Lohr has the details of the complaint : Republicans are calling on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at the upcoming antitrust hearing alongside the CEOs of Amazon , Apple , Facebook and Google .
In a letter to Democratic leadership , Jim Jordan , ( R-OH ) , wrote : “ We believe there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about its power in the marketplace , its role in moderating content on its platform , and the causes for its recent highly publicized security breaches.
” ( Lauren Feiner / CNBC ) Italy ’ s antitrust authority raided the offices of Apple and Amazon after a local retailer complained they ’ d been banned from re-selling products on the online marketplace .
The companies are suspected of unfairly curbing the sale of Apple ’ s Beats products by anyone other than members of its official reseller program .
( Nate Lanxon and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Commerce communications , technology , innovation and the internet subcommittee has a hearing scheduled for July 28th to discuss the PACT Act from Sens .
John Thune ( R-S.D . )
and Brian Schatz ( D-Hawaii ) .
The bill is an attempt to curb Section 230 protections for big tech companies .
( Ashley Gold / Axios ) Bangladesh ’ s regulator ordered telecom operators to stop providing free access to social media companies .
Over the last 10 years , companies like Facebook and Twitter have struck partnerships , known as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make their services free to users to accelerate growth .
( Manish Singh / TechCrunch ) Ellen Pao , who briefly led Reddit and was the subject of a series of targeted harassment campaigns , has some suggestions for how Facebook can deal with hate on its platform .
First up ?
Stop outsourcing content moderation and make moderators employees .
( Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian ) The three brothers behind MeidasTouch — a media company turned super PAC — are successfully spinning up viral content for social networks by using @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Recent videos targeting Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump have more than 14 million views combined on Twitter .
( Gregory Krieg and Ryan Nobles / CNN ) Inside China ’ s global propaganda apparatus .
The Chinese Communist Party uses both broadcast and social media to try and shape the narrative , including leveraging influencers with millions of followers to spread messages on social platforms .
So far , it has been less effective than Russia .
( Stanford Internet Observatory ) ⭐ A group of US investors in ByteDance is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way of dealing with a possible US ban of the app .
Juro Osawa and Tom Dotan at The Information have the story : Snap had a strong second quarter despite the ongoing pandemic .
The company ’ s user base is up by 9 million people daily over last quarter , and its revenue is up 17 percent year over year , at $ 454 million .
( Ashley Carman / The Verge ) Snap launched an internal investigation into allegations of racism and sexism at the company .
The move comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about a lack of diversity at the company , and what they called biased editorial practices .
Facebook is adding an extra layer of security to Messenger .
Now , the app can be locked on or shortly after closing , and require Face ID or Touch ID to open back up .
( Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge ) WhatsApp is piloting a project to offer credit , insurance and pension products to low-income people in India .
The move is part of Facebook ’ s push to get into the digital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Singh / TechCrunch ) Joe Rogan and Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier equated being transgender to having anorexia , joining a cult , and “ demonic possession ” in a recent episode of Rogan ’ s show uploaded to YouTube .
Rogan is one of the most influential podcast hosts in the world , and his podcast was just acquired by Spotify .
Does Spotify even have a policy team ?
Does it have community guidelines ?
Expect a lot more reporting like this in coming months .
( Alex Paterson / @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that builds tools to fight child sexual exploitation , launched a tool on to help small- and medium-size tech companies find , remove and report child sexual abuse material .
The tool , called Safer , is designed for companies that don ’ t have the resources to build their own systems .
Every company that lets users upload media to its servers needs to employ tech like Thorn has built here .
( Olivia Solon / NBC ) Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine .
Endlessly doomscroll .
“ Doomscrolling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thumbing through social media feeds for fear of missing some even more catastrophic news than the events you already know about .
Ben Grosser ’ s latest social media art project invites you to scroll through an infinite series of disturbing partial headlines : “ Outbreak Grows , ” “ Curve Rising Too Quickly , ” “ Experts Say Future Uncertain.
” Send us tips , comments , questions , and QAnon swarms : casey @ theverge.com and zoe @ theverge.com .

Every tech platform has two policies about what they will allow: the policy that’s written, and the policy that’s enforced. Ideally there would be no gap between these, but in practice it almost can’t be helped.
To take one dumb example, the embryonic audio social network Clubhouse posted its first set of community guidelines the other week. One of these rules says “we prohibit the spread of or attempts to spread false information or news.” In theory, this means that only the truth is allowed on Clubhouse. Not a bad policy, really, but when you’re building a network that someday anyone will be able to use to essentially broadcast their phone calls, I imagine that Clubhouse will find it extremely hard to enforce. Of course people will lie on Clubhouse. They will lie all the time. The question is who will be punished for doing so.
Twitter will stop recommending accounts and content related to QAnon, including material in email and follow recommendations, and it will take steps to limit circulation of content in features like trends and search. The action will affect about 150,000 accounts, said a spokesperson, who asked to remain unnamed because of concerns about the targeted harassment of social media employees. The sweeping enforcement action will ban QAnon-related terms from appearing in trending topics and the platform’s search feature, ban known QAnon-related URLs and prohibit “swarming” of people who are baselessly targeted by coordinated harassment campaigns pushed by QAnon followers.
The ban on “swarming” is particularly significant. Often conspiracy theorists will falsely declare various celebrities and politicians as being at the heart of some lunatic Satan-worshiping scheme, and their followers will descend on the timelines of the accused — and their friends and family — to wreak havoc.
And yet, how will swarming be detected? Twitter updated its policy by tweeting it, which means the update itself was brief to the point of being opaque. You will be suspending if you are found to be “coordinating abuse around individual victims.” OK. But what if you’re just one of thousands of accounts in the victim’s mentions tweeting “stop eating babies”? I don’t see anything in the policy about that — perhaps because, from an enforcement, perspective, it could be difficult to determine what makes abuse “coordinated.” As Evelyn Douek notes here, Twitter itself has not yet defined what it means by coordination.
In any case, it seems that Twitter won’t be the only network to take a harder stance against QAnon. Facebook plans to escalate its own enforcement against its adherents, Kate Conger reports at the New York Times. She also offers a good concise description of what QAnon is, for those still unaware:
Facebook is preparing to take similar steps to limit the reach of QAnon content on its platform, said two Facebook employees with knowledge of the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The company has been coordinating with Twitter and other social media companies and plans to make and announcement next month, the employees said. Facebook declined to comment. The QAnon theories stem from an anonymous person or group of people who use the name “Q” and claim to have access to government secrets that reveal a plot against President Trump and his supporters. That supposedly classified information was initially posted on message boards before spreading to mainstream internet platforms and has led to significant online harassment as well as physical violence.
All of this is welcome news, since QAnon conspiracists have increasingly been associated with real-world violence. (Pizzagate, a forerunner of QAnon, famously led to a gunman shooting up a pizza restaurant.)
At the same time, QAnon is also a political movement. By some counts, there are a dozen Republicans now running for national office who profess allegiance to QAnon. Some are expected to win seats in Congress. And so will they be affected by the ban?
“A Twitter spox tells me that ‘currently candidates and elected officials will not be automatically included in many of these actions broadly,’” CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported. That suggests that some of these QAnon adherents who win Congressional seats could continue to use Twitter to promote the idea that there is a “deep state” devoted to child murder, potentially inciting their followers to violence. It’s an admittedly difficult position for Twitter (or Facebook) to be in — the bar for de-platforming an elected official should be high. And yet it’s hard to imagine that members of the QAnon caucus won’t clear it.
It’s easy to announce some strict new policy against some violent group and get some praise. But we’ve seen enough of these adjustments recently — I’m thinking here of Facebook’s Boogaloo ban — to know that the devil is very much in the details. I believe Twitter intends to eliminate as much QAnon content from the platform as it can. But I’m less sure, looking at its flimsy tweets on the subject, how it will.
Pushback
I.
On Tuesday I wrote about the New York Times’ Kevin Roose and his tweets about the most popular links on Facebook, which have aggravated company executives by painting what they say is a misleading picture of the News Feed. I got an unusually polarized response, and wanted to share it here. The pro-Roose side, which you can get a flavor of in the responses to CNN reporter Oliver Darcy’s tweet about my story, is about what you would expect: Facebook bad, go Kevin.
Meanwhile, people in Facebook’s orbit criticized me for going too easy on Roose’s tweets. The data he’s using comes from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing the spread of stories on social networks. But what it measures is activity on Facebook publisher pages, not links shared throughout the ecosystem overall. And the people who interact heavily with Facebook publisher pages are not typical Facebook users — they’re more partisan than average, and that distorts the picture painted in the lists, people told me. But because that picture fits reporters’ general view of Facebook, which is that it is is a powerful engine for promoting the conservative movement and its leading figures, we’ve all accepted the idea that CrowdTangle data is a good gauge of what’s popular on Facebook.
I don’t know. Open CrowdTangle. “The easiest way to keep track of what’s happening on social media,” a banner blares. Log in, and a prominent tab called “Leaderboard” links you to a list of publishing categories that you can sort by interactions or views. There is not a disclaimer when you log in that says, “just so you know, CrowdTangle data paints a misleading picture of what’s really happening on Facebook.” Instead it offers a bunch of data in attractive charts about content that very much appears to be popular. Hence the leaderboard!
Anyway, if Facebook wants to do something about the way reporters like Roose represent data on a tool that Facebook itself owns, it seems to me that they could start with the tool rather than the tweets.
II.
Last month I wrote about how the independent developer Basecamp successfully bent Apple’s App Store policies after complaining about the company’s anticompetitive practices surrounding its own email app and certain revenue it hoped to extract from Basecamp’s email app Hey. Now an antitrust hearing has been scheduled on Monday in the House of Representatives, where Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify and take questions on App Store competition.
Ahead of that, today Apple held a briefing to announce that it had commissioned a study of the commissions taken by various other e-commerce players. Economists at something called the Analysis Group were called in to look up the various cuts taken by Google, Airbnb, and other platforms, and they did, and on Wednesday they published a PDF. They were neither asked nor allowed to comment on the significance of the findings or the fairness of the App Store.
Anyway, OneZero’s Will Oremus had my thoughts exactly when he said: “I wrote in depth about the antitrust case against Apple in February. The core argument was never that the 30% rate was out of line with the industry. It’s that developers had no choice but to pay it, even while competing with Apple’s own apps that do not.”
The Ratio
Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.
🔼 Trending up: Facebook is creating new teams at Facebook and Instagram to study racial bias in its products. The “equity and inclusion team” at Instagram will examine how Black and Hispanic users in the US are affected by the company’s algorithms. (Deepa Seetharaman and Jeff Horwitz / The Wall Street Journal)
Governing
⭐ Slack filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, accusing the tech giant of using its market power to try to crush competition. Unlike the other big tech companies, Microsoft has escaped antitrust scrutiny so far. New York Times reporter Steve Lohr has the details of the complaint:
Slack claims that Microsoft has illegally tied its collaboration software, Microsoft Teams, to its dominant suite of productivity programs, Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. That bundling tactic, Slack contends, is part of a pattern of anticompetitive behavior by Microsoft. “Slack threatens Microsoft’s hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft’s lock on enterprise software,” Jonathan Prince, vice president of communications and policy at Slack, said in a statement.
Republicans are calling on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at the upcoming antitrust hearing alongside the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. In a letter to Democratic leadership, Jim Jordan, (R-OH), wrote: “We believe there is bipartisan interest to hear from Twitter about its power in the marketplace, its role in moderating content on its platform, and the causes for its recent highly publicized security breaches.” (Lauren Feiner / CNBC)
Italy’s antitrust authority raided the offices of Apple and Amazon after a local retailer complained they’d been banned from re-selling products on the online marketplace. The companies are suspected of unfairly curbing the sale of Apple’s Beats products by anyone other than members of its official reseller program. (Nate Lanxon and Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg)
The Senate Commerce communications, technology, innovation and the internet subcommittee has a hearing scheduled for July 28th to discuss the PACT Act from Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). The bill is an attempt to curb Section 230 protections for big tech companies. (Ashley Gold / Axios)
Bangladesh’s regulator ordered telecom operators to stop providing free access to social media companies. Over the last 10 years, companies like Facebook and Twitter have struck partnerships, known as zero-rating deals, with telecom operators to make their services free to users to accelerate growth. (Manish Singh / TechCrunch)
Ellen Pao, who briefly led Reddit and was the subject of a series of targeted harassment campaigns, has some suggestions for how Facebook can deal with hate on its platform. First up? Stop outsourcing content moderation and make moderators employees. (Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian)
Inside China’s global propaganda apparatus. The Chinese Communist Party uses both broadcast and social media to try and shape the narrative, including leveraging influencers with millions of followers to spread messages on social platforms. So far, it has been less effective than Russia. (Stanford Internet Observatory)
Industry
⭐ A group of US investors in ByteDance is considering buying control of TikTok as a way of dealing with a possible US ban of the app. Juro Osawa and Tom Dotan at The Information have the story:
Under the idea being discussed, a group of existing ByteDance shareholders, possibly including Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, SoftBank and New Enterprise Associates, would collectively buy the majority stake, said people familiar with the idea. ByteDance may continue to own a minority stake, although probably without board representation. The investors’ hope would be to take TikTok public at some point in the future so they could eventually sell their stake, the people said. Several issues remain unresolved, and it isn’t clear if all investors are behind the idea or whether it is being driven by a handful of them. One question is whether the government would allow ByteDance to continue owning even a minority stake. Another is whether the investors would buy all of TikTok, just the U.S. operations, or the U.S. and India operations together. TikTok has already been banned in India, its biggest market by users, due to tensions between the Chinese and Indian governments.
Snap had a strong second quarter despite the ongoing pandemic. The company’s user base is up by 9 million people daily over last quarter, and its revenue is up 17 percent year over year, at $454 million. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)
Snap launched an internal investigation into allegations of racism and sexism at the company. The move comes after former employees spoke out in June about a lack of diversity at the company, and what they called biased editorial practices.
Facebook is adding an extra layer of security to Messenger. Now, the app can be locked on or shortly after closing, and require Face ID or Touch ID to open back up. (Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge)
WhatsApp is piloting a project to offer credit, insurance and pension products to low-income people in India. The move is part of Facebook’s push to get into the digital payments space in India. (Manish Singh / TechCrunch)
Joe Rogan and Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier equated being transgender to having anorexia, joining a cult, and “demonic possession” in a recent episode of Rogan’s show uploaded to YouTube. Rogan is one of the most influential podcast hosts in the world, and his podcast was just acquired by Spotify. Does Spotify even have a policy team? Does it have community guidelines? Expect a lot more reporting like this in coming months. (Alex Paterson / Media Matters)
Thorn, a nonprofit that builds tools to fight child sexual exploitation, launched a tool on to help small- and medium-size tech companies find, remove and report child sexual abuse material. The tool, called Safer, is designed for companies that don’t have the resources to build their own systems. Every company that lets users upload media to its servers needs to employ tech like Thorn has built here. (Olivia Solon / NBC)
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
Endlessly doomscroll. “Doomscrolling” refers to the behavior of helplessly thumbing through social media feeds for fear of missing some even more catastrophic news than the events you already know about. Ben Grosser’s latest social media art project invites you to scroll through an infinite series of disturbing partial headlines: “Outbreak Grows,” “Curve Rising Too Quickly,” “Experts Say Future Uncertain.”
Those good tweets
Talk to us


theverge--2020-07-23--Instacart users’ personal data, including order history, is reportedly being sold online

The personal data of hundreds of thousands of Instacart users is being sold on the dark web for around $ 2 per person , according to a report from BuzzFeed .
The publication says information including “ names , the last four digits of credit card numbers , and order histories ” appearing to belong to 278,531 Instacart accounts is available to buy .
( Though it ’ s impossible to verify that this number doesn ’ t include duplicates or incorrect data . )
BuzzFeed did confirm with two Instacart users that the order date , transaction amount , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cache matched their recent purchases .
The data also includes users ’ emails addresses .
It ’ s not clear what the source of the data is Instacart denies that there ’ s been a data breach of its systems , but says it ’ s investigating the issue and has reached out to potentially affected users .
A spokesperson for the company told The Verge that it was contacting customers whose data might have been compromised not because of a data breach , but because of phishing attacks or credential stuffing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ information posted online as a result of leaks or breaches and use it to try and access different accounts belonging to the same targets .
It ’ s often successful because people tend to re-use passwords across the web .
BuzzFeed reports that the data for sale dated back to June with the most recent upload covering July 22nd .
“ It ’ s looking recent and totally legit , ” cybersecurity expert Nick Espinosa told the publication after reviewing the data .
Instacart says any breached accounts are temporarily suspended and users @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We are not aware of any data breach at this time .
We take data protection and privacy very seriously , ” a spokesperson for the company told BuzzFeed .
“ Outside of the Instacart platform , attackers may target individuals using phishing or credential stuffing techniques .
In instances where we believe a customer ’ s account may have been compromised through an external phishing scam outside of the Instacart platform or other action , we proactively communicate to our customers to auto-force them to update their password .
”

The personal data of hundreds of thousands of Instacart users is being sold on the dark web for around $2 per person, according to a report from BuzzFeed.
The publication says information including “names, the last four digits of credit card numbers, and order histories” appearing to belong to 278,531 Instacart accounts is available to buy. (Though it’s impossible to verify that this number doesn’t include duplicates or incorrect data.) BuzzFeed did confirm with two Instacart users that the order date, transaction amount, and credit card numbers included in the cache matched their recent purchases. The data also includes users’ emails addresses.
It’s not clear what the source of the data is
Instacart denies that there’s been a data breach of its systems, but says it’s investigating the issue and has reached out to potentially affected users. A spokesperson for the company told The Verge that it was contacting customers whose data might have been compromised not because of a data breach, but because of phishing attacks or credential stuffing.
Credential stuffing is where hackers take login information posted online as a result of leaks or breaches and use it to try and access different accounts belonging to the same targets. It’s often successful because people tend to re-use passwords across the web.
BuzzFeed reports that the data for sale dated back to June with the most recent upload covering July 22nd. “It’s looking recent and totally legit,” cybersecurity expert Nick Espinosa told the publication after reviewing the data.
Instacart says any breached accounts are temporarily suspended and users forced to update their passwords.


theverge--2020-07-23--US Space Force explains why its logo isn’t a Star Trek ripoff

An official logo and motto for the United States Space Force have been revealed , following the announcement of its official seal back in January , and flag in May .
The organization ’ s motto is “ Semper Supra , ” which is Latin for “ Always Above , ” while the logo itself is based around a delta shape that ’ s been the focus of some mockery thanks to its similarity to Starfleet ’ s logo from Star Trek .
Defenders of Space Force ’ s seal were quick to point out that its actual inspiration appears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Space Command .
The official US Space Force Twitter account points out that the shape has been been in use by space organizations as far back as 1961 .
Star Trek , meanwhile , debuted in 1966 .
So what about the other elements of the logo ?
The star in the middle is meant to symbolize Polaris , otherwise known as the North Star , the core values and guiding light for the organization .
The two spires are meant to look like a rocket launch , while the four beveled elements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forces supporting the space mission .
Around the edge there ’ s a silver border , signifying “ defense and protection , ” and the black background is the blackness of space , obviously .
“ The black area embodies the vast darkness of deep space , ” Space Force ’ s official Twitter account cheerfully notes , “ Some feel fear and dread but we prefer to be inspired and stand up to the challenge.
” Space Force is the sixth branch of the US military alongside the Army , Marine Corps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coast Guard .

An official logo and motto for the United States Space Force have been revealed, following the announcement of its official seal back in January, and flag in May. The organization’s motto is “Semper Supra,” which is Latin for “Always Above,” while the logo itself is based around a delta shape that’s been the focus of some mockery thanks to its similarity to Starfleet’s logo from Star Trek.
Defenders of Space Force’s seal were quick to point out that its actual inspiration appears to be the shield for Air Force Space Command. The official US Space Force Twitter account points out that the shape has been been in use by space organizations as far back as 1961. Star Trek, meanwhile, debuted in 1966.
So what about the other elements of the logo? The star in the middle is meant to symbolize Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, the core values and guiding light for the organization. The two spires are meant to look like a rocket launch, while the four beveled elements at the bottom represent the four armed forces supporting the space mission. Around the edge there’s a silver border, signifying “defense and protection,” and the black background is the blackness of space, obviously.
“The black area embodies the vast darkness of deep space,” Space Force’s official Twitter account cheerfully notes, “Some feel fear and dread but we prefer to be inspired and stand up to the challenge.”
A diagram released by Space Force explains its logo’s various elements. Image: Space Force


theverge--2020-07-23--Facebook is simulating users’ bad behavior using AI

Facebook ’ s engineers have developed a new method to help them identify and prevent harmful behavior like users spreading spam , scamming others , or buying and selling weapons and drugs .
They can now simulate the actions of bad actors using AI-powered bots by letting them loose on a parallel version of Facebook .
Researchers can then study the bots ’ behavior in simulation and experiment with new ways to stop them .
The simulator is known as WW , pronounced “ Dub Dub , ” and is based on Facebook ’ s real code base .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so called because the simulator is a truncated version of WWW , the world wide web ) earlier this year , but shared more information about the work in a recent roundtable .
The research is being led by Facebook engineer Mark Harman and the company ’ s AI department in London .
Speaking to journalists , Harman said WW was a hugely flexible tool that could be used to limit a wide range of harmful behavior on the site , and he gave the example of using the simulation to develop new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , scammers often start their work by prowling a users ’ friendship groups to find potential marks .
To model this behavior in WW , Facebook engineers created a group of “ innocent ” bots to act as targets and trained a number of “ bad ” bots who explored the network to try to find them .
The engineers then tried different ways to stop the bad bots , introducing various constraints , like limiting the number of private messages and posts the bots could send each minute , to see how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the work to that of city planners trying to reduce speeding on busy roads .
In that case , engineers model traffic flows in simulators and then experiment with introducing things like speed bumps on certain streets to see what effect they have .
WW simulation allows Facebook to do the same thing but with Facebook users .
“ We can scale this up to tens or hundreds of thousands of bots ” “ We apply ‘ speed bumps ’ to the actions and observations our bots can perform , and so quickly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make to the products to inhibit harmful behavior without hurting normal behavior , ” says Harman .
“ We can scale this up to tens or hundreds of thousands of bots and therefore , in parallel , search many , many different possible [ ... ] constraint vectors.
” Simulating behavior you want to study is a common enough practice in machine learning , but the WW project is notable because the simulation is based on the real version of Facebook .
Facebook calls its approach “ web-based simulation.
” “ Unlike in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simulated , in web-based simulation , the actions and observations are actually taking place through the real infrastructure , and so they ’ re much more realistic , ” says Harman .
He stressed , though , that despite this use of real infrastructure , bots are unable to interact with users in any way .
“ They actually can ’ t , by construction , interact with anything other than other bots , ” he says .
Notably , the simulation is not a visual copy of Facebook .
Don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same way you might watch people interact with one another in a Facebook group .
WW doesn ’ t produce results via Facebook ’ s GUI , but instead records all the interactions as numerical data .
Think of it as the difference between watching a football game ( real Facebook ) and simply reading the match statistics ( WW ) .
Right now , WW is also in the research stages , and none of the simulations the company has run with bots have resulted in real life changes to Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running tests to check that the simulations match real-life behaviors with high enough fidelity to justify real-life changes .
But he thinks the work will result in modifications to Facebook ’ s code by the end of the year .
There are certainly limitations to the simulator , too .
WW can ’ t model user intent , for example , and nor can it simulate complex behaviors .
Facebook says the bots search , make friend requests , leave comments , make posts , and send messages , but the actual content @ @ @ @ @ @ @ content of a conversation ) isn ’ t simulated .
Harman says the power of WW , though , is its ability to operate on a huge scale .
It lets Facebook run thousands of simulations to check all sorts of minor changes to the site without affecting users , and from that , it finds new patterns of behavior .
“ The statistical power that comes from big data is still not fully appreciated , I think , ” he says .
One of the more exciting aspects of the work is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weaknesses in Facebook ’ s architecture through the bots ’ actions .
The bots can be trained in various ways .
Sometimes they ’ re given explicit instructions on how to act ; sometimes they are asked to imitate real-life behavior ; and sometimes they are just given certain goals and left to decide their own actions .
It ’ s in the latter scenario ( a method known as unsupervised machine learning ) that unexpected behaviors can occur , as the bots find ways to reach their goal that the engineers did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the main focus is training the bots to imitate things we know happen on the platform .
But in theory and in practice , the bots can do things we haven ’ t seen before , ” says Harman .
“ That ’ s actually something we want , because we ultimately want to get ahead of the bad behavior rather than continually playing catch up.
” Harman says the group has already seen some unexpected behavior from the bots , but declined to share any details .
He said he didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any clues .

Facebook’s engineers have developed a new method to help them identify and prevent harmful behavior like users spreading spam, scamming others, or buying and selling weapons and drugs. They can now simulate the actions of bad actors using AI-powered bots by letting them loose on a parallel version of Facebook. Researchers can then study the bots’ behavior in simulation and experiment with new ways to stop them.
Simulating spam, scams, and selling drugs
The simulator is known as WW, pronounced “Dub Dub,” and is based on Facebook’s real code base. The company published a paper on WW (so called because the simulator is a truncated version of WWW, the world wide web) earlier this year, but shared more information about the work in a recent roundtable.
The research is being led by Facebook engineer Mark Harman and the company’s AI department in London. Speaking to journalists, Harman said WW was a hugely flexible tool that could be used to limit a wide range of harmful behavior on the site, and he gave the example of using the simulation to develop new defenses against scammers.
In real life, scammers often start their work by prowling a users’ friendship groups to find potential marks. To model this behavior in WW, Facebook engineers created a group of “innocent” bots to act as targets and trained a number of “bad” bots who explored the network to try to find them. The engineers then tried different ways to stop the bad bots, introducing various constraints, like limiting the number of private messages and posts the bots could send each minute, to see how this affected their behavior.
Harman compares the work to that of city planners trying to reduce speeding on busy roads. In that case, engineers model traffic flows in simulators and then experiment with introducing things like speed bumps on certain streets to see what effect they have. WW simulation allows Facebook to do the same thing but with Facebook users.
“We can scale this up to tens or hundreds of thousands of bots”
“We apply ‘speed bumps’ to the actions and observations our bots can perform, and so quickly explore the possible changes that we could make to the products to inhibit harmful behavior without hurting normal behavior,” says Harman. “We can scale this up to tens or hundreds of thousands of bots and therefore, in parallel, search many, many different possible [...] constraint vectors.”
Simulating behavior you want to study is a common enough practice in machine learning, but the WW project is notable because the simulation is based on the real version of Facebook. Facebook calls its approach “web-based simulation.”
“Unlike in a traditional simulation, where everything is simulated, in web-based simulation, the actions and observations are actually taking place through the real infrastructure, and so they’re much more realistic,” says Harman.
He stressed, though, that despite this use of real infrastructure, bots are unable to interact with users in any way. “They actually can’t, by construction, interact with anything other than other bots,” he says.
Don’t imagine scientists studying bots like you’d snoop on a Facebook group
Notably, the simulation is not a visual copy of Facebook. Don’t imagine scientists studying the behavior of bots the same way you might watch people interact with one another in a Facebook group. WW doesn’t produce results via Facebook’s GUI, but instead records all the interactions as numerical data. Think of it as the difference between watching a football game (real Facebook) and simply reading the match statistics (WW).
Right now, WW is also in the research stages, and none of the simulations the company has run with bots have resulted in real life changes to Facebook. Harman says his group is still running tests to check that the simulations match real-life behaviors with high enough fidelity to justify real-life changes. But he thinks the work will result in modifications to Facebook’s code by the end of the year.
There are certainly limitations to the simulator, too. WW can’t model user intent, for example, and nor can it simulate complex behaviors. Facebook says the bots search, make friend requests, leave comments, make posts, and send messages, but the actual content of these actions (like, the content of a conversation) isn’t simulated.
Harman says the power of WW, though, is its ability to operate on a huge scale. It lets Facebook run thousands of simulations to check all sorts of minor changes to the site without affecting users, and from that, it finds new patterns of behavior. “The statistical power that comes from big data is still not fully appreciated, I think,” he says.
The Facebook simulator should produce unpredictable behavior
One of the more exciting aspects of the work is the potential for WW to uncover new weaknesses in Facebook’s architecture through the bots’ actions. The bots can be trained in various ways. Sometimes they’re given explicit instructions on how to act; sometimes they are asked to imitate real-life behavior; and sometimes they are just given certain goals and left to decide their own actions. It’s in the latter scenario (a method known as unsupervised machine learning) that unexpected behaviors can occur, as the bots find ways to reach their goal that the engineers did not predict.
“At the moment, the main focus is training the bots to imitate things we know happen on the platform. But in theory and in practice, the bots can do things we haven’t seen before,” says Harman. “That’s actually something we want, because we ultimately want to get ahead of the bad behavior rather than continually playing catch up.”


theverge--2020-07-23--T-Mobile will reportedly dump some phones from its network — and even sooner than AT&T

Remember when AT & T told customers their phones would stop working and encouraged them to buy new ones during a pandemic ?
T-Mobile is reportedly going to be sending out some messages like that too , but it seems like the company could be going about it a little differently ( and hopefully less aggressively ) than AT & T , according to an apparent internal document from T-Mobile shared by Android Police .
T-Mobile will reportedly require phones on its network to support voice over LTE ( VoLTE ) starting in January 2021 .
That means if your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , you ’ ll need to upgrade if you want to be able to keep making calls with that phone on T-Mobile .
And T-Mobile is apparently so intent on phasing out older technologies that it ’ ll reportedly stop activating new devices that don ’ t support VoLTE on August 4th , which is just a couple weeks away .
Here ’ s the document Android Police shared , if you ’ d like to look for yourself : When we asked , T-Mobile didn ’ t confirm the timeline laid out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some details that line up : [ ... ] we will be phasing out some older technologies over time to free up even more capacity for LTE and 5G .
In preparation for that and to give customers the best experience , those activating new lines at T-Mobile will need a VoLTE capable device , which is all we ’ ve offered for years now and represents the overwhelming majority of devices on the network .
Basically , what T-Mobile seems to be saying is that unless you haven ’ t upgraded your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you probably won ’ t run into issues once VoLTE is required .
When it comes time for T-Mobile to tell some customers that they need to upgrade , hopefully the company learns from AT & T ’ s mistakes .
Yesterday , AT & T scared some customers by sending them an email with the big , blue , bold , all-caps heading “ UPDATE NEEDED , ” informing them that their phone is “ not compatible with the new network , ” and that they ’ ll need to replace it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ customers felt the email was so egregious that they believed it was a scam . )
What AT & T neglected to make clear , though , is that those customers won ’ t actually need to upgrade their phone until early 2022 — that ’ s when AT & T plans to shut down its 3G network and when some devices will actually stop working .
Let ’ s hope T-Mobile is clearer about what customers need to do and when they need to do it .
Verizon is also in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and said last year it would be delaying that shutdown to the end of 2020 .
As of 2018 , it no longer activates phones that don ’ t support LTE .

Remember when AT&T told customers their phones would stop working and encouraged them to buy new ones during a pandemic? T-Mobile is reportedly going to be sending out some messages like that too, but it seems like the company could be going about it a little differently (and hopefully less aggressively) than AT&T, according to an apparent internal document from T-Mobile shared by Android Police.
T-Mobile will reportedly require phones on its network to support voice over LTE (VoLTE) starting in January 2021. That means if your phone doesn’t currently support VoLTE, you’ll need to upgrade if you want to be able to keep making calls with that phone on T-Mobile. And T-Mobile is apparently so intent on phasing out older technologies that it’ll reportedly stop activating new devices that don’t support VoLTE on August 4th, which is just a couple weeks away.
Here’s the document Android Police shared, if you’d like to look for yourself:
Image: Android Police
When we asked, T-Mobile didn’t confirm the timeline laid out in the document, but did share some details that line up:
[...]we will be phasing out some older technologies over time to free up even more capacity for LTE and 5G. In preparation for that and to give customers the best experience, those activating new lines at T-Mobile will need a VoLTE capable device, which is all we’ve offered for years now and represents the overwhelming majority of devices on the network.
Basically, what T-Mobile seems to be saying is that unless you haven’t upgraded your phone for a very long time, you probably won’t run into issues once VoLTE is required.
When it comes time for T-Mobile to tell some customers that they need to upgrade, hopefully the company learns from AT&T’s mistakes. Yesterday, AT&T scared some customers by sending them an email with the big, blue, bold, all-caps heading “UPDATE NEEDED,” informing them that their phone is “not compatible with the new network,” and that they’ll need to replace it to keep getting service. (Some customers felt the email was so egregious that they believed it was a scam.)
What AT&T neglected to make clear, though, is that those customers won’t actually need to upgrade their phone until early 2022 — that’s when AT&T plans to shut down its 3G network and when some devices will actually stop working. Let’s hope T-Mobile is clearer about what customers need to do and when they need to do it.


theverge--2020-07-23--StarCraft II turns 10 this year, and Blizzard is celebrating with an anniversary update for the game

StarCraft II has been out for almost a decade now .
To commemorate the game ’ s tenth anniversary , Blizzard is publicly testing an anniversary update , introducing new campaign achievements for every mission in StarCraft II ’ s base game and its three expansions , in addition to changes that empower players to create their own custom campaigns .
One reason StarCraft II has stuck around so long is that fans have kept it alive by creating custom campaigns in the game .
Blizzard has now absorbed several elements from Warcraft III ’ s game editor , making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use — there ’ s an entire gigantic blog post from the company detailing everything that ’ s new for the game ’ s map editor .
The anniversary patch also introduced a new transitioning lobby , making it easier to move between two maps in multiplayer , in addition to a new “ Campaign ” subsection in the game ’ s variants menu .
Technically , Blizzard released many of these changes with update 4.13 ’ s public testing round last Tuesday .
It ’ s not clear which features in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tweaks to features released in the previous patch .

StarCraft II has been out for almost a decade now. To commemorate the game’s tenth anniversary, Blizzard is publicly testing an anniversary update, introducing new campaign achievements for every mission in StarCraft II’s base game and its three expansions, in addition to changes that empower players to create their own custom campaigns.
One reason StarCraft II has stuck around so long is that fans have kept it alive by creating custom campaigns in the game. Blizzard has now absorbed several elements from Warcraft III’s game editor, making the interface in StarCraft II easier to use — there’s an entire gigantic blog post from the company detailing everything that’s new for the game’s map editor. The anniversary patch also introduced a new transitioning lobby, making it easier to move between two maps in multiplayer, in addition to a new “Campaign” subsection in the game’s variants menu.


theverge--2020-07-23--One week later, it looks like Microsoft is already breaking a big promise with Xbox Series X

Did Microsoft convince you that you wouldn ’ t need to next-gen hardware to play Xbox Series X games ?
Think again : fully half of the next-gen games that Microsoft showcased at its Xbox Series X showcase today , including Forza , probably aren ’ t coming to Xbox One .
Which suggests either some of those games aren ’ t actually coming out for a long time — or Microsoft has already broken a big promise it made just last week .
For years now , Microsoft has been working toward a future where you don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play the newest games — many now run on a spectrum of hardware including Xbox One , Xbox One S , Xbox One X , and Windows PCs — and the upcoming Xbox Series X was touted as the culmination of that vision .
It will play almost every Xbox One game , as well as Xbox 360 and some original Xbox titles , and Microsoft has repeatedly telegraphed that many next-gen Xbox Series X games will run on 2013 ’ s Xbox One , too .
In fact , the company explicitly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ games won ’ t require you to buy the new Series X console for two years .
Here ’ s Xbox boss Phil Spencer just last week : And here ’ s what Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told MCV in January ( bolding ours ) : Heck , here ’ s a third version of the promise from March , again with additional bolding : But during today ’ s Xbox Games Showcase , first-party titles Forza Motorsport , Fable , Avowed , As Dusk Falls , Everwild and State of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Xbox Series X and Windows PC specifically — with no Xbox One support and no Smart Delivery feature .
Again , these are all games published by Microsoft ’ s Xbox Game Studios , and almost all created by developers that Microsoft owns .
To my mind , that only leaves three possibilities : 1 ) Microsoft broke a huge promise in record time , 2 ) Six out of the nine next-gen exclusives Microsoft showcased today won ’ t arrive until two years after launch , or 3 ) someone screwed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for each game .
Neither of outcomes number one or number two are particularly promising — but everything we ’ ve heard from Microsoft today suggests it ’ s actually door number one .
Initially , Microsoft sent us this dodgy reply : “ Our future Xbox Game Studios titles are being developed natively for Xbox Series X .
We will continue to invest in tools for devs to scale across consoles .
Which consoles each Studio/game can support will be based on what ’ s best for their game and their community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s statement to The Verge .
And when we asked Microsoft point-blank , yes or no , whether it ’ s still committed to the promise and whether the title cards were inaccurate , the company wouldn ’ t say .
It pointed us to this tweet from Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg , which doesn ’ t make things any clearer : For a moment , it did seem like maybe the title cards were incorrect , because shortly after publication of this story , we saw that Avowed ’ s new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Xbox One , as does a project page that mentions As Dusk Falls , and a site for Everwild .
But then , Greenberg replied to a question by Kotaku ’ s Stephen Totilo to say that the websites would soon be updated — suggesting that it was the websites , not the presentation , that was wrong .
Sure enough , as of 7PM ET , the Avowed and Everwild websites no longer list Xbox One .
Clearly , Microsoft no longer wants to promise that its first wave of first-party games @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Xbox One consoles .
Here ’ s the full list of games that Microsoft showcased today , sorted by the consoles that their title cards said they ’ d support : • State of Decay 3 - optimized for Series X , first party • As Dusk Falls - optimized for Series X , first party • Halo Infinite - optimized for Series X , will also have optimizations for PC • Tell Me Why Update July 23rd , 6:17PM ET : With additional Microsoft comments and the removal of “ Xbox One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Update , July 23rd , 7:00PM ET : Added that Everwild has removed mention of Xbox One from its product page as well .
Correction , 7:21PM ET : We originally wrote that all the first-party games were from developers that Microsoft owns , but while As Dusk Falls is published by Xbox Game Studios , its developer says it ’ s independent .

Did Microsoft convince you that you wouldn’t need next-gen hardware to play Xbox Series X games? Think again: fully half of the next-gen games that Microsoft showcased at its Xbox Series X showcase today, including Forza, probably aren’t coming to Xbox One.
Which suggests either some of those games aren’t actually coming out for a long time — or Microsoft has already broken a big promise it made just last week.
For years now, Microsoft has been working toward a future where you don’t need to buy the latest console to play the newest games — many now run on a spectrum of hardware including Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, and Windows PCs — and the upcoming Xbox Series X was touted as the culmination of that vision. It will play almost every Xbox One game, as well as Xbox 360 and some original Xbox titles, and Microsoft has repeatedly telegraphed that many next-gen Xbox Series X games will run on 2013’s Xbox One, too.
In fact, the company explicitly promised that its own in-house, first-party games won’t require you to buy the new Series X console for two years. Here’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer just last week:
You won’t be forced into the next generation. We want every Xbox player to play all the new games from Xbox Game Studios. That’s why Xbox Game Studios titles we release in the next couple of years—like Halo Infinite—will be available and play great on Xbox Series X and Xbox One. We won’t force you to upgrade to Xbox Series X at launch to play Xbox exclusives.”
And here’s what Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told MCV in January (bolding ours):
“As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices,” Booty explains. “We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and [Series X] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”
Heck, here’s a third version of the promise from March, again with additional bolding:
We’re making the commitment to use Smart Delivery on all our exclusive Xbox Game Studios titles, including Halo Infinite, ensuring you only have to purchase a title once in order to play the best available version for whichever Xbox console they choose to play on.
But during today’s Xbox Games Showcase, first-party titles Forza Motorsport, Fable, Avowed, As Dusk Falls, Everwild and State of Decay 3 were all listed as coming to Xbox Series X and Windows PC specifically — with no Xbox One support and no Smart Delivery feature. Again, these are all games published by Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios, and almost all created by developers that Microsoft owns.
To my mind, that only leaves three possibilities: 1) Microsoft broke a huge promise in record time, 2) Six out of the nine next-gen exclusives Microsoft showcased today won’t arrive until two years after launch, or 3) someone screwed up when making the presentation title cards for each game.
Neither of outcomes number one or number two are particularly promising — but everything we’ve heard from Microsoft today suggests it’s actually door number one.
Initially, Microsoft sent us this dodgy reply:
“Our future Xbox Game Studios titles are being developed natively for Xbox Series X. We will continue to invest in tools for devs to scale across consoles. Which consoles each Studio/game can support will be based on what’s best for their game and their community at launch,” reads Microsoft’s statement to The Verge.
And when we asked Microsoft point-blank, yes or no, whether it’s still committed to the promise and whether the title cards were inaccurate, the company wouldn’t say. It pointed us to this tweet from Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg, which doesn’t make things any clearer:
For a moment, it did seem like maybe the title cards were incorrect, because shortly after publication of this story, we saw that Avowed’s new website does include a mention of the Xbox One, as does a project page that mentions As Dusk Falls, and a site for Everwild.
But then, Greenberg replied to a question by Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo to say that the websites would soon be updated — suggesting that it was the websites, not the presentation, that was wrong.
Sure enough, as of 7PM ET, the Avowed and Everwild websites no longer list Xbox One. Clearly, Microsoft no longer wants to promise that its first wave of first-party games will actually make their way to earlier Xbox One consoles.
Here’s the full list of games that Microsoft showcased today, sorted by the consoles that their title cards said they’d support:
Xbox Series X / Windows PC
State of Decay 3 - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party Forza Motorsport - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party Fable - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party Avowed - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party As Dusk Falls - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party Everwild - optimized for Series X, first party
- optimized for Series X, first party Stalker 2 - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
- optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive Warhammer 40,000 Darktide - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
- optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive The Medium - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
Xbox Series X / Xbox One / Windows PC
Halo Infinite - optimized for Series X, will also have optimizations for PC
- optimized for Series X, will also have optimizations for PC Tell Me Why
Grounded - optimized for Series X
- optimized for Series X Psychonauts 2 - optimized for Series X
- optimized for Series X Destiny 2 Beyond Light - optimized for Series X
- optimized for Series X Tetris Effect Connected - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
- optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive The Gunk - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
- optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive New Genesis Phantasy Star Online 2 - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
Xbox Series X / Xbox One
CrossfireX - optimized for Series X, console launch exclusive
Update July 23rd, 6:17PM ET: With additional Microsoft comments and the removal of “Xbox One” from Avowed’s website.
Update, July 23rd, 7:00PM ET: Added that Everwild has removed mention of Xbox One from its product page as well.


theverge--2020-07-23--Intel’s next-gen 7nm chips are delayed until at least 2022

Intel finally got its 10nm chips on the market after years of delays , but now the company has announced that it ’ s encountered issues with its upcoming 7nm process that will result in delays for the next generation of chips , too .
As Intel ’ s Q2 2020 earnings release notes , “ the company ’ s 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations , ” pushing them back from an originally planned arrival at the end of 2021 .
The six-month delay would push that date into at least 2022 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what Intel CEO Bob Swan referred to as a “ defect mode ” in the 7nm process , according to Tom ’ s Hardware .
Intel actually says that the issues with its current 7nm production means that production is trending a year behind its internal roadmap .
For some reason , though , the company says that being a year behind schedule will still only result in that aforementioned six-month delay to market .
For comparison , AMD has already been outputting its own Ryzen 4000 chips based on its 7nm architecture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outperforming Intel ’ s offerings .
It ’ s not all bad news for Intel , though : the company is on track to release its 11th Gen Tiger Lake chips ( based on the company ’ s third-generation , 10nm++ processor ) to succeed the 10th Gen Ice Lake lineup for laptops later this year , bringing with them Intel ’ s much-hyped Xe graphics .
Intel is also expecting to launch its first products from its 12th Gen Alder Lake ( the successor to Tiger Lake ) lineup towards the end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s long-awaited first 10nm desktop CPUs .
Intel ’ s actual financial results for Q2 were also positive : Intel ’ s Client Computing Group ( which makes the processors for laptops and desktops ) saw a 7 percent improvement year-over-year with $ 9.50 billion in revenue .
Intel notes that those strong results were driven by the increase in laptop sales due to the surge in customers working and learning from home caused by COVID-19 ( although by that same token , it says desktop demand declined ) .
And Intel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 percent year-over-year with $ 19.7 billion brought in , helped in large part by substantial growth in Intel ’ s data center and memory solutions divisions .
The delay to reaching 7nm chips is a looming problem for the company , though .
If Intel ’ s history of extending its 14nm architecture for generations of incremental refinements is anything to go by , expect to see plenty more 10nm products released in the coming years .
There ’ s only so much padding even Intel can do with its lineup .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a huge chunk of the laptop industry , which relies on Intel ’ s roadmap and increases in power efficiency and performance to develop new and better products .
And based on the current guidance from the company , it ’ s possible that the PC world will be in for a similar bottleneck with 7nm Intel chips in the years to come .

Intel finally got its 10nm chips on the market after years of delays, but now the company has announced that it’s encountered issues with its upcoming 7nm process that will result in delays for the next generation of chips, too.
As Intel’s Q2 2020 earnings release notes, “the company’s 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations,” pushing them back from an originally planned arrival at the end of 2021. The six-month delay would push that date into at least 2022, if not further, due to what Intel CEO Bob Swan referred to as a “defect mode” in the 7nm process, according to Tom’s Hardware.
Intel actually says that the issues with its current 7nm production means that production is trending a year behind its internal roadmap. For some reason, though, the company says that being a year behind schedule will still only result in that aforementioned six-month delay to market. For comparison, AMD has already been outputting its own Ryzen 4000 chips based on its 7nm architecture for months, which have been handily outperforming Intel’s offerings.
Intel’s next-gen chips are delayed — again
It’s not all bad news for Intel, though: the company is on track to release its 11th Gen Tiger Lake chips (based on the company’s third-generation, 10nm++ processor) to succeed the 10th Gen Ice Lake lineup for laptops later this year, bringing with them Intel’s much-hyped Xe graphics. Intel is also expecting to launch its first products from its 12th Gen Alder Lake (the successor to Tiger Lake) lineup towards the end of this year — including the company’s long-awaited first 10nm desktop CPUs.
Intel’s actual financial results for Q2 were also positive: Intel’s Client Computing Group (which makes the processors for laptops and desktops) saw a 7 percent improvement year-over-year with $9.50 billion in revenue. Intel notes that those strong results were driven by the increase in laptop sales due to the surge in customers working and learning from home caused by COVID-19 (although by that same token, it says desktop demand declined). And Intel’s Q2 revenue was also up 20 percent year-over-year with $19.7 billion brought in, helped in large part by substantial growth in Intel’s data center and memory solutions divisions.
The delay to reaching 7nm chips is a looming problem for the company, though. If Intel’s history of extending its 14nm architecture for generations of incremental refinements is anything to go by, expect to see plenty more 10nm products released in the coming years.


theverge--2020-07-23--New Mutants is still inexplicably scheduled for a theatrical release, but here’s the film’s opening

New Mutants is still inexplicably scheduled for a theatrical release, but here’s the film’s opening scene

The New Mutants is apparently still on track to hit theaters on August 28th , even as Tenet and Mulan face indefinite delays .
Details on the film ’ s theatrical plans come from The New Mutants ’ panel at ComicCon @ Home , the digital version of the annual San Diego festival , where the cast gathered to talk about the film .
The panel opens with a cheeky reminder the movie would open in theaters on August 28th .
They also brought the movie ’ s opening scene , which can be seen above .
The opening scene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panel discussion about the movie playing beforehand .
Fans seemed to anticipate that Disney would move The New Mutants to a digital release in light of recent delays .
Warner Bros. delayed Tenet indefinitely earlier this week and , at the same time as The New Mutants panel , Disney announced that Mulan was also delayed indefinitely .
Everything seemed to point to The New Mutants also having its date shifted or moving to a digital-first title .
Disney has already moved three of its movies from being theatrical releases to Disney Plus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Only Ivan , and Hamilton .
Disney is still saying The New Mutants will hit theaters But , nope .
Based on the new trailer , Disney is still saying The New Mutants will hit theaters .
That ’ s if theaters are open , of course .
AMC Theaters announced today that it ’ s delaying its reopening into mid- to late-August .
That was going to coincide with Tenet , Mulan , and The New Mutants playing , but now it ’ s just The New Mutants .
Bizarre !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that The New Mutants is an actual movie after all these years of production delays and questions about its existence .
Fox initially made plans to develop the film all the way back in 2015 , with the goal of going into production in 2016 .
Everything seemed fine — at first .
Filming finished in September 2017 , but by January 2018 , Fox had delayed the film ’ s release to February 2019 .
Fox reportedly didn ’ t want Deadpool 2 and New Mutants to compete with one another in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The New Mutants was delayed again .
Finally , The New Mutants was slated to be released on April 3rd , 2020 , but due to the pandemic , it was pushed back one more time to August 28th .
Now , if the theaters don ’ t open , New Mutants could be delayed further .
Who knows ?
Everything is up in the air , but hey , at least there ’ s a new trailer .

The New Mutants is apparently still on track to hit theaters on August 28th, even as Tenet and Mulan face indefinite delays.
Details on the film’s theatrical plans come from The New Mutants’ panel at ComicCon@Home, the digital version of the annual San Diego festival, where the cast gathered to talk about the film. The panel opens with a cheeky reminder the movie would open in theaters on August 28th. They also brought the movie’s opening scene, which can be seen above. The opening scene kicks in at 24:10, with a panel discussion about the movie playing beforehand.
Fans seemed to anticipate that Disney would move The New Mutants to a digital release in light of recent delays. Warner Bros. delayed Tenet indefinitely earlier this week and, at the same time as The New Mutants panel, Disney announced that Mulan was also delayed indefinitely. Everything seemed to point to The New Mutants also having its date shifted or moving to a digital-first title. Disney has already moved three of its movies from being theatrical releases to Disney Plus exclusives: Artemis Fowl, The One and Only Ivan, and Hamilton.
Disney is still saying The New Mutants will hit theaters
But, nope. Based on the new trailer, Disney is still saying The New Mutants will hit theaters. That’s if theaters are open, of course. AMC Theaters announced today that it’s delaying its reopening into mid- to late-August. That was going to coincide with Tenet, Mulan, and The New Mutants playing, but now it’s just The New Mutants. Bizarre!
It’s still hard to believe that The New Mutants is an actual movie after all these years of production delays and questions about its existence. Fox initially made plans to develop the film all the way back in 2015, with the goal of going into production in 2016. Everything seemed fine — at first.
Filming finished in September 2017, but by January 2018, Fox had delayed the film’s release to February 2019. Fox reportedly didn’t want Deadpool 2 and New Mutants to compete with one another in May. A few months later, The New Mutants was delayed again. Finally, The New Mutants was slated to be released on April 3rd, 2020, but due to the pandemic, it was pushed back one more time to August 28th.


theverge--2020-07-23--Feds ban drones over Portland government buildings

The Department of Homeland Security says US authorities have banned drones from flying near federal buildings in Portland because they believe drones are surveilling federal officers at protests there , Reuters reports .
The order comes a few weeks after federal agencies were discovered using surveillance drones themselves , over peaceful protests in Minneapolis and other US cities .
The agency said unidentified drones have flown over crowds of people protesting near federal buildings in Portland on several occasions .
For the past eight weeks , protesters have marched in downtown Portland to push for police reforms , and in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ troops guarding the federal buildings .
The troops have used tear gas and pepper spray and say the protesters have thrown projectiles at them .
The drone ban is in place until August 16th and covers flights below 1,000 feet within a nautical mile of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and the US Federal Courthouse .
The current Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit flying recreational drones over people or moving vehicles , at night , or at heights above 400 feet from the ground , so if drones were flying over Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already were violating the FAA rules and operators could have been cited .
The geofencing systems built into some drones might literally keep them from taking off in a federally restricted zone , but it depends on the designation .
A federal surveillance drone circled above Minneapolis protests in May The Trump administration has said federal officers were deployed to Portland to protect federal buildings , including the courthouse which has been tagged with graffiti and had windows broken .
But as Vox notes , heavily armed troops have been captured on video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vehicles , and they are often nowhere near federal property where federal troops would have jurisdiction .
Last month , members of Congress requested information about federal agencies ’ use of drones over protesters in several cities , demanding that they “ cease any and all surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests.
” The letter referred to a May incident where a Predator surveillance drone from Customs and Border Protection circled above protests in Minneapolis .
Portland banned its police bureau from cooperating with federal law enforcement on Wednesday , the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crowd outside the federal courthouse , The Oregonian reported .
Among that crowd was Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler .

The Department of Homeland Security says US authorities have banned drones from flying near federal buildings in Portland because they believe drones are surveilling federal officers at protests there, Reuters reports. The order comes a few weeks after federal agencies were discovered using surveillance drones themselves, over peaceful protests in Minneapolis and other US cities.
The agency said unidentified drones have flown over crowds of people protesting near federal buildings in Portland on several occasions. For the past eight weeks, protesters have marched in downtown Portland to push for police reforms, and in recent days have been joined by federal troops guarding the federal buildings. The troops have used tear gas and pepper spray and say the protesters have thrown projectiles at them.
The drone ban is in place until August 16th and covers flights below 1,000 feet within a nautical mile of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building and the US Federal Courthouse. The current Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit flying recreational drones over people or moving vehicles, at night, or at heights above 400 feet from the ground, so if drones were flying over Portland protesters as federal officials claim, they already were violating the FAA rules and operators could have been cited. The geofencing systems built into some drones might literally keep them from taking off in a federally restricted zone, but it depends on the designation.
A federal surveillance drone circled above Minneapolis protests in May
The Trump administration has said federal officers were deployed to Portland to protect federal buildings, including the courthouse which has been tagged with graffiti and had windows broken. But as Vox notes, heavily armed troops have been captured on video detaining demonstrators and putting them in unmarked vehicles, and they are often nowhere near federal property where federal troops would have jurisdiction.
Last month, members of Congress requested information about federal agencies’ use of drones over protesters in several cities, demanding that they “cease any and all surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests.” The letter referred to a May incident where a Predator surveillance drone from Customs and Border Protection circled above protests in Minneapolis.