Meta announced plans to implement new privacy safeguards specifically aimed at better shielding teens and minors from online content related to graphic violence, eating disorders, and self-harm. The new policy update for both Instagram and Facebook “in line with expert guidance” begins rolling out today and will be “fully in place… in the coming months,” according to the tech company.

[Related: Social media drama can hit teens hard at different ages.]

All teen users’ account settings—categorized as “Sensitive Content Control” on Instagram and “Reduce” on Facebook—will automatically enroll in the new protections, while the same settings will be applied going forward on any newly created accounts of underage users. All accounts of users 18 and under will be unable to opt out of the content restrictions. Teens will soon also begin receiving semiregular notification prompts recommending additional privacy settings. Enabling these recommendations using a single opt-in toggle will automatically curtail who can repost the minor’s content, as well as restrict who is able to tag or mention them in their own posts.

“While we allow people to share content discussing their own struggles with suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, our policy is not to recommend this content and we have been focused on ways to make it harder to find,” Meta explained in Tuesday’s announcement. Now, search results related to eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide will be hidden for teens, with “expert resources” offered in their place. A screenshot provided by Meta in its newsroom post, for example, shows links offering a contact helpline, messaging a friend, as well as “see suggestions from professionals outside of Meta.”

[Related: Default end-to-end encryption is finally coming to Messenger and Facebook.]

Users currently must be a minimum of 13-years-old to sign up for Facebook and Instagram. In a 2021 explainer, the company states it relies on a number of verification methods, including AI analysis and secure video selfie verification partnerships.

Meta’s expanded content moderation policies arrive almost exactly one year after Seattle’s public school district filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against major social media companies including Meta, Google, TikTok, ByteDance, and Snap. School officials argued at the time that such platforms put profitability over their students’ mental wellbeing by fostering unhealthy online environments and addictive usage habits. As Engadget noted on Tuesday, 41 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Delaware filed a similar joint complaint against Meta in October 2023.

“Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at the time.”

The post Meta begins automatically restricting teen users to more ‘age-appropriate’ content appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

A trade group associated with Meta, TikTok, and X is fighting back against a Utah law forcing minors to obtain parental consent and abide by a strict curfew in order to access social media. Though lawmakers in Utah and a growing number of other states believe regulations like these are necessary to protect young users from online harms, a new lawsuit filed by NetChoice argues the laws go too far and violate First Amendment rights to free expression. 

Utah officially passed its Social Media Regulation Act back in March. The law, which is set to take effect March 1, 2024, is actually a combination of a pair of bills, SB152 and HB311. Combined, the bills prohibit minors from opening a new social media account without first receiving written parental consent. It also restricts minors from accessing social media between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m, unless the receive permission from their parent or guardian. Tech platforms would be required to verify the age of its users. Failure to do so could result in a $2,500 fine per violation. 

Utah lawmakers supporting the law say it’s necessary to reduce young users’ exposure to potentially harmful material online such as eating disorder and self-harm related content. Lawmakers say the curfew, one of the more controversial elements of the law, could help ensure minors aren’t having their sleep impacted by excessive social media use. A US Surgeon General advisory report released earlier this year warned of potentially sleep deprivation linked to excessive social media use. 

“While there are positive aspects of social media, gaming, and online activities, there is substantial evidence that social media and internet usage can also be extremely harmful to a young person’s mental and behavioral health and development,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said during a press conference earlier this year. 

NetChoice, in a suit filed Tuesday, claims the provisions violate Utahns’ First Amendment Rights and amounts to a “unconditional attempt to regulate both minors’ and adults’ access to—and ability to engage in—protected expression.” The suit also takes aim at the law’s age verification requirement, which NetChoice argues would violate the privacy of all Utah social media users and ultimately do more harm than good. 

“The state is telling you when you can access a website and what websites you can access,” NetChoice Vice President and General Counsel Carl Szabo told PopSci. “Our founders recognized the dangers in allowing the government to decide what websites we can visit and what apps we can download. Utah is disregarding that clear prohibition in enacting this law.” 

The law wouldn’t just affect minors either. Szabo said the law’s rules forcing platforms to verify the age of users under the age of 18 would, by definition, also result in the verifying the ages of users over the age of 18. Social media companies would be required to use telecom subscriber information, a social security number, government ID, or facial analyses to verify those identities if the law takes effect. 

Aside from its constitutional issues, Szabo and NetChoice argue the bill would harm young users in the state by putting them at a disadvantage to minors in other states who have access to more information. The digital curfew, which the suit refers to as a “blackout” could restrict students from accessing educational videos or news articles during a large chunk of the day. The suit claims the curfew could also interfere with young users trying to communicate across multiple time zones. 

“The first amendment applies to all Americans, not just Americans over the age of 18,” Szabo said. 

NetChoice is calling on courts to halt the law from taking effect while its lawsuit winds its way through the legal system. That could happen. The trade group already successfully petitioned a US District Court to halt a similar parental consent law from going into effect in Arkansas earlier this year. Utah’s Attorney general spokesperson told PopSci, “The State of Utah is reviewing the lawsuit but remains intently focused on the goal of this legislation: Protecting young people from negative and harmful effects of social media use.”

Online parental consent and age verification are on the rise 

State-wide online parental consent laws and bills regulating minors’ use of social media picked up steam in 2023. Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Ohio have all proposed or passed legislation limiting minors’ access to social media and severely limiting the types of content platforms can serve them. Some state laws, like the one in Utah, would go a step further and  grant adults full access to a child’s account and ban targeted advertising to minors. 

Supporters of these state bills cite a growing body of academic research appearing to draw links between excessive social media use and worsening teen depression rates. But civil liberties organizations like the ACLU say these efforts, though often well intentioned, could wind up backfiring by stifling minors’ freedom of expression and limiting their access to online communities and resources. Szabo, of not NetChoice, said states should step away from online line parental consent laws broadly and instead invest in digital wellness or education campaigns.

The post Tech trade group sues over ‘unconstitutional’ Utah teen social media curfew law appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Years after plans were first announced, end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is finally the default communications option for Messenger and Facebook. Meta’s security update arrives following years of mounting pressure from digital privacy rights advocates, who argue the feature is necessary to protect users’ communications.

A complete E2EE rollout will take a “number of months” due to the more than one billion users on Messenger. Once chats are upgraded, however, users will receive a notification to create a recovery method, such as a PIN, for restoring conversation archives in the event of losing, changing, or adding a device.

[Related: 7 secure messaging apps you should be using.]

Meta’s messaging services have offered E2EE as an optional setting since 2016. CEO Mark Zuckerberg voiced his desire to transition to default encryption across all Meta’s products as far back as 2019. In an announcement posted to Meta’s blog on December 6, head of Messenger Loredana Crisan wrote, “[E2EE] means that nobody, including Meta, can see what’s sent or said, unless you choose to report a message to us.”

E2EE is one of the most popular and secure cryptographic methods to integrate additional privacy within digital communications. Once enabled, only users possessing a unique, auto-generated security key can read your messages. When set up properly, it is virtually impossible for outside parties to access, including law enforcement and the app makers themselves.

[Related: Some of your everyday tech tools lack end-to-end encryption.]

Services like iMessage, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal have long offered E2EE as their default setting, but Meta was slow to integrate it within the company’s most widely used features. In the company’s December 6 blog post, Crisan argues the company “has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right.” Critics, meanwhile, chalk up the tech company’s reluctance to financial incentives, as access to users’ messages means access to vast, lucrative data troves that can be utilized for targeted advertising campaigns. People share over 1.3 billion photos and videos per day through Messenger.

“Meta just did something good—protected users from the company itself!” Caitlin Seeley George Campaigns and Managing Director at the digital privacy group, Fight for the Future, wrote in a statement on Wednesday.

In addition to the E2EE update rollout, Meta also announced forthcoming features including a 15-minute “Edit Message” window, the ability to toggle “Read” receipts, a 24-hour timespan for “Disappearing” messages, and other general updates to photo and video quality.

The post Default end-to-end encryption is finally coming to Messenger and Facebook appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

In case any readers need reminding: please do not intentionally crash your small prop plane into a national forest for the social media likes. If you somehow still choose to abandon commonsense in the hopes of gaining an ad sponsorship, at the very least, do not lie to the National Transportation Safety Board about your stunt. And, if absolutely nothing else, definitely do not treat your plane’s wreckage like you’re covering up a murder scene. You will probably go to prison.

Case in point: Trevor Jacob, a 30-year-old online YouTuber sentenced on Monday to six months in prison in the ensuing aftermath of his 12-minute YouTube video, “I Crashed My Airplane.”

News of Jacob’s punishment arrived in a Monday Department of Justice announcement, via The Verge. The “experienced pilot, skydiver, and former Olympic athlete” first uploaded his video-turned-felonious evidence to the platform on December 23, 2021. The footage, taken from multiple video cameras mounted to his single-prop Taylorcraft BL-65 and a camera attached to a selfie stick, shows Jacob abandoning his flight midair due to an alleged power failure (later revealed to be false) and unfurling a parachute above California’s Los Padres National Forest near Santa Maria. Jacob captures brief shots of the plane’s uncontrolled descent as he floats to the ground, while onboard cameras record the subsequent crash landing in dry brush within the federally protected area.

Jacob only informed the NTSB of the crash two days later, at which time the agency told Jacob to preserve the wreckage and provide coordinates to its location—neither of which he did, says the DOJ.

Jacob instead “lied to investigators” for weeks, claiming he could not find the crash site. Meanwhile, he and a conspirator flew a helicopter back to the plane’s remains, strapped the wreckage to it, and traveled back to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County. Once there, they transferred the evidence into a trailer attached to Jacob’s truck, drove to Lompoc City Airport hangar, and proceeded to break down the debris over the ensuing days.

[Related: Influencer fined for hitting golf ball into the Grand Canyon.]

“[Jacob] deposited the detached parts of the wrecked airplane into trash bins at the airport and elsewhere… with the intent to obstruct federal authorities,” reads a portion of the DOJ announcement.

Nearly a month to the day after the stunt, Jacob uploaded their “I Crashed My Airplane” video to YouTube, which included clear scenes of Jacob traveling to the wreckage site reportedly 20 minutes after parachuting to the ground. “I Crashed My Plane” also satisfied the conditions of a prior sponsorship deal according to the DOJ, which stipulated Jacob would promote a wallet company’s products within an upcoming video post.

Jacob continued to maintain his innocence in a January 2022 statement to the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming the doomed flight was intended to spread the ashes of his deceased friend, Johnny Strange, over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Strange died in 2015 during a BASE jumping accident.

Although initially facing up to 20 years in prison, Jacob received his six month sentence after pleading guilty in April to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation. Any opportunities to carry out similar airplane antics are unlikely once he is released—the FAA revoked the ninth-place 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics snowboarder’s private pilot license in April 2022 during its own investigation.

“During this flight, you opened the left side pilot door before you claimed the engine had failed,” the FAA wrote at the time.

The post YouTuber sentenced to prison after intentionally crashing his plane appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This article was originally published on The Markup. 

Picture a high school student who wants to go to college, likes to cheer on her school’s football team, and plays in a sport or two herself. 

One day after school, she signs up for an official ACT account so she can schedule her college entrance exam and see what score she gets after taking it. Then, she researches a few colleges through the Common App’s website, and like more than a million students every year, she uses the site to start an application for her dream college. 

She spends a few minutes starting a presentation for class using the website Prezi. On a homework break, she registers for her high school’s after-school sports program through a service called ArbiterSports, then she hops on her phone, remembering to order a yearbook through the company Jostens. Long day over, she takes out her laptop and flips on her school’s big football game through the NFHS Network, a subscription service for high school sports.

Here’s what the student doesn’t know: Although she surfed the internet in the privacy of her home, Facebook saw much of what she did.

Every single site she visited used the Meta Pixel, a tracking tool that silently collects and transmits information to Facebook as users browse the web, according to testing by The Markup. Millions of invisible pixels are embedded on websites across the internet, allowing businesses and organizations to target their customers on Facebook with ads. 

Businesses embed the pixel on their own websites voluntarily, to gather enough information on their customers so they can advertise to them later on Meta’s social platforms, Facebook and Instagram. If there’s a pixel on a website’s checkout page and a visitor buys a baseball hat with their school’s logo, for example, the pixel may note that interaction, and the owner of that page can send that person more apparel ads on Facebook later. This is one of the reasons people see the same ad following them on Facebook and Instagram after they shopped on a different site. The Markup has also found hospitals, telehealth companies, tax filing websites, and mental health crisis websites using the pixel, and transmitting sensitive information to social media companies.

Along with encouraging businesses to spend ad dollars, Facebook also receives the transmitted data, and can use it to hone its algorithms. Facebook can also use data from the pixel to link website visitors to their Facebook accounts, meaning businesses can reach the exact people who visited their sites. The pixel collects data regardless of whether the visitor has an account. 

Our investigation found the pixel on dozens of popular websites targeting kids from kindergarten to college, including sites that students are all but required to use if they want to participate in school activities or apply to college.

See our data here: GitHub

On some level, that’s not a surprise: tracking tools like the pixel are so widespread that intensive tracking is almost the status quo. You could make the argument that these educational sites are “just the same as any other site,” said Marshini Chetty, associate professor of computer science at the University of Chicago.

But dealing with kids raises bigger questions about tracking on the web. “Why is there the Meta Pixel? Why are there session recorders?” she said. “What is the place of that on these sites?”

In 2022, around 1.4 million high school seniors took the ACT, up from 1.3 million in 2021, according to the nonprofit that runs the test. The Markup found that the official ACT sign-in page tracked users who visited the site, and when a student logged in, the pixel sent Facebook a scrambled version of the student’s email address. Meta says these “hashed” email addresses “help protect user privacy.” But it’s simple to determine the pre-obfuscated version of the data—and Meta explicitly uses the hashed information to link other pixel data to Facebook and Instagram profiles. 

After signing into their ACT account, if a student accepted cookies on the following page, Facebook received details on almost everything they clicked on—including scrambled but identifiable data like their first and last name, and whether they’re registering for the ACT. The site even registered clicks about a student’s ethnicity and gender, and whether they planned to request college financial aid or needed accommodations for a disability.

An ACT spokesperson declined to comment, but a few days after The Markup reached out for comment, we tested the ACT account page for the pixel again, and found that it was no longer sending personal data to Facebook.

When students visit the Common App website, a pixel tells Facebook what they click, including whether they start an application. The associated application URL they’re directed to after doesn’t track them. More than 1 million students use the Common App to apply to colleges, according to the organization, and more than 1,000 colleges accept applications through the platform. The organization did not respond to a request for comment.

If someone starts or modifies a presentation on Prezi, Facebook gets notified. When a student or parent visits ArbiterSports to sign up for activities at their high school or college, the pixel tells Facebook what schools they searched for on the platform. When a person clicks an email address to reach out to a school for more information, the pixel tells Facebook. According to ArbiterSports’ website, the company claims to be “the backbone of K-12 and collegiate sports and event management in America” and that it’s used by “over 65 million Americans, one in every 5 of us.” Prezi and ArbiterSports didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

Jostens tracks anyone looking for a yearbook in detail, telling Facebook what schools they browsed for, and sends along their hashed email address when they log in. And if a visitor navigates to a high school sports page through the NFHS network to watch a game, the site sends the text of that search to Facebook. Jostens says it partners with more than 40,000 schools and serves 2.5 million customers annually. Some schools require students to place an order with Jostens for apparel like graduation gowns. Jostens didn’t respond to a request for comment.

While many of these sites did not send along a student’s (or any website visitor’s) email or name, Facebook doesn’t need that information in order to track and retarget them for ads. Data from the pixel is connected to individual IP addresses—an identifier that’s like a computer’s mailing address and can generally be linked to a specific individual or household—creating a much more intimate connection between students and their page views. (Meta offers options on the pixel to let organizations adjust what data they collect and transmit—and here’s how you can turn it off or limit it.)

A Meta spokesperson, Emil Vazquez, noted in an emailed statement that the company has recently made changes to how advertisers can market to teens on its services, including limiting the ways advertisers can target them. The company’s terms of use for its business tools prohibit organizations from sending data on children under 13.

“We’ve been clear in our policies that advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools,” Vazquez said. “Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”

Tracking kids under 13

Facebook doesn’t allow children under 13 to use its services. But The Markup found that some sites directed at kids under 13 used the pixel to track visitors as well. 

If a teacher assigned a class to visit the educational reading website Raz-Kids, a service for kids between kindergarten and fifth grade, for example, the site would alert Facebook when visitors clicked a button labeled “KIDS LOGIN.” (There was no pixel on a dedicated log-in page visitors are directed to after that.)

The homepages of ABC Mouse—an animated learning site—and XtraMath—an educational math service—used the tool to track visits to their homepages. The website kids.getepic.com, a digital reading platform for children, didn’t use the pixel. But if a student navigated to the main page, getepic.com, and clicked the “I’m a kid” pop-up, the click and the button text identifying them as a kid was sent to Facebook. The service explicitly markets itself on its site as being for kids 12 years old and younger. 

Once a visitor gets past the homepages of these sites, however, they are no longer tracked, as the sites all have dedicated log-in pages for students that did not use the pixel tracker.

Spokespeople for these sites for kids under 13 stressed that they had separate URLs specifically for kids that did not use the pixel, and only used the pixel on their public-facing homepages to market to potential buyers of their products, like teachers. 

Roy King III, Executive Director of XtraMath.org, said in an email that the site uses the pixel for business campaigns but “student data from our application is not mixed, associated, or identified with any marketing data” and that the site complies with privacy laws for children. Kiki Burger, a spokesperson for Epic, also noted their use of a separate tracking-free site and said Epic’s actual educational product does not track. 

John Jorgenson, a spokesperson for Cambium Learning, parent company of Raz-Kids, similarly pointed out that kids are directed to a page without tracking, saying “our approach is to separate application log-on pages from other parts of our websites with general website traffic, which we do track.”

The Markup tested these sites for the pixel because they were some of the most commonly linked to websites from public schools in the U.S. We gathered data on popular education-related websites by building on a list created by computer science researchers from the University of Chicago and New York University (NYU) this year. The researchers used public databases of K-12 schools to develop a list of URLs for more than 60,000 public schools in the United States, generating more than 15,000 domains from those schools. 

The researchers then scraped those school domains for links to other sites. They gathered a list of the links that appeared most frequently, giving them a list of which websites schools were most likely to direct visitors to. They then whittled the list down to only sites that were related to educational technology. Finally, they used The Markup’s Blacklight tool, which scans websites for trackers, finding widespread use of tools like the Meta Pixel. 

The Markup re-ran the researchers’ Blacklight search, then went further. For 30 websites on the list that used the pixel, we analyzed the network traffic while browsing the site, which gave us detailed insight into how the sites communicated with Facebook.

In all, we searched through dozens of sites on the list that used the Meta Pixel in some way. The search had some limitations: Just because a school linked out to a site didn’t necessarily mean the school approved of it, or wanted students to use it. Many of those sites were also promotional sites for educational products directed toward school administrators, not students. Since they required a login, The Markup couldn’t review some of those products directly.

Jim Siegl, a senior technologist at the Future of Privacy Forum, said school districts might do a great job policing apps they contract with for services and that kids use while in school. But even trying to search for those apps through corporate marketing pages on the open web is a different story.

Siegl uses the analogy of a school in a neighborhood surrounded by a corporation, with surveillance cameras scattered all around. “In order to get to school, Billy has to walk through this corporate neighborhood and through the lobby of the corporation to get to the classroom,” he said.

Facebook’s fraught relationship with kids

Early last year, The Markup launched the Pixel Hunt, a project exploring how the Meta Pixel is quietly used to track web users. The project has highlighted several ways the Meta Pixel collects potentially sensitive data, including educational, financial, and health information. Since launch, the series has sparked concern and direct inquiry from legislators and regulators, and led to dozens of lawsuits against Meta and other companies. 

However, there’s been little focus on how pixels on the web may be collecting data on kids and teens. Earlier this year, Gizmodo reported that the College Board, which is responsible for administering the SATs and Advanced Placement exams, was transmitting information on SAT scores and grades to Facebook, as well as TikTok and others. Recent testing by The Markup showed the pixel still active on some SAT-related pages. According to the College Board, 1.9 million students in the class of 2023 took the SAT. Jerome White, director of communications for the College Board, said in a statement the organization doesn’t send personally identifiable information to Meta and that “pixels are simply a means to measure the effectiveness of College Board advertising.”

Facebook’s relationship with young people is especially fraught, and comes with a years-long history of controversy that extends to today. Last month, a coalition of more than 40 states filed suit against Meta. Attorneys general for the states accused Meta of using intentionally addictive design to hook kids and teens on apps like Instagram, and violating children’s privacy in the process. Meta disputes the claims and argues that it has introduced protections for young people.

This month, Arturo Béjar, a former Facebook engineer, testified to Congress that Facebook knew about, and had failed to stop, developing systems that were hurting kids. Béjar wasn’t the first former Meta worker to weigh in on the issue. Another former employee, Frances Haugen, released internal documents in 2021 indicating Facebook knew the company’s products were damaging the mental health of teenage girls, findings that were in line with what independent researchers have said.

Those revelations followed mounting concerns that Facebook has been drawing young children into an unhealthy digital space. Those fears were magnified even further following news that Facebook planned to release a version of Instagram for children under 13 years old, who have special privacy protections in the United States. 

That plan quickly led to scrutiny from lawmakers and children’s health advocates, and in 2021, about six months after news of the project leaked, the company announced that it was halting Instagram Kids. “While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we’ve decided to pause this project,” Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said in a statement at the time. “This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.”

There’s no federal privacy law in the United States that broadly covers all data. There is one law, passed in 1998, that does cover data for children under 13 years old: the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.

COPPA applies to sites that are directed or marketed to children under 13, or who know they’re collecting data on kids under 13. Those sites have to get parental permission before collecting data and give those families a chance to opt out, including through web tracking technologies. If not, they could face penalties from the Federal Trade Commission. Rather than face a potentially daunting task of getting parental permission from millions, some services simply don’t allow children under 13 on their platforms—although in practice, of course, many still make accounts anyway by lying about their age. 

What legally counts as a service directed toward kids is open to some interpretation, with the FTC taking enforcement action against diverse companies like educational technology vendor Edmodo and Amazon, for its Alexa devices. The FTC says it might find a service is directed toward kids based on the subject matter, as well as if they feature “the use of animated characters or child-oriented activities and incentives.”

But again, “kids” means under 13. “If you’re over 13, there’s no real specific law that addresses privacy protections,” Siegl said.

In May, the FTC took direct action against Facebook, alleging the company had violated a previous privacy order and banning the company from monetizing any data collected on users under 18. The agency said Facebook’s “recklessness has put young users at risk.” Meta called the action “a political stunt” and said the FTC was stretching its authority.

There are signs that momentum is building for tighter, more expansive regulations for kids. Multiple states have proposed or passed laws that expand the types of data covered or  expanded COPPA’s protections to include kids who are 13 to 18. 

But attempts to pass new federal laws have stalled in the past. One now on the table, the Kids Online Safety Act, would place new requirements on social media sites to prevent minors from seeing harmful content. That bill and others have, however, triggered civil rights concerns over censorship, especially over what content might be “harmful.” 

Meanwhile, the people responsible for protecting students and kids have to make do with what they have.

As part of their research, the University of Chicago and NYU team interviewed school administrators about their security practices. They broadly found that many districts lack the technical skills or resources to properly assess privacy concerns for students. 

“Some sort of comprehensive federal privacy regulation would be helpful,” said Jake Chanenson, a PhD student and law student at the University of Chicago who worked on the research paper identifying educational sites. “The last privacy act we had was in the ‘90s.”

The post Facebook watches teens online as they prep for college appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Tired of paying increasingly hefty monthly subscription fees for your streaming services, only to scroll nearly as long as a movie’s runtime just to find something to watch? Well, your choices are only going to expand thanks to NASA’s new streaming channel. But at least when NASA+ launches on November 8, it won’t come with any fees or commercials.

The commercial free on-demand platform will be available via the NASA App on iOS and Android devices, web browsers, as well as through Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV. The ever-expanding catalog will include live coverage of launch events and missions, original videos, and multiple new series.

[Related: NASA’s first asteroid-return sample is a goldmine of life-sustaining materials.]

“We’re putting space on demand and at your fingertips with NASA’s new streaming platform,” Marc Etkind, NASA Headquarters’ Office of Communications associate administrator, said earlier this year. “Transforming our digital presence will help us better tell the stories of how NASA explores the unknown in air and space, inspires through discovery, and innovates for the benefit of humanity.”

Check out trailers for some of the first series to hit NASA+ this month:

NASA Explorers will offer viewers a multi-episode look at the agency’s recently concluded, seven-year OSIRIS-REx mission. Completed in September, OSIRIS-REx successfully returned samples collected in space from Bennu, a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid traveling across the cosmos since the dawn of the solar system.

Other Worlds will focus on the latest updates and news from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program. Launched in 2021 following a 17-year-long development on Earth followed by a six-month orbital tune up, the JWST provides researchers with some of the most spectacular glimpses of space ever achieved. Over the course of its decade-long lifespan, the JWST aims to capture information and imagery from over 13.5 billion years ago—when some of the universe’s earliest galaxies and stars began to form.

And for those looking to just bask in cosmic majesty, Space Out will allow viewers to do just that alongside “relaxing music and ultra-high-definition visuals of the cosmos, from the surface of Mars to a Uranian sunset.”

[Related: Moon-bound Artemis III spacesuits have some functional luxury sewn in.]

“From exoplanet research to better understanding Earth’s climate and the influence of the Sun on our planet along with exploration of the solar system, our new science and flagship websites, as well as forthcoming NASA+ videos, showcases our discovery programs in an interdisciplinary and crosscutting way, ultimately building stronger connections with our visitors and viewers,” Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA Headquarters’ Science Mission Directorate, said over the summer.

NASA+ comes as the space agency nears a scheduled 2025 return to the lunar surface as part of its ongoing Artemis program. When humans touch down on the moon for the first time in over 50 years, they apparently will do so in style, with both Prada-designed spacesuits and high-tech lunar cameras.

The post NASA’s free streaming platform launches this week. Here’s what to watch. appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

European users can soon enjoy an ad-free Facebook and Instagram experience—for a price. On October 30, the platforms’ parent company, Meta, announced that residents of the EU, European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland will be able to opt into the new, premium service beginning in November.

The cost for zero advertisements while accessing sites on a web browser will run 18-and-up users €9.99 (roughly $10.55) per month, while streamlined iOS and Android app options will cost €12.99 (about $13.72) per month. When enrolled, Facebook and Instagram users won’t see ads, nor will their data and online activities be used to customize any future advertising. Starting March 1, 2024, additional fees of €6 per month for the web and €8 per month for iOS and Android will also go into effect for every additional account listed in a user’s Account Center.

[Related: Meta fined record $1.3 billion for not meeting EU data privacy standards.]

According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta is also temporarily pausing all advertising for minors’ accounts on both platforms beginning on November 6, presumably while working on a separate premium tier option for those accounts. But even when anticipating potentially millions of dollars in additional monthly revenue, Meta made clear in its Monday blog post that it certainly hopes many users will stick to their current ad-heavy, free access.

“We believe in an ad-supported internet, which gives people access to personalized products and services regardless of their economic status,” reads a portion of the announcement, before arguing such an ecosystem “also allows small businesses to reach potential customers, grow their business and create new markets, driving growth in the European economy.”

The strategic shift arrives as the tech giant attempts to adhere with the EU’s comprehensive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) laws. Passed in 2018, the GDPR is designed to protect EU consumers’ private digital information against an often invasive, highly profitable data industry. In particular, it grants European citizens the right to easily and clearly choose whether or not companies can track their online information such as geolocation, search preferences, social media activity, and spending habits. 

Meanwhile, the 2022 DMA establishes criteria for designation of large online platforms—i.e. Facebook and Instagram—as so-called “gatekeepers” beholden to greater consumer legal responsibilities. These include making sure third-parties’ interoperability within gatekeepers’ services, as well as allow smaller companies to fairly conduct business within and without a gatekeeper’s platform. Ostensibly, the DMA attempts to prevent monopolies from forming, thus avoiding thorny antitrust lawsuits such as the ongoing battle between the US government and Google. By offering the new (paid) opt-out, Meta likely believes it will hopefully reduce its chances of earning costly fines—such as a record $1.3 billion fine levied earlier this year.

[ Related: The Opt Out: The case against editing your ad settings ]

But if you’re expecting to see a similar premium subscription service announced for US users—don’t hold your breath. Although a number of states including Massachusetts, California, Virginia, and Colorado have begun passing piecemeal data protections, federal bipartisan legislation remains stalled. Companies like Meta therefore feel little pressure to offer Americans easy opt-out paths, even in the form of a monthly tithing.

For a truly ad-free experience, of course, there’s always the option of deleting your account.

The post Meta will offer premium ad-free Facebook and Instagram options—just not in the US appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Facebook probably has a lot of your favorite videos—from lovely, mischievous puppies and memes, to all the memories from that wonderful trip to Europe last summer. They don’t have to stay there, though: You can easily save videos from Facebook, if you want to.

However, there are limitations. The platform doesn’t have a direct way to download videos, but there is an easy workaround to save footage that’s labeled as public or has been posted by your friends. This method doesn’t require downloaders or third-party software, and works on computers running Windows or macOS.

How to download your own Facebook videos

Downloading videos from your own Facebook page, whether they’re public, private, or only visible to your friends, is a pretty simple process.

1. Log into your Facebook account and go to your profile page.

2. Click Video in the Facebook navigation bar located just below your name and profile picture. On the next screen, you’ll see all the video content you’ve ever uploaded to the platform—find the video you want to download and click on it. 

3. Open the three-dot menu in the top right corner of your screen.

4. Click Download Video. An emerging window will appear allowing you to rename the video and save it wherever you like on your computer’s hard drive.

Another important note: Just because you can download a video doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with it. If the video isn’t yours, it might be protected by copyright and you might need explicit permission from the owner before you share it on other platforms. Fail to do so and you could face legal repercussions. Keep all that in mind as you proceed.

1. Log into Facebook and find the video you want to download. Once you’ve located the video, click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the video.

2. Notice that the emerging menu doesn’t give you the option to download the video as it does with those uploaded to your profile or channels, so you’ll need to go a different route. Select Copy Link.

3. Open a new window in your browser, paste the link into the address bar, and press Return or Enter—this will display the full URL instead of the shortened one. Once you see the complete address, replace the “www” with “mbasic“, making sure to keep the rest of the URL intact. MBASIC is a pared-down version of Facebook designed to make the service easier to use on older smartphones. After making the change, press Enter.

4. On this page, you’ll see a stripped-down mobile version of the video grouped with other public Facebook posts. Click the play button located in the middle of your video to open it in another tab.

5. While the video is playing, right-click on the screen and select Save Video As.

[Related: How to keep your Facebook account secure]

6. A file explorer or finder window will open, allowing you to rename the video. By default, the video will save to the downloads folder on your hard drive, but you can choose another location within your system. Once you’ve renamed the file (if you want) and selected a download location, click Save.

7. Your system will save the video as an MP4 file, so you’ll need a media player that supports this file format to view it on your computer.

The post How to save videos from Facebook appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

If you’re looking for your TikTok watch history in the hopes of finding a recently viewed video, it’s probably not where you last saw it. The so-called clock app, as tech companies often do, has changed its menus and stashed this useful feature in an unfamiliar place.

Unlike TikTok’s early days, when the disappointment of accidentally reloading your For You page and losing the share-worthy clip was so common—so visceral—that it became a meme, locating recently watched TikToks is easy now. And if you want to become so powerful that your watch history’s limitations cannot stand in your way, you can use specific search filters and techniques to hunt down exactly what you need. Doing so will be much faster than tediously scrolling through your archive.

How to find your TikTok watch history on iOS and Android

Although people with iPhones got the ability to see their TikTok history before Android users, the processes have since unified. As it should be.

On iOS, all you need to do is tap Profile in the bottom right, hit the main menu (three lines) in the top right, touch Settings and privacy, find the Content & Display heading, tap Activity center, and choose Watch history. You can find your Comment history and Search history on the same page.

On Android, the steps are similar: Profile > main menu (three lines) > Settings and privacy > Activity center > Watch history. Again, if you never comment, you’ll only see Watch history after Settings and privacy.

No matter which mobile operating system you’re using, you’ll see every video you’ve watched within the past 180 days. If you’re trying to find something older, you’ll have to search for it with the normal TikTok search function (tips below).

You can find a recently watched video by scrolling down this page, but be warned: everything is on there. Whether it’s a video you watched in its entirety or one that happened to briefly load and autoplay as you moved around the app, it’s part of your TikTok watch history. The only videos you won’t find are Lives and Stories.

[Related: 7 tips to make the most of TikTok]

Unless you’re extremely patient, this method isn’t great for digging deep into your archive, because you can’t search the watch history page. If you’re a heavy TikTok user and watched something days or weeks ago, you’ll end up scrolling for a while. You can, however, hit Select in the top right and tap individual videos or touch Select all watch history in the bottom left. Then you can permanently get rid of those clips by tapping the bright red Delete button. At least tidy up a bit while you’re there.

From the app’s Home screen, tap the search icon (a magnifying glass) in the top right corner. Then type out the relevant keywords and hit Search. Next, hit the Watched button just above the first row of videos. This will change your search results to show any videos you’ve watched. If you don’t see this option (along with All, Unwatched, and Recently uploaded), make sure you’re in the Top tab—they don’t appear if you’re in any of the others. Otherwise, TikTok may not have registered that you watched a video related to your search terms, or it may have passed before your eyes longer than 180 days ago.

As with your watch history, the Watched search filter will display TikToks that appeared in recent searches and auto-played as thumbnails as you looked through the results, so you may have to dig deeper every time you search.

Other TikTok search tips

The main search results page, whether you filter it or not, is stuffed with content. You can use these tabs and suggestions to further refine your search or just get lost in the TikTok abyss and hope your algorithm doesn’t take a devastating hit. I, for one, will probably spend the next week telling TikTok I’m not interested in those videos where people pour milk all over the counter while “making coffee” because I searched “coffee TikTok” while working on this story. (To do so, long-press on the video when it plays on your FYP and hit Not interested on the menu that appears.)

Some videos in your search results will have a badge indicating they’re among top-liked posts for the search you ran, and if you scroll down a little you may also find related terms other people searched for.

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok]

Within the less-obvious filters menu (tap the three dots to the right of the search bar, then hit Filters), there are also options to further focus your search on videos you’ve liked, dig up only those posted within a specific time frame, and sort by either relevant videos or ones with the most likes. 

Under the same three dots, you’ll also see Share feedback, which is where TikTok gives you the option to provide feedback on any problems you may have had with their search function. When I first published this story back in January 2022, I joked that maybe if enough people used that form to request an easy-to-use list of recently watched videos, TikTok would make it happen. Well, we did it, folks.

This story has been updated. It was originally published in 2022.

The post Your TikTok watch history has moved—here’s how to find it appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This article was originally published on KFF Health News.

Samuel Hanke is a pediatric cardiologist in Cincinnati, but when you ask him for his title, he follows it by saying: “Most importantly, I’m Charlie’s dad.”

Hanke remembers the night 13 years ago when Charlie, then 3 weeks old, was fussier than usual, so he picked him up to soothe him back to sleep. With Charlie still in his arms, he sat on the couch, turned on the TV, and nodded off.

“We were kind of chest to chest, the way you see in pictures a lot,” Hanke said. But he didn’t realize Charlie’s airways were blocked. Too young to turn his head, too squished to let out a cry, Charlie died silently. The next morning, Hanke woke up to his worst nightmare. Years of medical school weren’t enough to prevent Hanke from losing Charlie to accidental suffocation.

Sudden infant death syndrome, a well-known term that describes unexplained but natural infant deaths resulting from an unknown medical abnormality or vulnerability, is the leading cause of unexpected deaths among infants in the U.S. It has long been among new parents’ greatest fears.

Rates for SIDS have declined since the 1990s, but a different cause of infant death — accidental suffocation or strangulation — has also been a persistent problem. That national rate for the past decade has hovered between 20 and 25 infant deaths per 100,000 live births, accounting for around a fifth of all unexpected infant deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accidental suffocations and strangulations aren’t necessarily happening more often, some experts say; rather, fatality review teams have become better at identifying causes of death.

And the trend remains steady despite decades of public information campaigns imploring parents to take steps to keep their babies safe while sleeping.

In the mid-1990s, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development launched its “Back to Sleep” campaign, to teach parents to lay infants on their backs to sleep. “There were tremendous results after ‘Back to Sleep,’” said Alison Jacobson, executive director of First Candle, a Connecticut-based nonprofit group focused on safe sleep education. Unexpected infant deaths dipped about 40% from 1990 levels, which was before that campaign launched, according to the CDC. “But then it plateaued,” Jacobson said.

The NICHD eventually broadened this message with other ways to limit risks beyond a baby’s sleep position with the “Safe to Sleep” initiative.

Some clear warnings from it: Infants shouldn’t sleep with blankets, stuffed toys, or bumpers that “can potentially lead to suffocation or strangulation,” said Samantha St. John, program coordinator for Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth, Texas. They also should sleep in cribs or bassinets — not on beds with siblings or in parents’ arms.

But these public health messages — contradicted by photos or videos circulating in movies and social media — don’t always find traction. Professional photos of infants, for example, too commonly show them peacefully snoozing surrounded by plush animals and blankets. St. John added that parents sometimes have preconceived ideas of how infants’ sleeping spaces should be decorated. “When you think of cribs and nurseries and things like that, you imagine the pictures in the magazines,” St. John said. “And those are beautiful pictures, but it doesn’t keep your baby safe.”

St. John said many parents know that babies should be on their backs to sleep, but warnings about strangulation by blankets or suffocation by sharing a bed with them sometimes fall through the cracks.

For instance, new parents, especially single parents, are more likely to accidentally fall asleep with their infants because of exhaustion, said Emily Miller, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The idea that sleeping with one’s baby is dangerous can also be counterintuitive to a new parent’s instinct. “We feel like being close to them, being able to see them, being able to touch them and feel that they’re breathing is the best way we can protect them and keep them safe,” said Miller, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Pediatrics.

Organizations across the country are working to help parents better understand the true risks. Hanke and his wife, for instance, channeled their grief into Charlie’s Kids, a nonprofit focused on safe sleep practices for infants. The Hankes also wrote a book, “Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug,” which has sold about 5 million copies. The proceeds are used to continue their educational efforts.

Ohio, where Charlie’s Kids is based, in 2020 saw 146 sudden unexpected infant deaths, a classification that includes SIDS, accidental suffocation and strangulation, and other instances in which the cause is undetermined. That’s about a death for every 1,000 live births, according to the state’s health department. Thirty-six percent of those deaths were attributed to accidental suffocation or strangulation. Nationally, the rate of these unexplained deaths has declined since the 1990s, but, according to the CDC, significant racial and ethnic differences continue.

The particular risks for an infant’s accidental suffocation in many respects are situational — and often involve people at the lower end of the income scale who tend to live in close quarters. People who live in a small apartment or motel often share sleep space, said St. John.

Tarrant County has one of Texas’ highest rates of infant deaths — three to four each month — attributed to accidental suffocation.

So, organizations like the Alliance for Children in Tarrant County, which serves Fort Worth and parts of Dallas, have been providing free bassinets and cribs to those in need.

County representatives spoke during the state’s Child Fatality Review Team meeting in May and focused on the prevalence of infant deaths linked to accidental suffocation. For the past decade, data shows, the county has averaged 1.05 sudden unexpected infant deaths per 1,000 births, which is higher than both the state and national averages of 0.85 and 0.93, respectively. During a 15-month period starting in 2022, Cook Children’s Medical Center saw 30 infants born at the hospital die after they left because of unsafe sleeping environments.

Sometimes parents’ decisions are based on fears that stem from their environments. “Parents will say ‘I’m bringing my baby into bed because I’m afraid of gunshots coming through the window, and this is how I keep my baby safe’ or ‘I’m afraid rats are going to crawl into the crib,’” said First Candle’s Jacobson.

She understands these fears but stresses the broader context of safe sleep.

The key to educating parents is to begin when they are still expecting because they receive “a load of information” in the first 24 or 48 hours after a baby is delivered, said Sanjuanita Garza-Cox, a neonatal-perinatal specialist at Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio. Garza-Cox is also a member of the Bexar County Child Fatality Review Team.

And once a child is born, the messaging should continue. In Connecticut, for instance, First Candle hosts monthly conversations in neighborhoods that bring together new parents with doulas, lactation consultants, and other caregivers to discuss safe sleep and breastfeeding.

And both Tarrant and Bexar counties are placing ads on buses and at bus stops to reach at-risk parents and other caregivers such as children, relatives, and friends. Parents are very busy, Garza-Cox said. “And sometimes, multiple children and young kids are the ones watching the baby.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

The post Cribs filled with fluffy furnishings are photogenic—and deadly appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Whether you tried the app and didn’t like it or straight up forgot you ever installed it, deleting your Snapchat account is a smart idea if you’re not using it anymore. Although the platform claims not to store any of your messages, its privacy policy states that it stores your personal data and holds onto videos, photos, and messages for 30 days. Even so, you should consider deleting the account to ensure your data is truly gone.

Ready to break up with the white ghost and make more room for your TikToks? We have all the information you’ll need to delete Snapchat and leave it behind forever.

First, download your Snapchat data

Before you delete social media accounts, you should grab all the information you don’t have stored elsewhere. To download and back up your Snapchat data, you must have a validated email address where your files can be sent. If you’d rather not save anything, you can skip right to our steps on how to delete Snapchat.

How to download Snapchat data on Android and iOS

If you want to download Snapchat data directly from the app onto your phone, follow these steps:

1. Open the app and click on your Snapchat profile Bitmoji in the upper left corner of your screen.

2. Go to Settings by tapping the gear icon in the upper right corner of your screen.

3. Scroll down to Privacy Controls and tap My Data.

4. Snapchat will give you an overview of the data it can send you. Select or deselect the data you want, and click Next in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

5. Enter a date range for the data you wish to download, then add your email address. Select Submit at the bottom right corner of the screen.

6. Snapchat will send you an email with a link to download a ZIP file of your data. Open the email and click the hyperlink under “click here.”

7. You will then need to log into your Snapchat account via a mobile web browser.

8. Once logged in, click See exports.

9. Click Download to save the ZIP file that holds your Snapchat data. All of it will be stored on your mobile device. If you don’t have enough space, open the email on a laptop or desktop computer and save it there.

Download your Snapchat data from the web

If you want to download Snapchat data directly from the web onto your computer, follow these steps:

1. Go to accounts.snapchat.com in your web browser and log in with your personal account. Click on My Data.

2. Click on See exports. Similar to the app, you will see the data that’s available for export. Then Download. You should be able to immediately download your ZIP file to your desktop.

How to delete Snapchat or just deactivate it

Now that your data is backed up and secure, it’s time to delete Snapchat. However, it’s important to note that when you delete your account, it will initially just be deactivated, and you can log back in within 30 days to reactivate it. If you don’t log back into your account after 30 days, your Snapchat account will be gone forever.

How to delete or deactivate Snapchat from the Android or iPhone app

1. Launch the Snapchat app on your mobile device. Tap your Snapchat profile icon at the top of the screen to open your profile and go to Settings.

2. Scroll down, and under the Account Actions section, tap Delete Account.

3. Enter your username and password, and tap Continue. The next screen will let you know your Snapchat account is in the deactivation period.

4. Return to the login screen, enter the username and password associated with your Snapchat account again, and tap Continue. An “Account Deactivated” screen will remind you that your Snapchat account is in the 30-day deactivation period, and Snapchat will delete your account if you don’t log back in within 30 days. For added phone security, check in after 30 days to ensure the account has actually been deleted.

How to delete or deactivate your Snapchat account from the web

1. Go to accounts.snapchat.com in your web browser and log in with your personal account. Select the gear icon and go to Account Settings.

2. Select Delete my account.

3. You will get a warning message about the 30-day deletion window, and Snapchat will delete your account if you don’t log back in during that time. Just make sure to check in after 30 days to ensure the account is actually gone.

FAQs

The post How to delete Snapchat and say goodbye to the ghost appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

As the world’s biggest social network, Facebook can keep tabs on about a third of the global population. Whether you visit the social network daily (as more than 2 billion users do) or only log on to to check hyperlocal neighborhood groups, you should be aware of how much personal data you’re giving to the site and its parent company, Meta.

Facebook primarily uses everything it knows about you to craft more relevant targeted advertising. While some see this as uncomfortably intrusive, others accept the ads as the price they pay for the network’s free services and tools. Whatever you think about the ethics of this data collection, you should know what the company is learning about you—and how you can control the flow of information. While this guide can help, there’s only so much you can do to protect your privacy. If you really want to stop the company from mining your data, your best bet is to delete your Facebook account entirely.

Take a peek at your profile information

When you created your account, you entered basic background information, including your name and email address. The site also prompted you to fill out your location, work and education history, and friends and relatives currently on Facebook. But by observing your behavior on its network, the tech company has gathered a lot more information about you and your habits.

[Related: How to secure your Facebook account]

One quick way to see exactly what details Facebook knows about you—and limit who else can access them—is to visit the Your Facebook information page where Meta stores all that data. If you’d prefer to get there without a link, log into the site and follow these steps:

Both the website and the app will show you several categories of information that you can browse at your leisure, with recent activity displayed on top. What you see may vary depending on how much you use Facebook and what you do there, but we can give you an idea of what to expect.

• Your activity across Facebook: This will show you everything you’ve done on the social network, including posts, photos, activity you’re tagged in, and items you’ve sold on Facebook Marketplace.
• Personal information: Click here to find what Facebook knows about you, including your name, hobbies, relationship status, and employer.
• Connections: If you’d like to see your friends, followers, and requests you’ve sent and received, this is the category you need.
• Logged information: Here you’ll find information Facebook tracks about your activity, such as search history and your primary location.
• Security and login information: Where you’ve logged into Facebook, the devices you’ve used, and a history of every login and logout.
• Apps and websites off of Facebook: If you’ve connected other apps and websites to your Facebook account, you’ll find related data here.
• Preferences: Any actions you’ve taken to customize your account, perhaps to make it more useful and less toxic, will be in this category.
• Ads information: Whenever you interact with ads and advertisers on Facebook, that data is gathered here.

Check your Facebook ad preferences

Ironically, if you want to see the topics Meta thinks you enjoy, you won’t find it under “ads information.” Instead, select Logged information, then Ads interests to see what data Facebook uses to serve you advertisements. To stop the company from showing you ads based on any of these details, simply hit Remove next to any one of them.

This doesn’t require you to eliminate helpful details from your profile—you can share your relationship status, for example, but block ads that target you because of it. Facebook also allows you to dig deeper and learn more about ad preferences if you’re interested. But be careful, editing this data doesn’t benefit you—it benefits Meta, which will be able to target you more effectively.

Even if Facebook isn’t selling your information to advertisers, it could still be collecting it. In addition to making ads more relevant, the company can put your data—everything from the make and model of your phone to your most frequently used apps—to work fixing bugs and changing the social network. If you’re uncomfortable giving certain information to the social network, you can delete it from your profile entirely by going to your Facebook profile and selecting Edit profile to see what you can adjust. You can’t erase everything, but you can delete details such as where you work and go to school. You may also want to check out the More drop-down menu, where you can unfollow pages and manage other things you’ve liked along the way.

However, Facebook isn’t a completely closed black box. If you want to back up your data or save it for any reason, you can download all of it—just navigate to the Your Facebook information page (steps above), find Download profile information and click View next to it. You can select a date range, file format, and the quality of photos and other media in the final file.

[Related: Use these settings to share photos at their best quality]

There were once third-party tools that sought to offer this information and predict how Facebook might track and interpret your data, like the now-defunct website Stalkscan and Google Chrome extension Data Selfie. Now, you can just navigate to the Your Facebook Information page and click Download Your Information. You can select a date range, file format, and the quality of photos and other media included in that file. If you need a little more guidance, we have a full step-by-step within our story on how to delete your Facebook account.

Disable location and web tracking

Beyond the information you list on your profile and the pattern of your clicks (from likes to photo comments), it’s worth discussing two other big pieces of data in more detail: what Facebook knows about your location (determined via your smartphone) and your activity elsewhere on the internet.

[Related: How to stop websites from tracking you]

Letting Facebook’s mobile app know where you are has some upsides. It enables you to check into places, search for interesting spots nearby, and even find your friends more easily. It also tells Facebook where you tend to hang out, allowing the service to be more precise about the ads it shows you.

If this makes you uncomfortable, you can turn off its ability to keep tabs on your whereabouts. On Android phones, open Settings, tap Apps, find Facebook, hit Permissions, and select Location. On an iPhone, open Settings, tap Privacy & Security, then Location Services, find Facebook on the list of apps, and choose Never from the list of options that appear. If you don’t see Facebook under Location Services on your iPhone, you probably haven’t done anything in the app that might require your location. Even with these precautions, Facebook still can keep tabs on you—for example, it will take note when your friends tag you.

The simple reason why Facebook tracks you around the internet should be clear by now: better advertising. It can, for example, receive notifications when you spend time on specific webpages. In addition, the marketing platforms and sites to which Facebook sends your information can also give the social network their own carefully gleaned data about you (this is known as off-Facebook activity) What’s in this data? You can’t know exactly, beyond checking the Apps and websites off of Facebook information category we mentioned above.

To prevent Facebook from following you around the web, go to the Your Facebook information page (steps above), and click View next to Off-Facebook activity. You have three options:

Disconnect specific off-Facebook activity

Whether you’re on the web (Disconnect specific activity) or the mobile app (Select Activity to Disconnect), you’ll need to enter your password to proceed. You’ll see a list of brands and websites Facebook associates you with, and you can select the bubble (web) or Turn off (app) next to any of them to make your choices. Then hit Continue (web) or Turn Off Future Activity (app) to disconnect your Facebook account from the ones you’ve selected. Facebook will also provide a bunch of information about the process, including that Meta may still get information from the disconnected places, but it won’t be associated with your account.

Clear your off-Facebook history

Choose Clear previous activity (web) or Clear History (app), and you’ll be able to disconnect your off-Facebook activity history from your account. The data may still exist, but Meta says it won’t be linked to your account.

Manage future off-Facebook activity

There are two paths here: Connect future activity or Disconnect future activity. The former will allow Meta to keep gathering off-Facebook activity from certain places around the web and linking it to your account. The latter will prevent that, the company says. On the web, you’ve got to click the bubble next to your choice, but in the mobile app it’s a simple toggle switch.

open the Ads page, find Ads Settings from the menu on the left, and select Ads shown off of Facebook. Turn the toggle switch to Not Allowed. You can also visit the Digital Advertising Alliance and specifically opt out of numerous cross-site tracking programs, including the one run by Facebook.

These days, Facebook takes more care to explain what type of user data it collects, but you still can’t reclaim all of your information—that’s something you sacrifice when you sign up for the service. What you can do is be more aware of the types of information you reveal as you fill out your profile, react to your News Feed, and browse the web.

This story has been updated. It was originally published in 2017.

The post How to see everything Facebook knows about you, and what you can do about it appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

To deactivate Instagram or delete it: that is the question. If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably decided that it’s better to take action against the sea of troubles associated with the Meta-owned app and other social networks (like body dissatisfaction and unhealthy life comparisons) than it is to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous trolls. No more.

Both deactivation and deletion will remove your Instagram account from the public eye, but the choice you make will depend on whether you plan to come back to the ‘Gram at any point. The key difference between a deactivated account and a deleted one is that the latter is permanent. If you deactivate your Instagram, it won’t be visible to anyone, but you won’t lose anything. You can let it languish in virtual limbo forever, or recover and reactivate it at any time by simply logging in. Delete it, though, and Meta will erase everything—you won’t be able to get it back.

Consider downloading your Instagram data first

Before you start, we recommend downloading all your Instagram data. You don’t need to do this, but if you’re at all nostalgic for the time you spent on the app, you should stash a file full of your posts, comments, and everything else on a hard drive somewhere. Not interested? Cool—you can skip straight to our instructions on how to deactivate Instagram.

Download your Instagram data from the app

1. Tap your profile photo in the bottom right corner of the screen, then hit the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top right.

2. Touch Your activity to open up a categorized list of everything you’ve ever done on Instagram.

3. Scroll to the bottom of this list and tap Download your information.

4. Click Request a download on the next page. When the file is ready, Instagram will notify you and give you four days to download your information from the app.

Download your Instagram data from the web

1. We know the app is more easily accessible, but plenty of people prefer the web version of Instagram. If that’s you, click More in the bottom left corner of the screen, then hit Your activity.

[Related: Criticism pushed ‘Instagram Kids’ back to the drawing board]

2. Select Download your information, then enter the email address you want Instagram to send the file to.

3. Choose the file format you want: HTML or JSON. The latter is a better option if you want to transfer all your Instagram data to another program or service.

4. Enter your Instagram password, then hit Request download.

How to deactivate Instagram, or permanently delete it

Whether you’re using a phone or a computer, the steps to delete or deactivate your Instagram account are essentially the same, but the first few are different enough to warrant separate instructions. When you’re done, maybe you’ll sleep—perchance, dream—a little easier. And then you can consider deleting Facebook when you wake up.

How to delete or deactivate Instagram from the Android or iPhone app

1. Tap your profile photo in the bottom right corner of the screen, then the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top right.

2. Choose Settings and privacy, then Accounts Center. These options should be easy to find, as they’re both right at the top of their respective lists.

3. From the Meta Accounts Center, tap Personal details > Account ownership and control > Deactivation or deletion.

4. Pick your Instagram account from the list of Meta accounts.

5. Choose whether you want to delete or deactivate your Instagram account, then hit Continue and enter your Instagram password to finish the process.

How to delete or deactivate your Instagram account from the web

1. Click More in the bottom left corner, followed by Settings.

2. Find the Meta Accounts Center box, then click See more in Accounts Center.

The post How to deactivate Instagram because the Likes don’t love you back appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Facebook is still popular, with around 3 billion users logging in each month, but there’s no doubt some are there for a single purpose: to delete their account.

If you’ve decided you can no longer be associated with a platform that has struggled to effectively manage hate speech and misinformation, are just learning about whistleblower Frances Haugen’s scorching 2021 testimony before a Senate subcommittee, or simply have no use for the social network anymore, it’s fairly easy to back up your data and leave Facebook behind.

When you do, you’ll also lose access to Messenger, but not Meta’s other apps. If you want to deactivate Instagram or delete WhatsApp, you’ll have to do so separately. And if you’ve linked Facebook to any other services, you won’t get locked out forever, but you’ll need to use a different login method the next time you open them up.

Consider downloading all your Facebook data first

Before you pull the plug, you may want to save all the data you’ve amassed on the platform throughout the years. Of course, you can skip this and immediately delete your Facebook account (steps below), but we think it’s better to download everything and not need it than to trash it all and wish you hadn’t. You can do this from the mobile app or a web browser.

Facebook knows a lot about you, so you won’t get your data immediately—it may be several days before the file or files are ready for you. Once it’s done, though, Facebook will let you know via email.

It’s a time-sensitive matter too: The files are large, so Facebook will only hang onto them for a few days before they delete them. If the download window closes on you, you’ll have to start the process again.

Download your Facebook data from a browser

1. From your Facebook profile, click your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen, then hit Settings & privacy, followed by Settings. This should bring you directly to Your Facebook information, where you’ll see several options.

2. Find Download profile information, then click View to its right. This will bring you to a page where you can customize exactly how much you actually want to save.

3. Select a file format: HTML or JSON. The latter is better if you want to transfer your data somewhere else.

4. Use the dropdown menu under Media quality to decide if you want to save photos and videos at High, Medium, or Low quality. Higher-quality media will increase the size of the final data file.

5. Choose a date range. You can select one of Facebook’s preset time periods (like Last week and Last year), but if you have a specific range in mind you can pick Custom to set your own Start date and End date. If you want to download everything, click All time.

Download your data from the Facebook app

1. Tap Menu in the bottom right, then the cog icon in the top right to open Settings & privacy.

2. Scroll down to Your information and tap Download your information.

3. You’ll see a long list of data categories, including Messenger conversations, pages you’ve liked, posts, Facebook Marketplace data, login information, and your interactions with ads. Everything will be selected by default, but you can tap an item to deselect it and omit it from the final data file.

4. Choose a date range. You only have two options here: All of my data and Date range. If you don’t want to save everything, tap the latter option, then touch the dates that appear to set beginning and end dates for the time period you want.

How to delete your Facebook account on a mobile device or a computer

Whether you’ve downloaded your data and safely stored it on a hard drive or skipped straight here to erase all memory of your time on the social network, it’s time to delete your Facebook account. The process is essentially the same whether you’re using a web browser or the mobile app.

1. Open Facebook’s settings. This is the only step that’s substantially different whether you use a browser or the app.

• From a browser: Go to your Facebook profile, click your profile picture in the top right, then Settings & privacy, followed by Settings.
• From the app: Tap Menu in the bottom right, then the cog icon in the top right to open Settings & privacy.

2. Look for the Meta Accounts Center. On the web, it’s in the left-hand sidebar, and in the app it’s at the top of the page. Hit See more in Accounts Center.

3. Click Personal details, then Account ownership and control.

4. Choose Deactivation or deletion.

5. Select your Facebook account from the list of Meta accounts that appears.

6. Click Delete account. Doing so won’t immediately delete your Facebook account, but it’ll start the process. Deletion is permanent, though, and you won’t be able to get any of your Facebook data or Messenger messages back once it’s done. That said, your information will remain in Facebook’s possession (but invisible to the public) for at least 30 days. During this time you can change your mind, log into Facebook, and hit Cancel deletion to recover your account. After that grace period, it’ll all disappear into the internet ether.

• Note: Your other option here is Deactivate account, which will allow you to temporarily remove your Facebook account from public view. The difference between this and deleting your account is that no one will be able to see your name, photos, and most of the things you’ve shared, but you’ll still be able to use Messenger. It’s also not permanent, so you can undo deactivation whenever you want.

7. Whether you chose to deactivate or delete your Facebook account, click Continue. Facebook may ask you to click through several other dialog boxes (like reminding you that deactivating or deleting your account will also shut down any pages you run) and will ask for your password one more time before it makes everything disappear.

How to delete your Facebook account without a password

As you may have noticed, you need your password to delete your Facebook account. But if you’ve forgotten it or your account has been compromised, there are some workarounds you can try.

Recover or reset your password

1. From the Facebook login page on the web or in the app, click Forgot password?.

2. Enter the email or phone number associated with the account and hit Search.

3. You may see a partially-hidden email address or other information on the next screen (like R*********@g****.com), and that may help you remember your login information. If not, click Try another way.

4. Facebook will offer you several password reset options, and they’ll vary depending on what other services you use. Choose the one that works best for you, and hit Continue to begin the reset process.

Report your account as fake

As a last-ditch attempt to remove your account without any login information, you can report it as fake. There’s no guarantee this will work, but you can try. And it goes without saying that you should not maliciously report an account you don’t like in the hope that it’ll be deleted. You’re better than that.

You will have to be logged into Facebook to file a report, though, so you’ll need to either create a new account to find and report your old account, or team up with a friend or family member to report it from their account. If you can’t do any of these, Facebook has an online form that will let you report an imposter account without logging in. Otherwise, follow these steps:

1. While logged into Facebook, go to the Facebook profile you want to report (yours, in this case).

2. Click the three dots under the cover photo. If you’re using a web browser, choose Find support or report; if you’re in the app, tap Report profile.

3. Select the problem you have with the account. There are several options here, but you’ll probably want to choose Pretending to be someone. It’s you, but the account is pretending to be someone who wants to be on Facebook, after all.

4. Choose Me, and Facebook will ask if the account is violating the social network’s community standards. You can click See Community Standards to read up on them, or just hit Submit to report the account. If all goes well, Facebook will remove it from the site.

This story has been updated. It was originally published in 2021.

The post How to delete your Facebook account and take your data with you appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is facing an exodus of users (despite what its CEO may be saying). According to a major new survey from Nature published on August 16, it’s clear one demographic is taking a particularly major hit in numbers: scientists.

Out of nearly 9,200 researchers recently polled, over half reported they have decreased their usage of X over the last six months, with nearly seven percent stating they have left the site altogether. Around 46 percent have since moved onto alternative platforms including Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, and TikTok. Conversely, less than 10 percent of those surveyed believe they are spending more time on the app.

The reasons given for their departures likely come as little surprise. According to Nature’s report, many cited Elon Musk’s “management of the platform,” while others remarked on the rise in fake accounts, trolls, and unchecked hate speech that now runs rampant across the website.

[Related: Elon Musk says Twitter will delete inactive users’ accounts.]

According to experts interviewed by Nature, such a sustained and unequivocal decline in use goes far beyond mere inconvenience. Once solid online scientific communities now face fragmentation and disorganization across multiple platforms, leaving a vacuum of reliable, verified information in their wake. This is particularly true, Nature explains, for those who are traditionally underrepresented in their fields, such as female-identifying scientists and researchers of color.

In recent years, social media platforms like Twitter have been vital to BIPOC communities for communication, organization, and information sharing. As Nature noted in the past, ecosystems like Twitter helped dramatically boost Black scientist voices while also serving as a way to improve industry accountability and fight against harassment.

“People would just go to that hashtag and they’d see everyone who was talking about a very particular interest,” recounted Inger Mewburn, an education and technology researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra. “It’s just hard to [now] know where people are hanging out.”

[Related: Twitter’s latest bad idea will kill vital research and fun bot accounts.]

Another deterrent in remaining on X is its recent content restrictions. Musk’s X tenure has included paywalling the platform’s formerly free application program interface (API) access. The decision particularly affects researchers focused on online social cultures, disaster response, and misinformation, who relied upon the API to pull extremely useful datasets for their own work.

Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus on where scientific communities go from here. The social media schisms formed within researchers continue to evolve, and as Nature notes, it may take some time before anything rivaling X’s scope emerges—if ever. One thing appears certain, however: most appear to agree remaining on X isn’t tenable.

“Twitter has always been not so nice, let’s say,” said one survey participant. “But it is a mess right now.”

The post Elon Musk’s management is killing Science Twitter appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Social media is splintering. Where once sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram dominated, now there are a bunch of smaller networks. One that’s growing at the moment is Mastodon. 

The decentralized nature of this platform makes it a bit harder to navigate than most, which is why plenty of people are not on there. Still, there might be a lot of interesting content you’re missing out on just because you don’t want to sign up for yet another social network. 

So what if you want to follow a single account on Mastodon but can’t be bothered with understanding how the fediverse actually works? It sounds counterintuitive, but it is possible thanks to Mastodon’s ability to generate an RSS feed for every account. The option is not exactly easy to find, but once you pin it down you can add it to your favorite RSS reader. 

Find the RSS feed for any Mastodon account

To get started, head to the page for any Mastodon account, like mine or PopSci‘s. You’ll notice that the RSS feed isn’t exactly advertised—there’s no link to it anywhere on the page, search as you might. But it’s there all the same: just add “.rss” (no quotes) to the end of the address in your browser’s navigation bar. 

So, in our example, “https://mastodon.social/@jhpot” and “https://mstdn.social/@popsci” become “https://mastodon.social/@jhpot.rss” and “https://mstdn.social/@popsci.rss“. 

Hit enter and you’ll see the raw feed. It’ll look something like this:

Ignore this code—it’s not important right now. Just copy the URL for the feed from the address bar and paste it into your preferred RSS reader. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to open your reader on any device and see the content of every post, and even media when appropriate. 

Wait, what’s RSS?

I’m glad you asked! RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s an easy way to keep up with any webpage and a lot of news sites and blogs offer them. For example, I use them to stay on top of local news and what’s happening in the tech world without having to check my social media feeds. 

To keep up with your favorite Mastodon accounts, you’ll first need a feed reader. If you don’t know what these are, we have a helpful guide to RSS apps you can use, which include Feedly, NewsBlur, and Reeder. Set up one of these apps on your device of choice and follow the instructions to add the feeds you’re interested in. You will see every new post in a single place. 

For now, RSS is likely the simplest way to follow a Mastodon account without creating your own, but it’s not the only one. Because Mastodon is decentralized, you can use other social networks that can connect to it, like Pixelfed, Friendica, and Gnu Social. In the future, it might get even easier, as eventually Tumblr and Instagram’s Threads will connect to the same protocol. That means you’ll be able to follow Mastodon users from those apps. 

The post How to see what’s happening on Mastodon without creating an account appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The World Wide Web has been up and running since the early 1990s, and countless amounts of text, images, video, and audio have been uploaded since then. Run a web search today though, and it’ll likely prioritize newer pages. Not great if you’re looking for something older.

Going back in time on the internet is possible, but you need to have the right tools and techniques to dig deep into the past. Once you’ve refined your skills, you can pull up everything from your first tweet to famous web pages from the previous century.

Try looking for veteran politicians or long-running TV shows, but adjust the dates to 2000-2010, and you’ll see how opinions can shift dramatically when it comes to people or entertainment. If you’re looking for a specific older article, the date range tool can make the task much easier, and you can add other filters too (e.g. site:popsci.com to restrict the search to a particular domain).

This feature isn’t exclusive to Google—if you prefer the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo, click the Any time filter at the top of the screen after you run a search to get similar date range options. Unfortunately, the same custom date search feature isn’t available everyone on Bing. It used to be, but Microsoft has restricted it to news, image, and video searches. If you’re in Bing’s news tab, click the Any time dropdown menu to get date options, and if you’re in the image or video tabs, click Filter to bring up several dropdown menus, then choose Date.

In many cases, sites will render older pages using their current layout and style—presenting the old content in a new way. If you want to see sites as they were in the past, or look up pages that Google and Bing can’t reach, you can turn to the Wayback Machine. It features hundreds of billions of pages preserved exactly as they were originally published.

Type in the name of a website, like www.popsci.com, into the search box on the Wayback Machine, and you’ll see an overview of the pages saved from that domain. You can click into individual years, months, and days to see how those pages looked when they first appeared. Many of these cached pages are fully browsable too, so it’s just like surfing the web in the old days.

[Related: This free tool can reveal who is behind any internet domain]

The Wayback Machine is the best option for pulling up older pages as they originally were, but there are alternatives. Time Travel searches smaller web archives, including those managed by Stanford and individual countries. You can also find a limited number of official and government sites archived by the US Library of Congress.

If the site you’re looking for is particularly well-known, you might find it preserved in a digital museum. The Web Design Museum has pulled together several hundred significant pages, showcasing some digital design trends of yesteryear, while the Version Museum has captured the changing style of big sites such as Amazon, Apple, Wikipedia, The New York Times, Google, and Facebook.

Find old posts on social media

Searching through older social media posts on Twitter and Facebook requires a different approach. These platforms come with built-in search features and work with a number of third-party tools that you can use to hunt back through years of social media posts, created by you or other people.

The advanced search page on Twitter lets you search for tweets based on the date they were posted (back to when Twitter launched in 2006). Besides the date, you’ll need to enter other search criteria, such as a particular user account or a keyword you want to search by.

You can use this search tool to look for your older tweets, or those made by anyone else, as long as the account is public. There are even filters for narrowing your search based on how much engagement the post got—if you’re running a search with a lot of matches, prioritizing the popular tweets can help filter out the noise.

If you want to go back to the very beginning of a Twitter account, the date an account was created is listed on the user’s profile page—that should help you focus your search. You can also request a download of your Twitter archive by opening Twitter’s settings, clicking Your account, and selecting Download an archive of your data. You may need to verify who you are before you can get the data, but once you have the archive you can open the file in your web browser and quickly get to your earliest tweet using the list of years and months.

[Related: Allow us to show you how to bulk-delete tweets]

Over on Facebook, posts are much less likely to be public and visible to everyone. You can search the posts of someone you’re friends with by opening a profile and clicking the three dots on the right, followed by Search. When you run a search, you’ll see search filters down the left-hand side, including one for Date Posted.

The same filters appear when you run a general search from the box in the top left-hand corner of the Facebook interface: Enter a keyword or two, then hit Enter to run the search. Click Posts and Date Posted to narrow the results based on year. It’s not a precise tool, but it might help you find what you’re after more quickly.

The post 5 ways to go back in time on the internet appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Borax is meant to wash clothes, but some people are finding other uses for this powdered cleaner. Back in 2018, teenagers were biting Tide Pods for clout online. This led to hundreds of adolescents getting poisoned and at least 10 deaths from eating these pouches of liquid. Now another laundry-inspired trend is taking shape on TikTok involving Borax to purportedly boost their health—with dangerous consequences.

One increasingly popular example includes adding a pinch of borax to a glass of drinking water. TikToker users claim it helps with managing joint pain and several health conditions, from kidney stones to erectile dysfunction. There is another video from an alleged doctor making the rounds on the social media platform advocating the use of borax for cleaning the vagina (his video has since been taken down). People have also been mixing the mineral compound with bathwater to detox the skin.

“Borax consumption can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, skin rashes, and skin peeling. Long-term consumption can lead to seizures and anemia,” says Kelly Johnson-Arbor, a medical toxicologist and co-medical director at the National Capital Poison Center. 

No matter what you read or watch on the internet, there is no reason to use borax for anything other than for washing your clothes. In fact, medical experts say many of the health claims may be coming from mix up between borax and the trace element boron.

Borax vs. boron

As an essential element for creating plant cell walls, boron appears in many of the fruits and vegetables we eat daily. According to the National Institute of Health, however, it’s not an essential nutrient because there is no clear understanding of how it helps human health. A few medical studies suggest boron supplements can treat osteoarthritis and reduce the risk for prostate and lung cancer. 

“Boron may impact bone health, hormones, and brain function, but the exact relationship between boron and these health functions has not been fully determined,” Johnson-Arbor explains. 

Boron is generally safe to eat: Some European countries use boron-containing compounds as food preservatives, but Johnson-Arbor says these doses are highly regulated to ensure they do not reach toxic levels. 

[Related: How to make slime]

There is even less data supporting the use of boron-containing products like borax to improve health. “While some social media influencers state that medical professionals don’t recommend borax as a health supplement because of a desire to promote prescription drug products instead, this is not the case,” says Johnson-Arbor. “Rather, doctors don’t promote borax as a health supplement because it has no proven health benefits in humans, and it does have known toxic effects when consumed.”

For this reason, Borax products have a label warning against drug use or human consumption. Though it seems like manufacturers should update the warning to not putting borax inside the body at all.

Why Borax is toxic

Another dangerous use of Borax that’s making the rounds is using it for douching. No one should put Borax inside their vagina, says Jill Purdie, an OB-GYN and medical director at Pediatrix Medical Group in Atlanta. Not only is the powdered detergent toxic, but in general, douching with any product harms the “good” bacteria in the vaginal microbiome. “This actually increases the risk of infection and odor, including sexually transmitted infections if a woman is exposed,” Purdie adds. 

The idea of Borax for douching likely comes from mixing it up with boric acid suppositories. While they sound similar in name, boric acid suppositories have a slightly different chemical formulation that can treat resistant yeast or recurrent bacterial infections in the vagina. “The suppositories are not something that are needed daily to maintain the vagina or ‘clean’ it,” explains Purdie. “They have to be used in a specific way and for a limited amount of time, and should only be used under the direction of a physician.”

[Related: Does ‘vabbing’ work? The truth about vaginal pheromones.]

When applied to the eyes of skin, borax can cause skin rashes, irritation, and peeling. There is also a risk of accidentally drinking the borax-containing water. Even when diluted in bathwater, Johnson-Arbor says the compound can cause pain or discomfort if it makes contact with human skin. There is no scientific evidence to support using Borax laundry products for drawing out toxins, losing weight, or acting as an antiparasitic agent.

If you or someone around you ingests borax, contact Poison Control immediately for expert advice. There are two ways to get local assistance from Poison Control: online at www.poison.org or by phone at 1-800-222-1222. Both options are free, confidential, and available 24/7.

The post Don’t drink or douche with Borax, no matter what TikTok tells you appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

After launching last week, Meta’s Threads app now has more than 100 million users. It’s a dramatic launch for the Twitter competitor and it will soon be the largest social network to use the open ActivityPub protocol. Here’s what that means for you. 

ActivityPub is a “decentralized social networking protocol” standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the group responsible for many of the standards that make the modern web work, like HTML and CSS. It’s basically a pre-designed social networking architecture that developers can use to create services similar to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—but much more open. Right now, the biggest social network to use it is Mastodon but Meta has promised to add support for ActivityPub to Threads. This would allow the two social networks to interoperate in ways we haven’t seen with major social platforms before. 

ActivityPub is designed to enable “the Fediverse,” or a series of decentralized social networks. The idea is that instead of your Facebook Posts, Twitter Tweets, and YouTube videos being locked inside their respective walled gardens, your Mastodon Toots would also be available in Threads. Similarly, your followers wouldn’t be locked into one app and nor would the list of people you follow. You’d basically be able to switch between Fediverse-compatible social networks as you like. While different apps and services could look different and have different features and moderation policies, the data contained within these sites, such as user-generated content or the network of followers and followings, would be available through any ActivityPub-supporting service.

On a technical level, ActivityPub is pretty simple. It’s essentially a set of rules that allows decentralized servers to share posts in a standardized format and enables users to use client apps to receive that information from the relevant servers. It’s really similar to the way that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter currently work, except open to the wider web. 

Crucially, ActivityPub allows for true interoperability. The magazine app Flipboard integrates with Mastodon using ActivityPub. Federated Mastodon Toots appear like Flipboard posts in the app and, if you like them or comment on them, the like also appears on Mastodon and the comments get posted as replies on the original Toot. In other words, you can use Flipboard to follow and interact with people on Mastodon without having to use a Mastodon app. It’s as if you can see Tweets on Instagram. 

As well as Mastodon and Flipboard, there are a couple of other ActivityPub-based social networks under development. Pixelfed is a decentralized Instagram alternative while PeerTube is a decentralized take on YouTube. The biggest news for the Fediverse, though, is Threads.

While Threads launched last week without support for ActivityPub, Meta plans to add it. In a post on Threads, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, wrote: “We’re committed to building support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, into this app. We weren’t able to finish it for launch given a number of complications that come along with a decentralized network, but it’s coming.”

This will be huge for The Fediverse. Mastodon, the current face of ActivityPub, had less than 2 million users earlier this year—even after hundreds of thousands of people flocked to it from Twitter. Less than a week after launching, Threads has more than 100 million users. How many will stick around remains to be seen, but unless things go wildly bad in the coming months, Threads is likely to become the dominant Fediverse player once the integration launches. 

Of course, not everyone is happy about Meta moving into ActivityPub. Some Mastodon administrators are signing a pact agreeing to block Threads from interacting with the servers they control—something that’s possible because of Mastodon’s decentralized nature. 

In a blog post addressing Threads, Eugen Rochko, founder and CEO of Mastodon, takes a different tact. While attempting to allay Mastodon users fears that Meta joining the Fediverse will allow them to be tracked, or that Threads will somehow undermine the ActivityPub standard, he writes: 

“We have been advocating for interoperability between platforms for years. The biggest hurdle to users switching platforms when those platforms become exploitative is the lock-in of the social graph, the fact that switching platforms means abandoning everyone you know and who knows you. The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralized social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Which in turn, puts pressure on such platforms to provide better, less exploitative services. This is a clear victory for our cause, hopefully one of many to come.”

ActivityPub isn’t the only attempt to create an open social networking protocol. Bluesky, another Twitter competitor that’s still in private beta, has developed the AT Protocol, which also allows for federated social networks. Its most interesting feature is that it allows users to select what algorithm they want to sort their social feeds. While it’s a cool idea, the service has only just reached a million users in approximately four months.

Obviously, the social networking space is undergoing a major shakeup. Twitter under Elon Musk’s chaotic reign has seemingly created an opportunity for an alternative microblogging service. With Threads and Mastodon both embracing ActivityPub, it might not be one platform that wins out—but an open standard. 

The post How ActivityPub is setting the stage to weave all your social media feeds together appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

On Wednesday evening, Meta released their “friendly” alternative to Twitter called Threads. Within seven hours of its launch, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg claimed that 10 million people have signed up. 

The Instagram-linked competitor (you currently need an Instagram account to sign up for Threads) currently looks more or less just like Twitter. Users can post text-based messages up to 500 characters, as well as videos or photos, and respond to or repost other posts. However, unlike Twitter, direct messaging is currently unavailable, and hashtags are nowhere to be found. Also, if you decide Threads isn’t for you, the only way to delete your account is by axing your entire Instagram account. 

[Related: Twitter alternative Bluesky is fun, friendly, and kind of empty.]

The app is apparently available in over 100 countries on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Notably not included is the EU, which recently passed a law to limit how big tech companies can share data. Even in the countries where it is allowed, the app has numerous questionable security policy items—including how the app can collect sensitive personal data, data about your location, and personal health and body data. (At the time of writing, a PopSci staff member was able to create an account from an EU residence.)

Twitter’s user experience has took a downturn since Elon Musk took the helm. Users recently reported inability to read tweets or even access the social media platform. Last Friday, new “temporary limits” put a cap on how many tweets users could see per day, with a boost for premium Twitter Blue users. The website additionally instituted account-only access to the previously free-to-access website, leading to a multitude of problems. Then on Wednesday, Twitter quietly lifted the account-only ban.

[Related: Elon Musk says Twitter will delete inactive users’ accounts, which could include your dead relatives.]

There are a number of Twitter alternatives that predate Threads, however none of which have caught fire in the same manner as Meta’s attempt. Mastodon has been slow to attract much of a crowd, while former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s alternative Bluesky remains in a closed beta testing phase.

The post You can now join Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This article was co-reported by The Markup and KFF Health News.

Looking for an at-home HIV test on CVS’ website is not as private an experience as one might think. An investigation by The Markup and KFF Health News found trackers on CVS.com telling some of the biggest social media and advertising platforms the products customers viewed.

And CVS is not the only pharmacy sharing this kind of sensitive data.

We found trackers collecting browsing- and purchase-related data on websites of 12 of the U.S.’ biggest drugstores, including grocery store chains with pharmacies, and sharing the sensitive information with companies like Meta (formerly Facebook); Google, through its advertising and analytics products; and Microsoft, through its search engine, Bing.

The tracking tools, popularly called “pixels,” collect information while a website runs. That information is often sent to social media firms and used to target ads, either to you personally or to groups of people that resemble you in demographics or habits. In previous investigations, The Markup found pixels transmitting information from the Department of Education, prominent hospitals, telehealth startups, and major tax preparation companies.

Pharmacy retailer websites’ pixels send a shopper’s IP address—a sort of mailing address for a person’s computer or household internet—to social media giants and other firms. They also send cookies, a way of storing information in a user’s browser that in this case helps track a user from page to page as the user browses a retailer’s site. Cookies can sometimes also associate individuals on a site with their account on a social media platform. In addition to the IP address and cookies, the pixels often send information about what you’ve clicked or bought, including sensitive items, such as HIV tests.

“HIV testing is the gateway to HIV prevention and treatment services,” said Oni Blackstock, the founder of Health Justice and a former assistant commissioner for the New York City Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, in an interview.

“People living with HIV should have control over whether someone knows their status,” she said.

Many retailers shared other detailed interaction data with advertising platforms as well. Ten of the retailers we examined alerted at least one tech platform when shoppers clicked “add to cart” as they shopped for retail goods, a capacious category that included sensitive products like prenatal vitamins, pregnancy tests, and Plan B emergency contraception.

Supermarket giant Kroger, for instance, informed Meta, Bing, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest when a shopper added Plan B to the cart, and informed Google and Nextdoor, a social media platform on which people from the same neighborhood gather in forums, that a shopper had visited the page for the item. Walmart informed Google’s advertising service when a shopper browsed the page of an HIV test, and Pinterest when that shopper added it to the cart.

A previous investigation from The Markup found that Kroger used loyalty cards to track, analyze, and sell an array of data about customers to advertisers.

Using Chrome DevTools, a tool built into Google’s Chrome browser, The Markup and KFF Health News visited the websites of 12 of the U.S.’ biggest drugstores and examined their network traffic. This monitoring tool allowed us to see what information about shopping habits and, in some cases, prescriptions, were sent to third parties.

Over the course of the investigation, retailers frequently changed their trackers—sometimes activating them, sometimes removing them. Some retailers appeared to be taking steps to limit tracking on sensitive items.

For example, Walgreens’ website prevented some trackers from activating on the pages of some products, which included Plan B and HIV tests. This code didn’t prevent all tracking, though: Walgreens’ site continued sending Pinterest information about those sensitive items a user added to the cart.

Walgreens shared a new policy after learning of The Markup and KFF Health News’ findings. Spokesperson Fraser Engerman said that while the chain already had a “robust privacy program,” it would no longer share browsing data related to reproductive health and HIV testing. Engerman also told us that “Pinterest confirmed that the data will be deleted and that it has not been used for advertising purposes.” Crystal Espinosa, a spokesperson for Pinterest, said the company “can confirm that we will be deleting the data Walgreens requested.”

The pharmacy vs. the pharmacy aisle

In the U.S., drugstores and grocery stores with associated pharmacies are only partially covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. The prescriptions picked up from the pharmacy counter do have this protection.

But in a separate section, sometimes confusingly called the pharmacy aisle, stores also often sell over-the-counter medications, tests, and other health-related products. Consumers might think such purchases have similar protections to their prescriptions, but HIPAA only covers the pharmacy counter’s clinical operations, such as dispensing prescriptions and answering patients’ questions about medication.

This distinction can be confusing enough inside the brick-and-mortar location of a retailer. But the line can become even harder to make out on a website, which lacks the clarifying delineations of physical space.

What’s more, descriptions about what will happen with retail data are generally in retailers’ privacy policies, which can usually be found in a link at the bottom of their webpages. The Markup and KFF Health News found them murky at best, and none of them were specific about the parts of the site that were covered by HIPAA and the parts that weren’t.

In the “Privacy Notice for California Residents” part of its privacy policy, Kroger says it processes “personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s health.” But, the policy continues, the company does not “sell or share” that information. Other information is sold: According to the policy, in the last 12 months, the company sold or shared “protected classification characteristics” to outside entities like data brokers.

Kroger spokesperson Erin Rolfes said the company strives to be transparent and that, “in many cases, we have provided more information to our customers in our privacy notices than our peers.”

Brokering of general retail data is widespread. Our investigation found, though, that some websites shared sensitive clinical data with third parties even when that information would be protected at a HIPAA-covered pharmacy counter. Users attempting to schedule a vaccine appointment at Rite Aid, for example, must answer a survey first to gauge eligibility.

This investigation found that Rite Aid has sent Facebook responses to questions such as:

• Do you have a neurological disorder such as seizures or other disorders that affect the brain or have had a disorder that resulted from a vaccine?
• Do you have cancer, leukemia, AIDS, or any other immune system problem?
• Are you pregnant or could you become pregnant in the next three months?

The Markup and KFF Health News documented Rite Aid sharing this data with Facebook in December 2022. In February of this year, a proposed class-action lawsuit based on similar findings was filed against the drugstore chain in California, alleging code on Rite Aid’s website sent Facebook the time of an appointment and an identifier for the appointment location, demographic information, and answers to questions about vaccination history and health conditions. Rite Aid has moved to dismiss the suit.

After the lawsuit was filed, The Markup and KFF Health News tested Rite Aid’s website again, and it was no longer sending answers to vaccination questions to Facebook.

Rite Aid isn’t the only company that sent answers to eligibility questionnaires to social media firms. Supermarkets Albertsons, Acme, and Safeway, which are owned by the same parent company, also sent answers to questions in their vaccination intake form—albeit in a format that requires cross-referencing the questionnaire’s source code to reveal the meaning of the data.

Using the Firefox web browser’s Network Monitor tool, and with the help of a patient with an active prescription at Rite Aid, KFF Health News and The Markup also found Rite Aid sending the names of patients’ specific prescriptions to Facebook. Rite Aid kept sharing prescription names even after the company stopped sharing answers to vaccination questions in response to the proposed class action (which did not mention the sharing of prescription information). Rite Aid did not respond to requests for comment, and as of June 23, the pixel was still present and sending the names of prescriptions to Facebook.

Other companies shared data about medications from other parts of their sites. Customers of Sam’s Club and Costco, for example, can search names of prescriptions on each retailer’s website to find the local pharmacy with the cheapest prices. But the two websites also sent the name of the medication the user searched for, along with the user’s IP address, to social media companies.

Many of the retailers The Markup and KFF Health News looked at did not respond to questions or declined to comment, including Costco and Sam’s Club. Albertsons said the company “continually” evaluates its privacy practices. CVS said it was compliant with “applicable laws.”

Kroger’s Rolfes wrote that the company’s “trackers disclose product information, which is not sensitive health information unless one or more inferences are made. Kroger does not make any inferences linking the product information collected or disclosed by trackers to an individual’s health condition.”

A huge regulatory challenge

Pharmacies are just one facet of a huge health care sector. But the industry as a whole has been roiled by disclosures of tracking pixels picking up sensitive clinical data.

After an investigation by The Markup in June 2022 found widespread use of trackers on hospital websites, regulatory and legal attention has homed in on the practice.

In December, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights published guidance advising health providers and insurers how pixel trackers’ use can be consistent with HIPAA. “Regulated entities are not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures” of protected health information to tracking technology or other third-party vendors, according to the official bulletin. If implemented, the guidance would provide a path for the agency to regulate hospitals and other providers and fine those who don’t follow it. In an interview with an industry publication in late April, the director of the Office for Civil Rights said it would be bringing its first enforcement action for pixel use “hopefully soon.”

Lobbying groups are seeking to confine any regulatory fallout: The American Hospital Association, for example, sent a letter on May 22 to the Office for Civil Rights asking that the agency “suspend or amend” its guidance. The office, it claimed, was seeking to protect too much data.

This year the Federal Trade Commission has pursued action against companies like GoodRx, which offers prescription price comparisons, and BetterHelp, which offers online therapy, for alleged misuse of data from questionnaires and searches. The companies settled with the agency.

Health care providers have disclosed to the federal government the potential leakage of nearly 10 million patients’ data to various advertising partners, according to a review by The Markup and KFF Health News of breach notification letters and the Office for Civil Rights’ online database of breaches. That figure could be a low estimate: A new study in the journal Health Affairs found that, as of 2021, almost 99 percent of hospital websites contained tracking technologies.

One prominent law firm, BakerHostetler, is defending hospitals in 26 legal actions related to the use of tracking technologies, lawyer Paul Karlsgodt, a partner at the firm, said during a webinar this year. “We’ve seen an absolute eruption of cases,” he said.

Abortion- and pregnancy-related data is particularly sensitive and driving regulatory scrutiny. In the same webinar, Lynn Sessions, also with BakerHostetler, said the California attorney general’s office had made specific investigative requests to one of the firm’s clients about whether the client was sharing reproductive health data.

It’s unclear whether big tech companies have much interest in helping secure health data. Sessions said BakerHostetler had been trying to get Google and Meta to sign so-called business associate agreements. These agreements would bring the companies under the HIPAA regulatory umbrella, at least when handling data on behalf of hospital clients. “Both of them, at least at this juncture, have not been accommodating in doing that,” Sessions said. Google Analytics’ help page for HIPAA instructs customers to “refrain from using Google Analytics in any way that may create obligations under HIPAA for Google.”

Meta says it has tools that attempt to prevent the transfer of sensitive information like health data. In a November 2022 letter to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) obtained by KFF Health News and The Markup, Meta wrote that “the filtering mechanism is designed to prevent that data from being ingested into our ads.” What’s more, the letter noted, the social media giant reaches out to companies transferring potentially sensitive data and asks them to “evaluate their implementation.”

“I remain concerned the company is too passive in allowing individual developers to determine what is considered sensitive health data that should remain private,” Warner told The Markup and KFF Health News.

Meta’s claims in its letter to Warner have been repeatedly questioned. In 2020, the company itself acknowledged to New York state regulators that the filtering system was “not yet operating with complete accuracy.”

To test the filtering system, Sven Carlsson and Sascha Granberg, reporters for SR Ekot in Sweden, set up a dummy pharmacy website in Swedish, which sent fake, but plausible, health data to Facebook to see whether the company’s filtering systems worked as stated. “We weren’t warned” by Facebook, Carlsson said in an interview with KFF Health News and The Markup.

Carlsson and Granberg’s work also found European pharmacies engaged in activities similar to what The Markup and KFF Health News have found. The reporters caught a Swedish state-owned pharmacy sending data to Facebook. And a recent investigation with The Guardian found the U.K.-based pharmacy chain LloydsPharmacy was sending sensitive data—including information about symptoms—to TikTok and Facebook.

In response to questions from KFF Health News and The Markup, Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez said, “Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools. Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business Tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”

Meta did not respond to questions about whether it considered any of the information KFF Health News and The Markup found retailers sending to be “sensitive information,” whether any was actually filtered by the system, or whether Meta could provide metrics demonstrating the current accuracy of the system.

In response to our inquiries, Twitter sent a poop emoji, while TikTok and Pinterest said they had policies instructing advertisers not to pass on sensitive information. LinkedIn and Nextdoor did not respond.

Google spokesperson Jackie Berté said the company’s policies “prohibit businesses from using sensitive health information to target and serve ads” and that it worked to prevent such information from being used in advertising, using a “combination of algorithmic and human review” to remedy violations of its policy.

KFF Health News and The Markup presented Google with screenshots of its pixel sending the search company our browsing information when we landed on the retailers’ pages where we could purchase an HIV test and prenatal vitamins, and data showing when we added an HIV test to the cart. In response, Berté said the company had “not uncovered any evidence that the businesses in the screenshots are violating our policies.”

KFF Health News uses the Meta Pixel to collect information. The pixel may be used by third-party websites to measure web traffic and performance data and to target ads on social platforms. KFF Health News collects page usage data from news partners that opt to include our pixel tracker when they republish our articles. This data is not shared with third-party sites or social platforms and users’ personally identifiable information is not recorded or tracked, per KFF’s privacy policy. The Markup does not use a pixel tracker. You can read its full privacy policy here.

This article was co-published with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. Sign up for The Markup’s newsletters.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

The post Facebook could be tracking your online Plan B or HIV test purchases appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Black text on a white background isn’t just boring—it’s blinding. When you’re using your phone or computer at night, the last thing you need is a bright screen torching your eyeballs. Turning the brightness down beyond its limit can help, but thankfully, companies have added new ways to darken their apps. If that appeals to you, here’s how to turn on dark mode for all the things.

Quick access

1. Windows 10 and 11
2. macOS
3. Internet browsers
4. iOS
5. Android
6. Apps, sites, and other devices

Turn on dark mode for Windows 10 and 11

For a long time, Windows’ dark mode only affected the settings panel and the Microsoft Store. In 2018, Microsoft extended those grey backgrounds to the File Explorer as well, inching a bit closer to system-wide darkness. Couple that with a dark wallpaper and you’ve got the beginnings of a desktop you might actually want to use at night. Turning on dark mode for Windows is easy, but the final steps differ depending on which version of the operating system you have:

• Windows 10: Open the Settings app and head to Personalization, then Colors, find Choose your color, and pick Dark.
• Windows 11: Open the Settings app, go to Personalization, then Colors, find Choose your mode, and select Dark from the dropdown menu to the right.

• macOS Ventura or later: Open the Apple menu, select System Settings, then Appearance. At the top of the window, choose Dark.
• Earlier versions of macOS: Open the Apple menu, select System Preferences, and click General. From there, choose Dark for your appearance. 

[Related: The best internet browsers you’ve never heard of]

Google Chrome

Chrome does not have a standalone dark mode, but you can choose one of many dark themes available in the Chrome Web Store. That said, if you have a theme installed on Chrome, your computer’s system-wide theme won’t override it, so you’ll have to reset your browser to the default theme. To do so, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and go to Settings. In the sidebar on the left, click Appearance, and from the first line choose Reset to default.

Another option is to use one of the hidden Chrome settings known as “flags.” To find it, type chrome://flags into your address bar and put “force dark” into the search bar at the top of the subsequent page. This should turn up only one result, but if there are multiple, you want Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents. Finally, click the dropdown menu to the right and select Enabled.

For a slightly different look or to see what we had to do before Apple rolled out a true dark mode, you can try the color inversion option that makes your iPhone’s screen look like a photo negative, or the newer Smart Invert feature that aims to darken the phone without making the color shift quite as jarring. You can turn these on by heading to Settings, Accessibility, and then Display & Text Size. There, toggle on Smart Invert or Classic Invert.You can also create a shortcut for this color change by going back to the Accessibility menu, scrolling to the General heading at the bottom, selecting Accessibility Shortcut, and checking Classic Invert and/or Smart Invert. With one or both of those checked, you can triple-click your side button (or home button if your phone has one) to bring up a list of all accessibility shortcuts whether your phone’s locked or not.

How to turn on Android’s dark mode

Every Android phone is a little different, thanks to version fragmentation and the various manufacturer skins companies such as Samsung add to their phones. If your phone is running the latest version of Android (13), you can head to Settings, Display, and toggle on the switch beside Dark theme. 

Again, Android can differ from phone to phone, so how exactly it’ll implement dark mode on your device, and the steps you’ll need to take to to turn it on, may vary—chances are it’s somewhere in that Settings app.

Darken all your favorite apps, sites, and devices

The above settings will cover the main operating systems, but a ton of apps offer their own dark modes, or something similar. Here are a few of the most common ones:

On Android, open the Gmail app, tap the three lines in the upper left corner and scroll down to find Settings. Tap on it, then hit General settings, and then Theme. Finally, tap the checkbox next to Dark. Sorry iPhone users—these options aren’t available to you.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook originally soft-launched Messenger’s dark mode with an adorable secret trick that required you to send a friend the crescent moon emoji in a chat. Now, however, you can simply click on your profile photo in the top right corner of any Facebook page. There, choose Display & accessibility and under Dark mode click the bubble next to On. If you’re using the mobile Messenger app, tap the three lines in the top left, then the cog icon to open the settings menu. Hit Dark mode and either turn it On or ask the app to match your System theme.

Twitter

Twitter updated this feature a number of years ago, and you can find its dark mode on the left side panel by clicking through More > Settings and Support > Display. There are two versions: Dim, which turns things a deep navy blue, and Lights Out, which turns them pitch-black. The latter will extend the battery life of phones with OLED screens that turn black pixels off entirely, such as the iPhone 13 and 14.

[Related: 6 Twitter alternatives, in case you’re looking]

On mobile, tap your profile pic in the top left of your screen, and in the bottom left, tap the sun icon. There, you’ll be able to turn on Dark mode, choose to Use device settings, or activate the Dim or Lights out theme.

YouTube

YouTube gets a gold star for its dark mode feature, which is available on both the web and its mobile apps. On the web, just click your profile image in the upper right corner and choose Appearance. There, you’ll have the option to turn on Dark theme or Use device theme. 

On the Android and iOS mobile apps, tap your profile picture, then Settings, General, and Appearance to get the same options.

Reddit

You can use Reddit in dark mode on the web by clicking your username and toggling Dark Mode on. If you’re in the mobile app, tap your avatar, then Settings and scroll to the Dark Mode heading to mess around with the toggle switches and options there. You can also use third-party Reddit apps like Narwhal or Reddit Is Fun, which contain lots of useful features and their own dark modes.

Slack

Slack’s Android mobile app offers a dark mode for each workspace. Tap on the profile pic of the workspace in the upper left corner of the screen, and at the bottom choose Preferences. There, choose Dark Mode and tap the checkbox next to On. On the desktop app the path is similar—in preferences, go to Themes and choose Dark. Unfortunately, the iOS app doesn’t have these options, so you’ll have to change your phone’s system theme.

• PS4: From the home screen, bump the left joystick up and scroll over to Settings on the right. Find Themes, choose Select Theme, and find a dark one you like.
• PS5: Open the console settings via the cog icon in the top right, go to Accessibility, Display and Sound, and pick High Contrast to darken aspects of your screen.

The post How to turn on dark mode for all your gadgets and apps appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This article was originally published on The Markup. This article was copublished with STAT, a national publication that delivers trusted and authoritative journalism about health, medicine, and the life sciences. Sign up for its health tech newsletter here.

Websites for mental health crisis resources across the country—which promise anonymity for visitors, many of whom are at a desperate moment in their lives—have been quietly sending sensitive visitor data to Facebook, The Markup has found. 

Dozens of websites tied to the national mental health crisis 988 hotline, which launched last summer, transmit the data through a tool called the Meta Pixel, according to testing conducted by The Markup. That data often included signals to Facebook when visitors attempted to dial for mental health emergencies by tapping on dedicated call buttons on the websites. 

In some cases, filling out contact forms on the sites transmitted hashed but easily unscrambled names and email addresses to Facebook. 

The Markup tested 186 local crisis center websites under the umbrella of the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Calls to the national 988 line are routed to these centers based on the area code of the caller. The organizations often also operate their own crisis lines and provide other social services to their communities. 

The Markup’s testing revealed that more than 30 crisis center websites employed the Meta Pixel, formerly called the Facebook Pixel. The pixel, a short snippet of code included on a webpage that enables advertising on Facebook, is a free and widely used tool. A 2020 Markup investigation found that 30 percent of the web’s most popular sites use it.

The pixels The Markup found tracked visitor behavior to different degrees. All of the sites recorded that a visitor had viewed the homepage, while others captured more potentially sensitive information. 

Many of the sites included buttons that allowed users to directly call either 988 or a local line for mental health help. But clicking on those buttons often triggered a signal to be sent to Facebook that shared information about what a visitor clicked on. A pixel on one site sent data to Facebook on visitors who clicked a button labeled “24-Hour Crisis Line” that called local crisis services.

Clicking a button or filling out a form also sometimes sent personally identifiable data, such as names or unique ID numbers, to Facebook. 

The website for the Volunteers of America Western Washington is a good example. The social services nonprofit says it responds to more than 300,000 requests for assistance each year. When a web user visited the organization’s website, a pixel on the homepage noted the visit.

If the visitor then tried to call the national 988 crisis hotline through the website by clicking on a button labeled “call or text 988,” that click—including the text on the button—was sent to Facebook. The click also transmitted an “external ID,” a code that Facebook uses to attempt to match web users to their Facebook accounts. 

If a visitor filled out a contact form on the Volunteers of America Western Washington’s homepage, even more private information was transmitted to Facebook. After filling out and sending the form, a pixel transmitted hashed, or scrambled, versions of the person’s first and last name, as well as email address. Volunteers of America Western Washington did not respond to requests for comment. 

The Markup found similar activity on other sites. 

The Contra Costa Crisis Center, an organization providing social services in Northern California, noted to Facebook when a user clicked on a button to call or text for crisis services. About 3,000 miles away, in Rhode Island, an organization called BH Link used a pixel that also pinged Facebook when a visitor clicked a button to call crisis services from its homepage. (After publication of this article Contra Costa Crisis Center told The Markup that it had removed the pixel.)

Facebook can use data collected by the pixel to link website visitors to their Facebook accounts, but the data is collected whether or not the visitor has a Facebook account. Although the names and email addresses sent to Facebook were hashed, they can be easily unscrambled with free and widely available web services. 

After The Markup contacted the 33 crisis centers about their practices, some said they were unaware that the code was on their sites and that they’d take steps to remove it. 

“This was not intentional and thank you for making us aware of the potential issue,” Leo Pellerin, chief information officer for the United Way of Connecticut, a partner in the national 988 network, said in an emailed statement. Pellerin said they had removed the code, which they attributed to a plug-in on their website.

Lee Flinn, director of the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline, said in an email that she had “never heard of Meta Pixel” and was asking the outside vendor who had worked on the organization’s site to remove the code. “We value the privacy of individuals who reach out to us, and any tracking devices are not intentional on our part, nor did we ask any developer to install,” she said. “Anything regarding tracking that is found will be immediately removed.”

Ken Gibson, a spokesperson for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, said the organization had recently placed the pixel on its site to advertise for staff but would now reduce the information the pixel gathers to only careers pages on the site.

In follow-up tests, four organizations appeared to have completely removed the code. The majority of the centers we contacted did not respond to requests for comment. 

“Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools,” Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez told The Markup in an emailed statement that mirrored those the company has previously provided in response to reporting on the Meta Pixel. “Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”

Vazquez did not respond to a question about whether or how Meta could determine if this specific data was filtered.

There is no evidence that either Facebook or any of the crisis centers themselves attempted to identify visitors or callers, or that an actual human ever identified someone who attempted to call for help through a website. Some organizations explicitly said in response to The Markup’s requests for comment that they valued the anonymity promised by the 988 line. 

Mary Claire Givelber, executive director of New Jersey–based Caring Contact, said in an email that the organization had briefly used the pixel to recruit volunteers on Facebook but would now remove it. 

“For the avoidance of all doubt, Caring Contact has not used the Meta Pixel to identify, target, or advertise to any potential or actual callers or texters of the Caring Contact crisis hotline,” Givelber said.

Meta can use information gathered from its tools for its own purposes, however, and data sent to the company through the pixels scattered across the web enters a black box that can catalog and organize data with little oversight. 

Divendra Jaffar, a spokesperson for Vibrant Emotional Health, the nonprofit responsible for administering the national 988 crisis line, pointed out in an emailed statement that data transmitted through the pixel is encrypted. 

“While Vibrant Emotional Health does not require our 988 Lifeline network of crisis centers to provide updates on their marketing and advertising practices, we do provide best practices guidelines to our centers, counselors, and staff and hold them to rigorous operating standards, which are reviewed and approved by our government partners,” Jaffar said.

The organization did not respond to a request to provide any relevant best practices.

Jen King, the privacy and data policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, said in an interview that, regardless of the reasons, Meta is gathering far too much data through its tools.

“Even if this is accidental still on the part of the developers, you shouldn’t still be able to fall into this trap,” she said. “The time has long passed when you can use that excuse.”

The Pixel and Sensitive Data 

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, offers the pixel as a way to track visitors on the web and to more precisely target ads to those visitors on Facebook. For businesses and other organizations, it’s a valuable tool: A small company can advertise on Facebook directly to people who purchased a certain product, for example, or a nonprofit could follow up on Facebook with users who donated on their last visit to a website. 

One organization, the Minnesota-based Greater Twin Cities United Way, said it did not use its website to reach out to potential 988 callers but instead focused on “donors and other organizational stakeholders.” Sam Daub, integrated marketing manager of the organization, said in an emailed statement that the organization uses tools like the pixel “to facilitate conversion-tracking and content retargeting toward users who visit our website” to reach those people but did not track specific activity of 988 callers.  

Apart from encouraging users to buy ads, this sort of data is also potentially valuable to Meta, which, in accordance with its terms of service, can use the information to power its algorithms. The company reserves the right to use data transmitted through the pixel to, for instance, “personalize the features and content (including ads and recommendations) that we show people on and off our Meta Products.” (This is one of the reasons an online shopper might look at a pair of pants online and suddenly see the same pair follow them in advertisements across social media.)

The pixel has proved massively popular. The company told Congress in 2018 that there were more than two million pixels collecting data across the web, a number that has likely increased in the time since. There is no federal privacy legislation in the United States that regulates how most of that data can be used.

Meta’s policies prohibit organizations from sending sensitive information through the pixel on children under 13, or generally any data related to sensitive financial or health matters. The company says it has an automated system “designed to filter out potentially sensitive data that it detects” but that it is advertisers’ responsibility to “ensure that their integrations do not send sensitive information to Meta.”

In practice, however, The Markup has found several major services have sent sensitive information to Facebook. As part of a project in partnership with Mozilla Rally called the Pixel Hunt, The Markup found pixels transmitting information from sources including the Department of Education, prominent hospitals, and major tax preparation companies. Many of those organizations have since changed how or whether they use the pixel, while lawmakers have questioned the companies involved about their practices. Meta is now facing several lawsuits over the incidents. 

The types of sensitive health information Meta specifically prohibits being sent include information on “mental health and psychological states” as well as “physical locations that identify a health condition, or places of treatment/counseling.” Vazquez did not directly respond to a question about whether the data sent from the crisis centers violated Meta’s policies. 

There is evidence that even Meta itself can’t always say where that data ends up. In a leaked document obtained and published by Vice’s Motherboard, company engineers said they did not “have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data.” The document compared user data to a bottle of ink spilled into a body of water that then becomes unrecoverable. A Facebook spokesperson responded to the report at the time, saying it left out a number of the company’s “extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations,” though the spokesperson did not give any specifics. “It’s simply inaccurate to conclude that it demonstrates non-compliance,” the spokesperson said.

“The original use cases [for the pixel] perhaps weren’t quite so invasive, or people weren’t using it so widely,” King said but added that, at this point, Meta is “clearly grabbing way too much data.”

988 History and Controversy

The national 988 crisis line is the result of a years-long effort by the Federal Communications Commission to provide a simple, easy-to-remember, three-digit number for people experiencing a mental health crisis. 

Crisis lines are an enormously important social service—one that research has found can deter people from suicide. The new national line, largely a better-funded, more accessible version of the long-running National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, answered more than 300,000 calls, chats, and texts between its launch in the summer of last year and January. 

But the launch of 988 has been accompanied by questions about privacy and anonymity, mostly around how or whether callers to the line can ever be tracked by emergency services. The national line is advertised as an anonymous service, but in the past callers have said they’ve been tracked without their consent when calling crisis lines. Police have sometimes responded directly in those incidents, leading to harrowing incidents.

The current 988 line doesn’t track users through geolocation technology, according to the service, although counselors are required to provide information to emergency services like 911 in certain situations. That requirement has been the source of controversy, and groups like the Trans Lifeline, a nonprofit crisis hotline serving the trans community, stepped away from the network. 

The organization has launched a campaign to bring the issue more prominence. Yana Calou, the director of advocacy at Trans Lifeline, told The Markup in an interview that there are some lines that “really explicitly don’t” track, and the campaign is meant to direct people to those lines instead. (Trans Lifeline, which is not involved in the national 988 network, also uses the Meta Pixel on its site. After being alerted by The Markup, a Trans Lifeline spokesperson, Nemu HJ, said they would remove the code from the site.)

Data-sharing practices have landed other service providers in controversy as well. Last year, Politico reported that the nonprofit Crisis Text Line, a popular mental health service, was partnering with a for-profit spinoff that used data gleaned from text conversations to market customer-service software. The organization quickly ended the partnership after it was publicly revealed. 

Having a space where there’s a sense of trust between a caller and an organization can make all the difference in an intervention, Calou said. “Actually being able to have people tell us the truth about what’s going on lets people feel like they can get support,” they said.

This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

The post Suicide hotlines promise anonymity. Dozens of their websites send sensitive data to Facebook. appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

GLAAD released its second annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) & Platform Scorecard this week, and every major social media platform assessed received unequivocally abysmal ratings. Twitter, however, far and away took the honor of last place, receiving a score of just 33 out of 100—reportedly down 12 points from last year’s rating.The rest of the platform’s cohort also failed GLAAD’s parameters: Instagram (63/100), Facebook (61/100), TikTok (57/100), and YouTube (54/100).

First unveiled in 2022, the SMSI was developed in partnership with watchdog organization Ranking Digital Rights as well as the independent public opinion firm Goodwin Simon Strategic Research. Each year, the SMSI Platform Scorecard evaluates the LGBTQ safety, expression, and privacy capabilities of TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter based on a set of 12 indicators. These areas include clearly disclosing options to control a platform’s collection, inference, and use of data related to users’ sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as the inclusion of a policy commitment to protect users from harm, discrimination, harassment, and hate speech. Last year, the inaugural SMSI report described major social media sites as “categorically unsafe” for LGBTQ users.

[Related: Reddit protesters plan to ‘blackout’ indefinitely.]

Speaking with Axios earlier this week, GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis explained how these five social media platforms play an outsized role in the online spread of hate and misinformation. “They literally control the on and off buttons of live hatred against marginalized communities,” Ellis said, adding that digital oppression has very real consequences.

“It’s as if lawmakers and lobbyists are lifting the language from these platforms and are looking to them for guidance on how to further marginalize the LGBTQ community,” Ellis continued.

In its sourcing, the SMSI report cites extensive documentation detailing the direct links between anti-LGBTQ social media content and violent, real world impacts. In one referenced example, sustained misinformation campaigns from a popular anti-LGBTQ social media account resulted in bomb and death threats to members of the medical community based on patently false information.

[Related: Social media giants are failing their LGBTQ users, advocacy group warns.]

GLAAD’s report explains that Twitter’s particularly low rating stems in part from a reversal on banning deadnaming and misgendering users within its “Hateful Conduct” policy. Additionally, the platform failed to publish a Diversity Report disclosing data regarding the company’s LGBTQ employees. In a statement provided to Axios on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Twitter wrote, “[W]e know the public conversation only reaches its full potential when every community feels safe and comfortable participating. We’ve engaged with GLAAD to better understand their recommendations and are committed to an open dialogue to better inform our work to support LGBTQ safety.”

Since purchasing Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk has made countless transphobic and misinformed statements regarding the LGBTQ community. PopSci can confirm Twitter’s press email account still auto-responds with the “Poop” emoji at the time of writing.

The post Twitter is the least safe social media site for LGBTQ people, GLAAD says appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This week, many subreddit communities are participating in a 48-hour “Reddit blackout” due to company plans to dramatically increase API usage fees. A large portion of these users are now extending their shutdown “indefinitely.” On Wednesday, a moderator for the organizational subreddit r/ModCoord argued that Reddit executives have only so far “budged microscopically” to their requests, and as such, will continue to go dark in an effort to affect change.

A website’s application programming interface (API) is frequently utilized by third-party developers and researchers to access data including posts and comments. Reddit’s API has historically been free-to-use, resulting in a number of alternative platforms emphasizing aspects such as accessibility and customization.

[Related: Thousands of Reddit communities have gone dark—here’s why.]

On May 31, however, Reddit revealed plans to raise its API usage fees as much as $12,000 per 50 million data access attempts, drawing immediate outrage from users and developers. According to Wednesday’s protest extension announcement, “essentially every third-party Reddit app” has since announced plans to shutter due to the price hikes.  One developer estimates that staying operational would cost them $20 million annually. Were the vast majority of third-party Reddit apps to disappear, critics argue only the company’s official mobile app will remain for users, one which many regard as glitchy, “not handicap-accessible,” and difficult to utilize for moderators.

Notably, a handful of subreddits considered vital to public health and safety such as r/StopDrinking and r/Ukraine will continue operating as usual, although moderators encouraged such subreddits to consider adopting a recurring “gesture of support,” such as a weekly 24-hour-long blackout, an automated solidarity announcement, or a revised subreddit rule to encourage participation in the protest.

[Related: Reddit ratted out an influencer for golfing into the Grand Canyon.]

Users and moderators’ commitment to the blackout appears to have only strengthened following the release of an internal memo sent to Reddit employees on Wednesday by CEO Steve Huffman. “There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen,” reads a portion of the letter, first obtained by The Verge. “Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.”

According to Wednesday’s update, over 300 subreddits including r/aww (34.1 million users), r/music (32.3m), r/videos (26.6m), and r/futurology (18.7m) have pledged to remain dark for the foreseeable future. A growing, incomplete list of additional participating subreddits can be found here.

The post Reddit protesters plan to ‘blackout’ indefinitely appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Since the rise of social media in the early 2010s, more and more scientists have taken to various platforms to share their knowledge behind everyday products, current events, and the latest discoveries in science. From the chemistry of makeup to the new treatments for disease, you can find specialized scientific accounts that explain almost anything.

While it has its downsides, the internet presents a unique opportunity for scientists to educate a wider audience on an array of websites, forums, and apps. “Social media is often a great way to reach people who are worried about something but don’t know what to do, who are interested in the topic, but want to know more—or people who are already worried and already activated, but want a community of like-minded people around them to ask questions of and to get ideas from,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says. 

Hayoe is active on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora, among others, and hopes her followers gain information why climate change matters to them and how they can make a difference. “Somebody who I don’t know, who I would never meet, could just ask me a question, and if I have time, I try to answer that question,” she says. “It’s just this tremendous opportunity for people to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever had that type of connection before, and that is the tremendous benefit of social media,” Hayhoe adds.

[Related: Twitter alternative Bluesky is fun, friendly, and kind of empty]

Biologist-turned-video creator Joe Hanson hosts an online YouTube series from PBS called “Be Smart,” where he gives in-depth answers to simple, but fascinating, questions about science and the universe. He covers everything from the universe’s mysteries, like why the color blue is so rare in nature and what fire is, to debunking myths about COVID-19 and climate change. 

When people understand the world around them, Hanson says, “they’re able to live a more happy and fulfilling life where they understand their place in things, and they get to experience a genuine dent of what we would call ‘wonder.’ And by discussing their research and findings with the public, scientists can help break down the jargon and complex concepts associated with research and technology and make them easier to understand in a simple format. 

“The more you find out about how strange and complex and sometimes unbelievable the universe is and how it actually works, you can feel very special for being a part of it,” Hanson adds.

Despite the wealth of information available from credible sources, there is still a significant gap in scientific understanding among the general US population. According to a 2022 report by the Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in scientists has declined significantly since the 2020 pandemic. Individuals who had a “great deal” of trust in scientists to act in the public’s best interest dropped about 10 percent from 2020 to 2021. 

“Current ratings of medical scientists and scientists have now fallen below where they were in January 2019, before the emergence of the coronavirus,” the report states.

It’s important to keep in mind that content on social media platforms is not always accurate, spreading misinformation and sometimes even conspiracy theories. “This is the double-edged sword of open access to information,” Hanson says. 

That’s why it’s imperative to follow credible sources of scientific information: direct experts in the field or professional science communicators who rigorously fact-check themselves. 

[Related: How to tell science from pseudoscience]

Thanks to the internet and social media, it’s never been easier to understand the world around us. Even with the plethora of information out there, there can be anxiety over wrestling with and adapting to the changes underway in the world. “I think of it like this: We have a lot up here in our heads. We know about global temperature and ice sheets and polar bears, but how does that connect to here?” Hayhoe says.

Some science content, especially about abstract theories, unfamiliar cultures, or planets light-years away, can seem irrelevant to our daily lives. So Hayhoe, for one, makes it a priority to show her followers how to “connect their head to their heart to their hands,” as she puts it. 

“How does it connect to my life, my family, the place where I live, the things I enjoy doing? ’” she says. “A lot of what I share is ‘how are we making a difference?’”

Not sure where to start enhancing your science knowledge? Here’s a list of 19 top scientists and science educators in North America and the UK to follow on social media.

General science

• Biologist and host of the YouTube channel “Be Smart” Joe Hanson makes creative, visually appealing, and informative videos about various scientific topics.
  • Instagram – @DrJoeHanson
  • Twitter – @DrJoeHanson 
  • Youtube – @BeSmart
• You might remember him from your school science classes, but Bill Nye the Science Guy is still a very active science educator, especially on social media, and frequently updates his followers on scientific breakthroughs.
  • Instagram – @BillNye
  • Twitter – @BillNye

Archaeology and history of science

• Author, medical historian, and host of the Smithsonian Channel’s “The Curious Life and Death of…” Lindsey Fitzharris explores history’s most mysterious deaths.
  • Instagram – @DrLindseyFitzharris
  • Twitter – @DrLindseyFitz
  • Facebook – @DrLindseyFitzharris
• Archaeologist and space archaeology pioneer Sarah Parcak uses satellite imagery to uncover hidden archaeological sites and shares what she finds with the world.
  • Twitter – @indyfromspace
• Paleontologist and science communicator Amy Atwater regularly shares videos of fascinating fossils and fun facts about them.
  • Instagram – @mary_annings_revenge
  • Twitter – @AmyLynnAtwater

Astronomy and astrophysics

• Space science communicator Alexandra Doten, or Astro Alexandra, frequently posts space and planetary facts. If you want to learn more about the solar system or even faraway galaxies, check out her various pages.
  • Instagram – @astro.alexandra
  • TikTok – @astro_alexandra
  • Twitter – @astro_alexandra
  • Youtube – @astro_alexandra
  • Facebook – AstroAlexandraOfficial
• Astrophysicist and cosmologist Brad Tucker posts about space tech and unique celestial events. He explains cosmic phenomena, and advancements in space exploration along with stunning images of celestial bodies, satellites, and rockets.
  • Instagram – @drbradtucker
  • Twitter – @btucker22
  • Youtube – @DrBradTucker
  • Facebook – @DrBradTucker

Biology, climate, and sustainability

• Atmospheric scientist and climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe focuses on the intersection of climate science and society, and tackles misconceptions about climate change. She has a clear-eyed and hopeful view of climate science, and shares her explanations of complex topics online.
  • Instagram – @katharinehayhoe
  • Twitter – @KHayhoe
• Marine biologist, climate advocate, and founder of ocean conservation think-tank Urban Ocean Lab Ayana Elizabeth Johnson shares conservation and climate solutions.
  • Twitter – @ayanaeliza
  • Instagram – @ayanaeliza
• Sustainability scientist and climate activist Alaina Wood frequently explains current events, how to live sustainably, and positive climate news.
  • Instagram – @itsthegarbagequeen

Chemistry

• Chemist Heleen Kibbelaar’s videos explain the science behind cosmetic, hair, and skin care products.
  • Instagram – @sciencemeetscosmetics
• Chemistry professor and science educator Kimberly Hilton, or Chemical Kim, explains the chemical processes behind everyday phenomena.
  • Instagram – @chemicalkim
  • TikTok – @chemicalkim
  • Youtube – @chemicalkimscience

Health and psychology

• Stanford University neuroscientist Ben Rein covers empathy, psychedelics, social interaction, and more in his content.
  • Instagram – @doctor.brein
  • Twitter – @dr_brien
  • TikTok – @dr.brein
  • Youtube – @dr_brein
• Renowned obstetrician-gynecologist, author, and advocate for women’s health Jennifer Gunter shares evidence-based information and debunks health myths.
  • Instagram – @DrJenGunter
  • Twitter – @DrJenGunter
• Practicing therapist and gender specialist Rebecca Minor shares trauma-informed and gender affirming care tips and other resources.
  • Instagram – @gender.specialist
  • Facebook – @RebeccaMinorLICSW
• Sleep scientist and author Matthew Walker shares insights into the importance of sleep and its impact on health and well-being.
  • Instagram – @DrMattWalker 
  • Twitter – @sleepdiplomat

Mathematics, physics, and statistics

• Mathematician, author, and radio and host of a Bloomberg show Hannah Fry analyzes concepts like love, artificial intelligence, and environmental protection through the lens of mathematics.
  • Instagram – @fryrsquared
  • Twitter – @FryRsquared
• Science journalist Natalie Wolchover specializes in physics and recently won a Pulitzer Prize for her James Webb Space Telescope coverage with Quanta magazine. She regularly shares new findings in the tricky field of physics.
  • Twitter – @nattyover
• Data scientist, deputy editor and lead researcher at Our World in Data, and researcher at the University of Oxford Hannah Ritchie focuses on environmental sustainability, including climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution and deforestation.
  • Twitter – @_HannahRitchie

The post Make your social media feed smarter with these science accounts appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Thousands of Reddit communities are currently inaccessible or highly restricted in protest of recently revealed price hikes for third-party developers. Beginning on June 12, moderators overseeing some of the website’s most popular subreddits including r/aww, r/music, and r/science set their community pages to private through June 14. Some plan to remain inactive until Reddit changes its pricing plans.

The blackout stems from news first revealed via a post by Christian Selig, developer of the extremely popular iOS-only Reddit app, Apollo. Last Wednesday, Selig explained that Reddit recently informed him of its new fee system rates scheduled to go into effect on July 1. This change would ostensibly raise his operating costs from $0 to $20 million per year in order to continue accessing its application programming interface (API). A website’s API enables other third-party apps and academic researchers to access its data, such as comments and posts. Apollo, for example, is what over 900,000 daily active users rely on to easily access Reddit, whose website is notoriously cumbersome outside of its desktop format.

“It goes without saying that I don’t have that kind of money or would even know how to charge it to a credit card,” wrote Selig at the time, who detailed Reddit reportedly plans to charge $12,000 for every 50 million attempts at accessing company data. As of writing, Selig plans to cease operations for Apollo at the end of the month.

[Related: Reddit ratted out an influencer for golfing into the Grand Canyon.]

As Android Authority notes, third-party apps’ access to site APIs have historically been free-to-use, thus enabling robust developer communities, as well as user options. Some observers note that part of Reddit’s change-of-tune likely stems from the explosive popularity of artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT. AI large language models are frequently trained on vast data troves scraped for free from internet sources such as Reddit, something Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman recently expressed frustration with in an interview with The New York Times.

In a statement provided to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Reddit wrote “The vast majority of API users will not have to pay for access; not all third-party apps usage requires paid access,” adding that, “The Reddit Data API is free to use within the published rate limits so long as apps are not monetized.”

According to the protest’s announcement, communities are also raising awareness for the lack of accessibility offered to Reddit’s blind users. “The official app is not accessible for blind people, these are not new issues and blind and visually impaired users have relied on third-party apps for years,” reads a portion of the post. “Why were disabled communities not contacted to gauge the impact of these API changes?” 

Reddit’s controversial decision mirrors a similar move from Twitter, which announced similarly criticized API fee plans under the direction of former CEO Elon Musk. A growing (albeit incomplete) list of the subreddits participating in the protest can be found here.

The post Thousands of Reddit communities have gone dark—here’s why appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Following a troubling proliferation of AI-generated and manipulated media, Twitter announced on Tuesday its plans to expand its Community Notes system to flag altered and fake images. First launched late last year shortly after Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Community Notes built upon the company’s previous Birdwatch program aimed at leveraging unpaid, crowdsourced fact checking of tweets to rein in misinformation and hoaxes.

[Related: Why an AI image of Pope Francis in a fly jacket stirred up the internet.]

The expansion is currently in an “experimental” testing phase, and only pertains to posts containing a single image. Twitter states it plans to extend the feature to handle tweets featuring additional media uploads such as GIFs, videos, and multiple images in the near future. As of right now, however, only those signed up as a Community Notes contributor with a user rated Writing Impact score of 10 can see the option to flag a post for its accompanying media instead of just its text. According to Twitter’s Community Notes page, “Tagging notes as ‘about the image’ makes them visible on all Tweets that our system identifies as containing the same image,” meaning that other users’ tweets containing the same image alongside different text will hypothetically contain the same flag.

Twitter’s Community Notes team warned that the new feature’s accuracy could still produce both false positives and negatives for other tweets.  “It’s currently intended to err on the side of precision when matching images,” they explained, “which means it likely won’t match every image that looks like a match to you.” Twitter added that its team will continue to “tune this to expand coverage” while also cutting down on “erroneous matches.”

The new feature arrives just days after a fake image depicting an explosion at the Pentagon began circulating on Twitter, first via an account claiming association with Bloomberg News. The now-suspended account included a “Blue Checkmark” that for years reflected an account’s verified authenticity. Following Musk’s company takeover, a verification can now be obtained via subscribing to the premium Twitter Blue user tier.

[Related: Twitter’s ‘Blue Check’ drama is a verified mess.]

Twitter has relied extensively on crowdsourced moderation via the Community Notes system after axing the majority of its staff dedicated to trust and safety issues. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the social media platform is now worth approximately one-third of the $44 billion Musk paid for it.

The post Twitter turns to Community Notes to factcheck images appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Following a similar report issued by the American Psychological Association (APA) earlier this month, the US Surgeon General released an advisory statement on Tuesday warning of social media platforms’ potentially harmful effects on minors.

While cautioning more research is still needed to understand the full scope of social media’s impact on children, adolescents, and teens, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s office makes clear they believe “ample indicators” show social media can represent a “profound risk of harm to [their] mental health and well-being.”

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis—one that we must urgently address,” Murthy said in a statement this week, citing the “growing evidence” supporting their worry. In one such study referenced, adolescents who spend over 3 hours per day on social media faced double the risk of mental health issues such as symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additional research cited by the Surgeon General’s report points towards particular harm for girls, who face cyberbullying and body-image issues.

[Related: APA releases youth social media guidelines.]

“At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents,” the advisory states.

At the same time, the advisory statement makes it clear that children and adolescents utilize and are influenced by social media in vastly varying ways. The ways children are impacted by social media are often based on their particularly emotional and psychological strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as cultural, historical, and socio-economic factors. Some of these experiences on social media can prove beneficial, such as offering spaces for community and connection with like-minded individuals sharing “identities, abilities, and interests,” alongside offering access to important information and spaces for self-expression.

As The New York Times noted on Thursday, social media has also proven especially helpful to children and teens within the LGBTQ+ community. “[A] variety of research over the decade since social media became ubiquitous among teenagers has found that often, social media use has been more beneficial than not for LGBTQ youth,” the article states.

A Surgeon General’s advisory does not carry any legal weight, but often serves as a public statement calling attention to a health issue alongside subsequent recommendations for policymakers, businesses, and the public. Among other suggestions, the Surgeon General’s office urges lawmakers to enact legislation ensuring tech companies share relevant health impact data to independent researchers and the public “in a manner that is timely, sufficiently detailed, and protects privacy.”

Additionally, the report recommends the development and implementation of digital and media literacy curricula in schools, as well as encouraging policies that “further limit access—in ways that minimize the risk of harm—to social media for all children.”

[Related: How to use built-in parental controls on Instagram, TikTok, and more.]

Meanwhile, businesses such as Meta, Twitter, and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, are pushed to maintain a proper level of transparency about their own internal research and methods for developing products used by minors—something that’s frequently proven difficult to realize. Parents are also strongly encouraged to discuss, educate, and monitor their children’s social media habits.

Earlier this month, the American Psychological Association released its first-ever health advisory report on youth and adolescent social media usage, which spoke broadly of potential developmental effects stemming from experiences on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The APA’s 11-page outline described these apps as “not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people,” but stressed it was rather how minors used the apps that influenced them.

The post US Surgeon General warns of a ‘profound risk of harm’ for kids on social media appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) slapped Meta with a record-shattering $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) fine Monday alongside an order to cease transferring EU users’ Facebook data to US servers. But despite the latest massive penalty, some legal experts warn little will likely change within Meta’s overall approach to data privacy as long as US digital protections remain lax.

The fine caps a saga initiated nearly decade ago thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s damning reveal of American digital mass surveillance programs. Since then, data privacy law within the EU changed dramatically following the 2016 passage of its General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). After years of legal back-and-forth in the EU, Ireland’s DPC has determined Facebook’s data transfer protocols to the US do not “address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU residents. In particular, the courts determined EU citizens’ information could be susceptible to US surveillance program scrapes, and thus violate the GDPR.

[Related: A massive data leak just cost Meta $275 million.]

User data underpins a massive percentage of revenue for tech companies like Meta, as it is employed to build highly detailed, targeted consumer profiles for advertising. Because of this, Meta has fought tooth-and-nail to maintain its ability to transfer global user data back to the US. In a statement attributed to Meta’s President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead, the company plans to immediately pursue a legal stay “given the harm that these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day.” The Meta representatives also stated “no immediate disruption” would occur for European Facebook users.

As The Verge notes, there are a number of stipulations even if Meta’s attempt at a legal stay falls apart. Right at the outset, the DPC’s decision pertains only to Facebook, and not Meta’s other platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Next, Meta has a five-month grace period to cease future data transfers alongside a six-month deadline to purge its current EU data held within the US. Finally, the EU and the US are in the midst of negotiations regarding a new data transfer deal that could finalize as soon as October.

[Related: EU fines Meta for forcing users to accept personalized ads.]

Regardless, even with the record-breaking fine, some policy experts are skeptical of the penalty’s influence on Meta’s data policy. Over the weekend, a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties told The Guardian that, “A billion-euro parking ticket is of no consequence to a company that earns many more billions by parking illegally.” Although some states including California, Utah, and Colorado have passed their own privacy laws, comprehensive US protections remain stalled at the federal level. 

The post Meta fined record $1.3 billion for not meeting EU data privacy standards appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law on Wednesday banning TikTok within the entire state, all-but-ensuring a legal, political, and sheer logistical battle over the popular social media platform’s usage and accessibility.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Gianforte claimed the new law is an effort to “protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.” Critics and security experts, however, argue the app’s blacklisting infringes on residents’ right to free speech, and would do little to actually guard individuals’ private data.

“This unconstitutional ban undermines the free speech and association of Montana TikTok users and intrudes on TikTok’s interest in disseminating its users’ videos,” the digital rights advocacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation argued in a statement posted to Twitter,  calling the new law a “blatant violation of the First Amendment.”

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok.]

According to the EFF and other advocacy groups, Montana’s TikTok ban won’t actually protect residents’ from companies and bad actors who can still scrape and subsequently monetize their private data. Instead, advocates repeated their urge for legislators to pass comprehensive data privacy laws akin to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations. Similar laws have passed in states like California, Colorado, and Utah, but continue to stall at the federal level.

“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana,”TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter stated on Wednesday.

Montana’s new law is primarily focused on TikTok’s accessibility via app stores from tech providers like Apple and Google, which are directed to block all downloads of the social media platform once the ban goes into effect at the beginning of 2024. Montanans are not subject to the $10,000 per day fine if they still access TikTok—rather, the penalty is levied at companies such as Google, Apple, and TikTok’s owner, ByteDance.

[Related: The best VPNs of 2023.]

That said, there is no clear or legal way to force Montanans to delete the app if it is already downloaded to their phones. Likewise, proxy services such as VPNs hypothetically could easily skirt the ban. As The Guardian noted on Thursday, the ability for Montana to actually enforce a wholesale ban on the app is ostensibly impossible, barring the state following censorship tactics used by nations such as China.

“With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana legislature have trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment,” Keegan Medrano, policy director at the ACLU of Montana, said in a statement. “We will never trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points.”

The post Montana is the first state to ‘ban’ TikTok, but it’s complicated appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

WhatsApp just got a new feature bolstering its long-standing emphasis on users’ privacy: a “Chat Lock” feature that squirrels away your most confidential conversations.

Much like Apple’s hidden photos option, Chat Lock allows users to create a separate folder for private discussions; it’s protected by either password or biometric access. Any conversations filed within WhatsApp’s Chat Lock section also will block both sender and text in their push notifications, resulting in a simple “New Message” button. According to WhatsApp’s owners at Meta, Chat Lock could prove useful for those “who have reason to share their phones from time to time with a family member or those moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra special chat arrives.”

[Related: WhatsApp users can now ghost group chats and delete messages for days.]

To enable the new feature, WhatsApp users simply need to tap the name of a one-to-one or group message and select the lock option. To see those classified conversations, just slowly pull down on the inbox icon, then input the required password or biometric information to unlock. According to WhatsApp, Chat Lock capabilities are set to expand even further over the next few months, including features like locking messages on companion devices and creating custom passwords for each chat on a single phone.

Chat Lock is only the latest in a number of updates to come to the world’s most popular messaging app. Earlier this month, WhatsApp introduced multiple updates to its polling feature, including single-vote polls, a search option, and notifications for when people cast their votes. The platform also recently introduced the ability to forward media and documents with captions for context.

[Related: 3 ways to hide photos and files on your phone.]

Although it has long billed itself as a secure messaging alternative to standard platforms such as Apple’s iMessage (both WhatsApp and iMessage use end-to-end encryption, as do some other apps), WhatsApp experienced a sizable user backlash in 2021 when it changed its privacy policy to allow for more personal data sharing with its parent company, Meta. Meanwhile, other privacy-focused apps like Signal and Telegram remain popular alternatives.

The post WhatsApp released a super-secure new feature for private messages appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

One of the leading US mental health organizations, the American Psychological Association (APA), has issued its first ever health advisory report on social media usage for youth and adolescents. Published on Tuesday, the 11-page brief speaks in broad terms regarding the habits of children and teens on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, describing them as “not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people.” Rather, the APA argues social media’s influences on minors are only part of a much wider, complex array of factors, and “likely depend on what teens can do and see online, teens’ pre-existing strengths or vulnerabilities, and the contexts in which they grow up.”

In short, the APA reiterates that, like every other aspect of psychological development, it’s difficult to pinpoint and quantify any single influence on an individual’s brain evolution. Instead, the association focuses on two major contributors to how social media can potentially affect younger users—parental oversight and awareness, as well as a platform’s own algorithmic structures.

[Related: Twitter may soon purge ‘inactive’ accounts.]

The APA recommends parents regularly review and discuss their children’s social media usage, particularly during early adolescence—usually defined as between 10- and 14-years-old. Educating children and teens on social media literacy and usage alongside fostering healthy online habits and relationships are also considered key methods of maintaining a safe experience on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Meanwhile, the APA stresses the responsibility does not rest solely on minors’ parents. The advisory’s authors note that the tech companies’ algorithms determining how, when, and why users see certain content are built upon “centuries of racist policy and discrimination encoded.” Social media therefore often becomes an “incubator” of these inherent biases, and which can  introduce and exacerbate extremist socio-political and racist ideals. “The resulting potential impact is far reaching, including physical violence offline, as well as threats to well-being,” adds the APA.

Speaking to PopSci, Jeremy Birnholtz, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University focusing on LGBTQ+ adolescent social media usage and the head of the school’s Social Media Lab, says he believes the APA’s “measured document” is a step in the right direction, but argues some of the guidelines are potentially difficult to follow for parents.

[Related: Is shyness something kids feel, or something kids are?]

In one section of the report, for example, the APA advises limiting the amount of time younger users spend comparing themselves to others the see on social media, “particularly around beauty- or appearance-related content,” pointing towards its potentially influence on “poorer body image, disordered eating, and depressive symptoms, particularly among girls.”

“The guideline is ‘teens should avoid using social media for social comparison.’ And it’s like, well, what does that mean? You shouldn’t look at your friends’ vacation photos? You shouldn’t follow the influencers that all your friends follow? I don’t think that’s realistic,” says Birnholtz.

Like the APA’s report, Birnholtz also argues social media’s negative effects are often symptomatic of broader, real world issues. Racism can be baked into social media—while that’s true, it’s also baked into society,” they say of platforms’ algorithmic biases. “Certain things like social comparison, no question, can be exacerbated by social media. But to suggest that they are a function of [it] is problematic, I think.”

Birnholtz goes on to explain that while it’s vital to take the APA’s suggestions into account, it’s important to remember the origins of many social media issues. “You’re detaching problems with social media from the problems that they represent in the broader society,” says Birnholtz. “You can fix it on social media, but as long as it’s in the [real world], you’re not going to fix it.”

The post Should kids use social media? US psychology experts share their do’s and don’ts. appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

On Monday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced plans to delete accounts that the company deems inactive. He also warned that users may see their number of followers drop as a result of the digital house cleaning. “We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years,” Musk tweeted via his personal account.

The decision prompted swift criticism from both fans and critics of Musk’s chaotic tenure at the company, with some users pointing towards the emotional and historical implications in the wholesale erasures. For many, the Twitter profiles and messages of deceased relatives and loved ones function as digital memorials. Since Musk’s announcement, some users describe scrambling to archive the data before it disappears.

[Related: Twitter’s ‘Blue Check’ drama is a verified mess.]

“My son’s account is inactive because he died nearly 2 years ago. I would be devastated if his account were to be deleted… [I]t is one of the few things I have left,” one user tweeted. “I agree it’s worth preserving the libraries from the ancient internet,” tweeted Grimes, a musician and Musk’s ex-partner.

The sudden policy shift comes less than a week after Musk threatened to reassign NPR’s account handle after the news outlet publicly stated it would cease utilizing the social media platform. NPR’s decision stemmed from objections over Twitter’s attempt to relabel the nonprofit as a “government-funded media.” It now simply features a blue checkmark indicating the account is “Verified.” Federal funding comprises less than 1 percent of NPR’s annual operating budget, according to its own public data.

Prior to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the social media platform attempted a similar inactive username sweep in 2019, but widespread criticism at the time prompted the company to promptly reverse course. “We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part,” company representatives said at the time, adding that Twitter would not remove any inactive accounts until they created “a new way for people to memorialize accounts.”

[Related: How to download your data from Twitter and other sites.]

A new memorialization method was never announced, although in responding to one critic yesterday, Musk claimed purged accounts “will be archived… But it is important to free up abandoned handles.” Musk has not yet offered an estimated timeline of when username deletions might occur, nor how a purged account archive would work. As of writing, it is still possible to download an archive of one’s own personal account.

The post Elon Musk says Twitter will delete inactive users’ accounts, which could include your dead relatives appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Some corners of the internet act as bastions of healthy discussion, but out there on the Wild Web, discourse appears worse than ever before. If you’re tired of feeling your blood boil every time you get to the bottom of an article or open up your social media app of choice, it’s time to clean up your internet conversations.

Block comments on news sites and blogs

Some sites are doing away with comments altogether, but there are plenty that have stuck by their discussion section—even if it’s littered with spam and hateful garbage. You can’t stop commenters from spewing their filth, but you can banish them from your view. Shut Up is a simple open-source tool that will automatically block most comment sections across the web. It’s available as an extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. Just install it on your desktop or mobile platform of choice, and comment sections will disappear as if they were never there.

If there’s a site that you actually like to read comments on—yes, there are a few decent ones out there—you can click the Shut Up button in your toolbar or press Ctrl+Shift+X to whitelist that site. It will remember your preferences, so your favorite comment sections will stay visible no matter how many times you leave and return. Sadly, there’s no way to mute certain comments based on keywords.

Note that due to the way Chrome’s annoyingly broad permission system works, this extension will request access to read and edit data on all sites you visit, but you can read the developer’s privacy policy to ensure you agree with it. Afterward, if you’re still uneasy, you can always inspect and inject the Shut Up CSS code yourself, if you have a stylesheet extension you like.

Mute words on Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks

Website and blog comments are just a small fraction of toxic internet conversation—most of it happens on social media. Shut Up will block comment sections on some networks, like Facebook and Reddit, but that defeats the purpose of using those platforms at all. Thankfully some services, like Twitter and Instagram, have caught on and built “mute” functions that let you hide comments that contain certain keywords, for more control over what you see.

On Twitter, you can mute tweets with certain words or phrases by heading to the Twitter website and clicking More on the sidebar to the left. Next, go to Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Mute and block > Muted words. Finally, click the plus icon in the top right to add words to your list. In the mobile app, the steps are nearly identical, but you start by tapping your avatar in the upper left-hand corner of your screen and build a list of muted words by using the Add button at the bottom right.

When you add the words you want to avoid, you can also select how long you want to mute it—which is useful if you’re just trying to avoid spoilers for a few days.

If you want to do a little less work, you can also turn on the switches under the Offensive words and phrases heading at the top of the page to hide comments or message requests containing any words Instagram thinks you won’t want to see.

Other social networks, like Reddit, don’t have a mute feature built-in. However, browser extensions like the ever-popular Reddit Enhancement Suite will allow you to mute comments with certain words just the same. Install the extension and open the RES Settings Console. Navigate to Subreddits > filteReddit, and create filters to your heart’s content. You can hide posts with specific terms in the title, or block posts that come from chosen websites. You can also build filters for comments, provided you know how regular expressions work—there’s a small tutorial available if you need it.

Finally, Facebook is in a weird spot when it comes to muting or filtering comments. Back in June of 2018, Facebook began testing a feature called Keyword Snooze that would allow you to hide any comment containing words you specified. It wasn’t available to everyone and that test ended in January 2021. Now, your best bet is to hit the three dots in the top right corner of any post on your News Feed and choose Hide post to see fewer posts like it. From the same menu, you can snooze and unfollow the person or page that posted it.

The post How to block toxic comments everywhere appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

US Facebook users can now apply for their share of the settlement from the Cambridge Analytica class action lawsuit. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, settled the suit last December, agreeing to pay $725 million—although it didn’t have to admit any wrongdoing. If you reside stateside and had an active Facebook account any time between May 24th, 2007, and December 22nd, 2022, you are entitled to a part of the multi-million dollar payout even if you have since deleted your account. You just have to submit a claim before August 25th, 2023.

The settlement all stems from the 2018 revelations that Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British consulting and data mining company, to improperly access personal information from up to 87 million users and use it to target voters during Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. The data was purportedly collected for academic purposes using a personality quiz app. Even though only 270,000 people took the quiz, because of Facebook’s lax privacy policies, the app was able to scrape personal information from their Facebook friends. 

The fall out at the time was pretty severe. Facebook CEO (and now Meta CEO) Mark Zuckerberg was called before Congress to answer questions related to the scandal, and the company agreed to voluntarily enforce GDPR-like privacy rules globally to prevent something similar from happening again.

After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record-breaking $5 billion. The SEC also fined the company $100 million for misleading investors. And, of course, there was this class action lawsuit—which was later expanded to encompass any other third parties Facebook had allowed to improperly access user data. 

Unfortunately, whatever sum of money you get from this settlement will likely be pretty small. As the FAQs explain, every claimant will be given one point for each month they used Facebook between 2007 and 2022. The full settlement, minus administrative fees, legal costs, and a few other expenses, will then be divided by the total number of points and shared out accordingly. If you have only used Facebook for a few years, you’ll get less than someone who has used the service for the full 15-year claim period.

It’s impossible to know the exact amount that anyone will get until the claim period has passed, but we can do some quick calculations to get a rough range. There were 240 million US Facebook users in 2022. If all of them submitted a claim and they’d all (impossibly) been using monthly Facebook since 2007, assuming the lawyers received 33 percent of the settlement, then you would be entitled to just around the $2 mark. 

At the other end of things, let’s say that just 10 percent of the 50 million users on the site in October, 2007 bother to apply for the settlement and the lawyers only take 25 percent as fees, you’d be entitled to something north of $100. 

So, depending on how active you’ve been on Facebook over the past 15 years, it seems likely that class action participants will get enough for a meal out—though whether that’s at McDonald’s or a local steakhouse remains to be seen. (Of course, if only a handful people bother to fill in Facebook’s claim form, then you could walk away with a few hundred thousand dollars. That seems unlikely, but you never know.)If you want to submit a claim, Facebook has set up a dedicated website. Once you (ironically) fill in a few personal details and select whether you want to be paid with a prepaid gift card, through PayPal or Venmo, or directly into your bank account, all you have to do is wait for your money.

The post Facebook probably owes you money. Here’s how to get it. appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Montana is one step away from instituting a state-wide wholesale ban of TikTok. On Friday, the state’s House of Representatives voted 54-43 in favor of passing SB419, which would blacklist the immensely popular social media platform from operating within the “territorial jurisdiction of Montana,”  as well as prohibit app stores from offering it to users. The legislation now heads to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has 10 days to sign the bill into law, veto it, or allow it to go into effect without issuing an explicit decision.

Although a spokesperson only said that Gov. Gianforte would “carefully consider any bill the Legislature sends to his desk,” previous statements and actions indicate a sign-off is likely. Gianforte banned TikTok on all government devices last year after describing the platform as a “significant risk” for data security.

TikTok is owned by the China-based company, ByteDance, and faces intense scrutiny from critics on both sides of the political aisle over concerns regarding users’ privacy. Many opponents of the app also claim it subjects Americans to undue influence and propaganda from the Chinese government. Speaking with local news outlet KTVH last week, Montana state Sen. Shelley Vance alleged that “we know that beyond a doubt that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is operating as a surveillance arm of the Chinese Communist Party and gathers information about Americans against their will.”

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok.]

As Gizmodo also notes, however, there is still no definitive proof TikTok or ByteDance is surveilling US users, although company employees do have standard access to user data. Regardless, many privacy advocates and experts warn that the continued focus on TikTok ignores the much larger and more pervasive data privacy issues affecting Americans. The RESTRICT Act, for example, is the most notable federal effort to institute a wholesale blacklisting of TikTok, but critics have voiced numerous worries regarding its expansive language, ill-defined enforcement, and unintended consequences. The bill’s ultimate fate still remains unclear.

If Montana’s SB419 ultimately moves forward, it will go into effect on January 1, 2024. The bill proposes a $10,000 per day fine on any app store, or TikTok itself, if it continues to remain available within the state afterwards. The proposed law does not include any penalties on individual users.

In a statement reported by The New York Times, a TikTok spokesperson said the company “will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.”

The post Montana may soon make it illegal to use TikTok in the state appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Picture this: You’re at your desk working on a project when your phone chimes. A quick glance tells you a friend sent over a video on TikTok. Convinced you’re due for a break, you click the link to find a new dance video from Charli D’Amelio. Fast forward an hour later, and you’re still on your phone, except now you’ve gone from viral dances to animal videos to fitness gurus raving about a weight loss hack. 

If this scenario hits too close to home, you’re not alone. Most people on social media check it daily, and younger people are likelier to return to their favorite platforms multiple times a day. TikTok is especially popular with teenagers: A 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center suggests 67 percent of teens use it, while 16 percent use it almost constantly. 

So why do people spend so much time online? One underlying reason is that platforms like TikTok promote infinite scrolling. You might start off in one video only for the page to continuously load a never-ending stream of content. Absent-mindedly scrolling through content might seem like an innocent activity and a great excuse to waste time. However, research suggests it can negatively influence the brain and mental health.

Anyone can fall prey to mindless scrolling. Younger people are especially vulnerable since the brain is not fully developed until age 25, says Lisa Pion-Berlin, a psychologist and president of Parents Anonymous, a child abuse prevention nonprofit. While limiting access to social media (like this Utah bill requiring parental permission is trying to do) is one option, learning how to be a more active user can help anyone stop infinite scrolling and still enjoy social media.

Why infinite scrolling is bad for you

Social media platforms like TikTok are not comprehensively bad for you. Several studies suggest social media can prompt feelings of connectedness and positive well-being. Further, they allow for personal expression, which fosters positive mental health.

Ultimately, how social media makes people feel depends on how they use it. For example, excess social media use is associated with feeling more anxious, lonely, and generally bad about yourself. 

“The more attached we are to our devices, the more problematic it becomes,” says Lisa Strohman, a psychologist and the founder of Digital Citizen Academy, an education program that teaches children and teens how to have a healthy relationship with technology. 

[Related: Do you never feel FOMO? Time to meet its twin, JOMO.]

Moreover, Strohman says watching pictures and videos of everyone living their best life might make you worried or sad that you’re missing out. Some research suggests that comparing yourself to others on social media can result in aggression and anxiety, while other studies suggest a link between negative comparisons on social media and suicidal ideation.

Meanwhile, mindless scrolling can result in a state of mind similar to being in a trance state, says Pion-Berlin. She’s concerned that “mindless scrolling is a way to tune out” or dissociate from reality. Some research suggests that overuse of social media can result in negative psychological impacts: A 2023 study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that middle schoolers who constantly checked their social media feeds showed changes in how their brains responded to feedback and criticism from peers.   

Infinite scrolling can also lead to disrupted sleep patterns in adolescents and adults. The screen’s blue light can make it difficult to fall asleep, and the constant content prevents your brain from shutting down for the night. 

When we sleep, the brain sorts through and categorizes the information from the day and commits the vital stuff into long-term memory, explains Strohman. But mindless social media surfing before bedtime keeps giving it more data for the brain to process throughout the night, “and that’s what tends to lead to that insomnia,” she explains.

How infinite scrolling can hijack the brain

Mindless scrolling helps make social media an addicting habit because it takes advantage of the brain’s reward system, says Strohman.

An enjoyable TikTok, for example, can trigger the brain’s reward pathway. Subsequently, this causes the brain to release a chemical called dopamine, which Strohman describes “as a hit or a high” for the brain. The dopamine surge tells the brain that scrolling through social media is pleasurable and that we should do it again. Because another attention-grabbing Tiktok plays immediately when the first is over, this process starts all over again immediately. 

“The brain is rewarded every time because of how the feeds and algorithms are set up so that anytime we’re not on the app, we think we’re missing something,” explains Strohman. “That makes us want to go back on it again.:

The same process applies to adolescents—possibly to a more significant effect. Pion-Berlin explains that because the prefrontal cortex is one of the last brain areas to mature fully, younger people are more impulsive and have less self-control than adults. With less self-control, it may be easier for teens to fall into this rabbit hole of social media content, she says. In addition, the limbic system—a part of the brain involved in behavioral and emotional responses—is also more sensitive during our teenage years, which makes them likelier to prioritize pleasurable and desirable activities.

What are some ways to stop infinite scrolling?

While infinite scrolling isn’t great, that does not mean you need to quit social media altogether. On the contrary, there are some benefits to staying on the apps, such as building communities among people with a shared hobby or interest, maintaining relationships with family who live miles away, raising awareness for a particular cause, and learning from credible experts.

[Related: All the ways you can reduce screen time across your devices]

To make the most of your time, you’ll want to become an active rather than a passive user. Active users interact with others— in practice, this could look like commenting on posts or creating content. The high engagement gives you a specific purpose for being on the app, allows you to nurture and maintain online friendships, and is associated with improved well-being. 

Meanwhile, infinite scrolling is a passive activity because you’re socially disconnected from others and lurking in the background. Of course, sometimes you just want to take a break from life and watch some mind-numbing videos. In these situations, you’ll want to set a timer to limit the time you spend online and know when it’s time to log off, Strohman says. 

Another suggestion from Strohman is turning off notifications. People often fall into mindless surfing when notified or tagged in something. And while you might start out looking at the relevant post, you can easily find yourself lost in a comment thread or other recommended videos. 

“Have a clear purpose when accessing social media,” Strohman says. If a friend shares a post, tell yourself you will only watch this one video and not spend the next two hours on TikTok. 

“The more you scroll, the less settled you’ll be,” advises Strohman. “Be mindful, recognize your part in it, and try to do what you can to manage yourself in those online worlds.”

The post How to break your toxic infinite scroll habit on TikTok appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The fate of the RESTRICT Act remains unclear. Also known as the “TikTok ban,” the bill has sizable bipartisan political—and even public—support, but critics say the bill in its current form focuses on the wrong issues. If it becomes law, it could change the way the government polices your internet activity, whether or not you use the popular video sharing app. 

Proponents of the RESTRICT Act, which stands for “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology,” have called China’s social media app dangerous and invasive. But Salon, among others, has noted that “TikTok” does not appear once throughout the RESTRICT Act’s 55-page proposal. Salon even refers to it as “Patriot Act 2.0” in regards to its minefield of privacy violations.

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok.]

Critics continue to note that the passage of the bill into law could grant an expansive, ill-defined set of new powers to unelected committee officials. Regardless of what happens with TikTok itself, the new oversight ensures any number of other apps and internet sites could be subjected to blacklisting and censorship at the government’s discretion. What’s more, everyday citizens may face legal prosecution for attempting to circumvent these digital blockades—such as downloading banned apps via VPN or while in another country—including 25 years of prison time.

In its latest detailed rundown published on Tuesday, the digital privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation called the potential law a “dangerous substitute” for comprehensive data privacy legislation that could actually benefit internet users, such as bills passed for states like California, Colorado, Iowa, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah. Meanwhile, the digital rights nonprofit Fight for the Future’s ongoing #DontBanTikTok campaign describes the RESTRICT Act as “oppressive” while still failing to address “valid privacy and security concerns.” The ACLU also maintains the ban “would violate [Americans’] constitutional right to free speech.”

As EFF noted earlier this week, the current proposed legislation would authorize the executive branch to block “transactions [and] holdings” of “foreign adversaries” involving information and communication technology if deemed “undue or unacceptable risk[s]” to national security. These decisions would often be at the sole discretion of unelected government officials, and because of the legislation’s broad phrasing, they could make it difficult for the public to learn exactly why a company or app is facing restrictions.

In its lengthy, scathing rebuke, Salon offered the following bill section for consideration:

“If a civil action challenging an action or finding under this Act is brought, and the court determines that protected information in the administrative record, including classified or other information subject to privilege or protections under any provision of law, is necessary to resolve the action, that information shall be submitted ex parte and in camera to the court and the court shall maintain that information under seal.”

[RELATED: Twitter’s ‘Blue Check’ drama is a verified mess.]

Distilled down, this section could imply that the evidence about an accused violator—say, an average US citizen who unwittingly accessed a banned platform—could be used against them without their knowledge.

If RESTRICT Act were to be passed as law, the “ban” could force changes in how the internet fundamentally works within the US, “including potential requirements on service platforms to police and censor the traffic of users, or even a national firewall to prevent users from downloading TikTok from sources across our borders,” argues the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Because of the bill’s language, future bans could go into effect for any number of other, foreign-based apps and websites. As Salon also argues, the bill allows for a distressing lack of accountability and transparency regarding the committee responsible for deciding which apps to ban, adding that “the lack of judicial review and reliance on Patriot Act-like surveillance powers could open the door to unjustified targeting of individuals or groups.”

Instead of the RESTRICT Act, privacy advocates urge politicians to pass comprehensive data privacy reforms that pertain to all companies, both domestic and foreign. The EFF argues, “Congress… should focus on comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation that will have a real impact, and protect our data no matter what platform it’s on—TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else that profits from our private information.”

The post The ‘TikTok ban’ is a legal nightmare beyond TikTok appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

After years of Instagram users pining for the return of chronological feeds, the app has finally made a change that lets you put the most recent posts at the top. There is a catch, though: your choice to sort your homepage chronologically is temporary, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

As we mentioned above, this change will not stick. If you close the app and reopen it, you’ll be right back on Instagram’s algorithmic feed. You also won’t be able to see Stories in this view, so it feels very much like a sub-feed. But if you tap any of the icons at the bottom of the screen (search, Reels, shop, and profile), then go back to the homepage, it should still be sorted chronologically. To get back to the standard feed, tap the back arrow in the top left.

This feature isn’t available if you’re using Instagram in a web browser, but if you don’t see these options on your mobile device, try updating your app. The Meta-owned platform launched this feature almost a year ago, so getting the most recent version should give you the ability to make your feed chronological. The pre-update workaround still helps, too: tap View Older Posts wherever you see it to gaze upon posts you may have missed.

How to set up Instagram’s chronological Favorites feed

If you follow a lot of accounts, a chronological Instagram feed can become tedious. When Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the change in January 2021, he noted that most people don’t get through most of their feeds. You can use the Favorites sorting option to only see the most recent posts from select accounts.

Posts from accounts on your Favorites list will be starred and appear higher up on the standard Instagram feed, Mosseri said in a post on Meta’s official blog.

There are a few ways to manage your Favorites list after you’ve created it. If you’re viewing the Favorites feed, tap the starred list icon in the top right to add or remove accounts. You can also tap the star icon next to a post from a favorited account wherever you see it, then hit Manage favorites to get to the same screen. Or tap the three lines in the top right corner of your profile page, then choose Favorites. It’s a great way to keep only the best posts on your sparkling new chronological Instagram feed.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on March 29, 2022.

The post The button that will put your Instagram feed in chronological order appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The “winding down” of Twitter’s Legacy Verified accounts supposedly began over the weekend. However, the only blue checkmark to take the hit so far appears to be the one for The New York Times—at CEO Elon Musk’s personal direction after a user’s meme brought it to his attention.

A spokesperson for The New York Times confirmed on Sunday the media company would decline to pay $12,000 a year for its verification badge. Upon apparently hearing the news, Musk responded, “Oh ok, we’ll take it off then.” It is unclear if Musk’s information source, DogeDesigner, is verified via the legacy system, or a paid Twitter Blue subscriber. It is now impossible to distinguish between the two tiers.

[Related: Twitter Blue is back and more confusing than ever.]

Twitter has granted verified statuses to thousands of individuals and organizations deemed “notable” since 2009, including governmental bodies, celebrities, professional journalists, and official corporate accounts. The simple system, while not perfect, for years helped users distinguish authentic accounts from imposters, scammers, and parodies. 

Since Musk assumed control of the social media platform in October 2022, Twitter has ushered in a dizzying flurry of updates, backtracks, and conflicting alterations to the verification program, which Musk has described as “corrupt and nonsensical.”

Amid last month’s verification requirement alterations, Twitter announced organizations such as news outlets could retain their gold “organization” badges—part of a recent color-coded policy shift—by ponying up $1,000 a month. The New York Times isn’t alone in skipping the expense— representatives from outlets like The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Politico have said the companies would also not pay for the designation.

[Related: TikTok is taking on the conspiracy theorists.]

The main account for The New York Times now lacks a verification badge, but subsections such as Books, Arts, and Travel still retain their statuses. That said, both Arts and Travel show gold badges—while Books still boasts a blue checkmark. What’s more, blue ticks are now apparently reserved for both legacy verified users and Twitter Blue subscribers. Previously, clicking an individual account’s blue verification symbol showed whether it was a non-paying account, or one paying $8 per month for Musk’s “premium” Twitter experience.

As The Washington Post explained on Friday, the legacy phase-out delay may stem from a “largely manual process by a system prone to breaking.” Described as “similar to an Excel spreadsheet,” the verification database is reportedly “held together with duct tape,” according to one anonymous former employee. 

Twitter is currently worth around $20 billion, according to a recent internal memo. Musk paid $44 billion for the company in October 2022.

The post Twitter’s ‘Blue Check’ drama is a verified mess appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Utah’s governor signed two bills into law on Thursday aimed at protecting the state’s underage social media users. Privacy critics, however, argue that the new laws’ constitutional legality and enforcement remain troublingly murky.

As NBC News and elsewhere report, H.B. 311 and S.B. 152 would make any social media companies with over 10 million users age-verify all Utah residents, as well as require parental consent from minors who want to make a profile. Among other sweeping reforms, the laws also require social media companies to allow parents complete access to their children’s posts and private messages. Additionally, the law sets up a curfew on social media use for underage Utahns from between 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM. Although the new legislation is scheduled to take effect in March 2024, it is unclear if the regulations will hold up to judicial scrutiny. 

In a letter sent to Gov. Spencer Cox earlier this month, digital rights advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued Utah’s bills are some of the most egregious they’ve seen so far.  Other states including Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, and New Jersey are considering similar legislation, as well.

[Related: Social media drama can hit teens hard at different ages.]

“Young people have First Amendment rights,” writes an EFF representative, adding that federal attempts to restrict internet content access “generally have not withstood constitutional scrutiny when challenged” in courts. Privacy advocates also argue Utah’s laws will ironically give social media companies even greater access to users’ private data via ID verification requirements, as well as disadvantage many young Utahans by limiting informational access. Because of the laws’ broad language, EFF argues apps including Duolingo and the hiking service, AllTrails, are subject to the new access restrictions.

“This all feels a little like the ‘ban on dancing’ in Footloose,” argued Evan Greer, director for  online privacy group Fight for the Future.

In an email to PopSci, Greer agreed there are “very real harms” to youth from social media companies, but contended that those problems would be better addressed by cracking down on abusive corporate practices rather than “draconian” restrictions for young people—restrictions Greer said could disproportionately harm LGBTQ+ children and those suffering from abusive environments. “[T]hey also just don’t really make any sense. I’m not sure anyone has actually thought about how any of this will work in practice,” added Greer.

[Related: Why TikTok’s algorithm is so addictive.]

Greer points to various scenarios, such as how to authentically determine a young person’s parent or legal guardian, as well as instances involving custody battles or abuse allegations. “Once you create mechanisms for parents to snoop on their kids’ social media activity, they’ll be abused by others,” said Greer.

Instead of Utah’s latest examples, Greer and likeminded advocates contend politicians should push to pass comprehensive privacy legislation. The FTC and state regulators, they argue, should tighten restrictions on predatory design practices such as apps’ autoplay and infinite scroll features, using personal data for algorithmic recommendations, and intrusive notifications.

“These laws are clearly unconstitutional,” said Greer, “but more importantly they’re going to put children in danger and strip them of their rights.” 

The post Utah teens will need parents’ permission to use social media appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

TikTok announced a number of updates to its community guidelines on Tuesday, including how it will address misinformation, AI-generated art, and deepfakes. The revamped rulebook and classifications go into effect on April 21. The changes arrive amid mounting political pressure from Western lawmakers in the US and UK, alongside an impending congressional testimony from TikTok CEO Shou ZI Chew regarding alleged security concerns within one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.

Perhaps the most noticeable addition comes in the form of TikTok’s new guidelines section dedicated to the rapid proliferation of “synthetic media,” such as altered videos and deepfakes. Although TikTok “welcome[s] the creativity that new artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies may unlock,” it acknowledges these tools often blur the lines between reality and fiction. Beginning next month, all deepfaked or otherwise altered content must be labeled as such through a sticker or caption.

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok.]

Additionally, a wholesale ban on using the likeness of “any real private figure” will be initiated in April. Public figures, meanwhile, are granted more leeway due to their high profiles and societal relevance. That said, content including a deepfaked politician or celebrity cannot “be the subject of abuse,” or used to mislead audiences on political or societal issues. As The Verge also noted on Tuesday, TikTok’s prior stance on deepfakes were summed up by a single line banning uploads which “mislead users by distorting the truth of events [or] cause significant harm to the subject of the video.”

Notably, the company is also instituting a new section explicitly addressing the proliferation of climate misinformation. Any content that “undermines well-established scientific consensus” regarding the reality of climate change and its contributing factors is prohibited. As TechCrunch explains, conversations on climate change are still permitted, including the pros and cons of individual policies and technologies, as long as it does not contradict scientific consensus. Last year, at least one study showcased that TikTok search results were inundated with climate change misinformation and denialism. The new hardline on misinformation apparently extends beyond climate disinfo, as well. In a separate section, TikTok explains content will be ineligible from users’ For You Feed if it “contains general conspiracy theories or unverified information related to emergencies.”

[Related: US government gives TikTok an ultimatum, warning of ban.]

These and other changes come as TikTok weathers increasingly intense criticisms and scrutiny over its data security, with lawmakers citing issues with the social media platform’s China-based parent company, ByteDance. Last week, the Biden administration issued its starkest warning yet, urging the platform’s Chinese national owners to sell their shares or face a wholesale ban on the app. The announcement came after moves to ban the social media platform from all US government devices—a decision echoed recently in the UK and the Netherlands, as well. Critics of the hardline stances point towards the larger data insecurities within the digital ecosystem.

In a statement released last week from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the digital rights advocacy group conceded that “TikTok raises special concerns, given the surveillance and censorship practices of its home country, China, but contended that the solution isn’t a single business or company ban. Rather, we must enact comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation.”

The post TikTok is taking on the conspiracy theorists appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Scrolling through Instagram and TikTok on a Monday morning is an easy trigger for the dreaded fear of missing out–or FOMO. To push back against this need to never miss a party or fancy vacation, the term JOMO (joy of missing out) has been popularized for those who report a healthy level of enjoyment of solitude.

However, most people who also have high JOMO also report higher levels of social anxiety, according to a study published this month in the journal Telematics and Informatics Reports.

[Related: Seattle schools sue social media companies over students’ worsening mental health.]

For the study, a team from Washington State University looked at two 500-person samples of adults recruited through Amazon’s crowdsourcing platform MTurk. As a way to measure JOMO, they asked a slate of questions about enjoying spending time alone and experiencing disconnection. For example, whether subjects liked having time to self-reflect and if they were happy to see friends and family out enjoying themselves even if they weren’t there. Questions to assess loneliness, social media use, social anxiety, personality traits, and general life satisfaction were also included. 

The surveys revealed mixed results, with some evidence that there is actually some anxiety hiding behind the joy. 

“In general, a lot of people like being connected,” psychology professor and co-author Chris Barry said in a statement. “When trying to assess JOMO, we found that some people were enjoying missing out, not for the solitude or a Zen-like, calming experience of being able to regroup, but more to avoid social interaction.”

This avoidance might explain the correlation the team found between social media use and JOMO, which surprised the team. They anticipated that people who wanted to miss out on social gatherings would not care to check in to see what their friends or family were doing. Instead, they found that those who have social anxiety may find social media as a less intense way to connect instead of interacting in person. 

The study of the first sample group showed connections in those high in JOMO and social media and also general life satisfaction, but social anxiety actually had the strongest correlation.

[Related: Study confirms the obvious: youth have abandoned Facebook.]

After getting these mixed results, they designed a second study to see if there was a group of people high in JOMO, but without that anxiety. While they did find these blissful introverts, the group was small and represented only about 10 percent of the participants in the study. This group was not socially anxious, but still reported some moderate feelings of loneliness.

Previous studies have linked FOMO with low self-esteem and loneliness, but these findings indicate that the experience of JOMO is not as clear. The team believes that JOMO might be more of a momentary phase of needing to disconnect instead of a constant state of feelings. Other studies have also shown that continued exposure to anxiety triggers can help lessen stress later.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions like ‘what’s a good dosage of social interaction versus disengagement?’ I think that’s going to differ for everyone,” Barry said.  “The motives matter,” Barry said. “Why are people missing out? If it’s because they need to recharge, that’s maybe a good thing. If they’re trying to avoid something, that is probably not healthy in the long run.”

The post Do you never feel FOMO? Time to meet its twin, JOMO. appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The heat is truly on for short video app TikTok in both the US and abroad following months of political posturing and threats. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal first reported that the Biden administration has issued an unofficial ultimatum to the popular social media app’s Chinese owners—sell your stock shares, or face a wholesale app ban in the US. Meanwhile, the UK moved forward on Thursday with blacklisting TikTok from all government devices, citing security concerns.

The latest domestic pressures come after a consistent torrent of criticisms from US lawmakers against TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Among others, Sens. John Thune (R, SD) and Mark Warner (D, VA) allege that China-based owners ostensibly can’t be trusted with access to their millions of American users’ data. Although it is true both ByteDance’s owners and TikTok itself have been shown to engage in questionable and outright illegal practices in the past, critics of the ban say this is nothing but a deflection from the larger issues at hand—namely, consumers’ overall digital privacy safeguards across the entire spectrum of online life and social media platforms.

[Related: Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok.]

“If it weren’t so alarming, it would be hilarious that US policymakers are trying to ‘be tough on China’ by acting exactly like the Chinese government,” recently argued Evan Greer, director of the privacy advocacy group, Fight for the Future, in a statement. Greer also added that, “Banning an entire app used by millions of people, especially young people, LGBTQ folks, and people of color, is classic state-backed Internet censorship.”

Greer and others concede that while TikTok may pose some security risks for users, so does virtually every other major social media platform collecting massive troves of data for targeted advertising, branding, and consumer profiles. Even if TikTok were banned, Greer says, ByteDance could hypothetically still access much of the same data by buying it from data brokers, given that there are few laws in place to protect American consumers from this kind of strategy. Earlier this month, David Greene, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told PopSci that American lawmakers “can’t just be responding to undifferentiated fear, or to uninvestigated or unproven concerns, or at the worst, xenophobia.”

[Related: Hackers could be selling your Twitter data for the lowball price of $2.]

Instead, anti-ban advocates continue to urge Congress to pass a universal data protection legislation, much like what the European Union did back in 2018 with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This regulation, which has affected companies such as Google and Amazon, most recently cost Facebook’s owners at Meta $275 million for a massive data leak in 2021.

Meanwhile, actually enacting such a targeted ban on TikTok could prove difficult to enforce, says Greer. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union released a letter urging politicians to reconsider their stance on the issue while warning that blacklisting the app could violate First Amendment rights.

The post US government gives TikTok an ultimatum, warning of ban appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Yesterday, lawmakers introduced a new bipartisan Senate bill that would give the US government the power to ban TikTok. The bill is called, clunkily, the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology, or RESTRICT Act. It was introduced in part by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who is also the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and it would allow the Commerce Department to review deals, software updates, and data transfers from apps and tech companies in which “foreign adversaries,” specifically the governments of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela, have an interest. 

It’s the latest—and perhaps the closest to becoming law—in a long line of proposals that look to limit the potential for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to exert influence on TikTok, and by extension, its users around the world.

Both the US and European Union governments are considering banning TikTok, limiting how it can handle customer data, and generally just increasing the regulatory burden it’s under compared to, say, Facebook or Instagram. Both entities have gone so far as to ban it on government staff’s work phones over espionage fears. Let’s take a look at why. 

Although TikTok has over 100 million active monthly users in the US and at least 10,000 employees across the US and Europe, its parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, China. This has led to some security concerns as well as plenty of bellicose posturing from US lawmakers and China-hawks. 

The security concerns come in part because ByteDance has bowed down to the CCP in the past. For example, in 2018, its then-CEO and founder, Zhang Yiming, had to issue a groveling, self-criticizing apology after the CCP compelled it to shut down one of its other apps. He promised to “further deepen cooperation” with the authoritarian government.

TikTok and ByteDance employees also have a manual override for what goes viral and gets promoted by the app’s “For You” algorithm. Earlier this year, a Forbes report on the “heating” feature revealed that TikTok frequently promoted videos in order to court influencers and brands and entice them into partnerships based on inflated video view counts. The concern here is that government propaganda, fake news, and anything else could be manipulated in the same way. 

Then there are legitimate concerns about TikTok’s data handling practices. Last year, a BuzzFeed news report revealed that engineers in China were able to access data from US users, despite the information supposedly being stored in the US. TikTok’s COO, Vanessa Pappas, did little to alleviate those concerns in a grilling before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last summer. Finally, TikTok had to fire four employees based in the US and China for attempting to spy on reporters, including Emily Baker-White who wrote both the Forbes and BuzzFeed investigations. 

Of course, the app also enjoys a huge amount of popularity domestically—more than two-thirds of teens use TikTok, after all. 

As David Greene, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains over Zoom, ByteDance and TikTok aren’t really handling data or bowing down to government pressure in a wildly different way compared to other social media apps. The big difference is where ByteDance is headquartered. 

Greene also thinks any US government attempt to ban TikTok is on shaky ground. “If the government wants to ban a way for people in this country to communicate with each other and with other people, it’s going to have to do so within the framework of the First Amendment,” he says. 

As Greene explains it, this means the US government will need to show that not only does some real threat to the public exist, but also that banning TikTok is justified. “It can’t just be responding to undifferentiated fear, or to uninvestigated or unproven concerns, or at the worst, xenophobia,” he says. 

TikTok is also fighting hard to ensure it can continue to operate in the US and Europe. It’s recently launched Project Texas and Project Clover, multi-billion dollar restructuring plans that would involve storing US data in the US and European data in Ireland and Norway in ways that they could not be accessed in China. Whether these efforts can reassure lawmakers that it doesn’t need additional oversight—or worse, a total ban—remains to be seen.

The same day the bill was introduced, the White House said in a statement from the National Security Advisor that they “urge Congress to act quickly to send it to the President’s desk.” You can watch Senator Warner talk more about the bill here.

The post Why some US lawmakers want to ban TikTok appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Think about the music and podcasts you listen to, and how they affect your mood. If streaming audio content makes you happier, you’re not alone, and the proof is in the study data Spotify released today.

That finding comes courtesy of 426 free-tier Spotify users who volunteered to wear an electrodermal activity sensor on their palm any time they tuned in over the course of 40 days. The company learned that listening to either podcasts or music improved its users’ moods, and that the activities listeners participate in influenced the type of content they gravitated to.

Although part of Spotify’s motivation for this research is to help advertisers understand how users’ engagement habits with music and podcasts can be used to create a seamless ad experience, it also has interesting implications for scientific studies related to the human experience with sound. 

“The project is showing that you can actually study this stuff in the wild. The conditions here were as realistic as you can get considering these were people that were just living their lives,” study co-author Josh McDermott, associate professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, tells PopSci. 

In his view, this opens the door to a new kind of anthropology-like study that can look at how people deal with audio in their lives. “There’s this big cultural shift in the way that we consume music and other audio that really happened over the last decade. It’s just changed the way that people live and probably has a lot of important effects,” McDermott adds. “This is just one way to understand that.” 

Key to Spotify’s work was the electrodermal activity sensor, which measures sweat and variations in the electroconductivity of the skin.

“The reason why we went with that specific technology is that we really wanted measure the impact of digital technologies throughout the day, so it was crucial for us to get outside of a lab environment and let our research participants use and interact with Spotify as they would normally do,” says Marion Boeri, global lead of Thought Leadership Research at Spotify.

This research follows a 2021 collaboration with a company called Neuro-Insight that measured users’ brain activity while they listened to Spotify. In the Neuro-Insight project, “we had people come in the lab, and we measured their neural activity when they’re listening to Spotify, which obviously helped us understand engagement that our platform drove, but it was something that was limiting us to that environment,” Boeri adds. 

In an effort to break free of that limitation, this time Spotify enlisted research participants from the US and the UK who had free Spotify accounts. Across 14,878 Spotify listening sessions, the company tracked what these people listened to, and asked them to fill out surveys before and after each session about the activity they were doing, their mood, if they remembered the ads they had heard, and if they were interested in the product advertised. Spotify’s researchers took a baseline measure of electrodermal activity before people listened to any audio, and used changes they observed as a metric for engagement. 

[Related: Meet Spotify’s new AI DJ]

No matter the audio content, streaming boosted mood across the board. 

“You do see that people report their mood improves regardless of what they do. You see this boost in every activity [we measured],” McDermott says. “People are choosing what they consume and it makes them a little bit happier.”

There were also findings that broadly proved some long-suspected trends in audio science, like the fact that our environments dictate the types of audio content we gravitate toward in the moment.

“The musical attributes and the audio attributes that characterize what people are listening to vary a lot depending on what they’re doing,” he notes. For example, people like dancey music if they’re in a social setting, or if they’re being active. And they might like podcasts or wordier songs when they’re on a walk by themselves. “This is the kind of thing people have suspected intuitively for a long time, but it’s never been demonstrated,” McDermott says. “This was really the first time anybody had access to that.”

The post Spotify wants to understand your body on music appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is bulking up its internal tech team. The agency, which focuses on consumer protection and antitrust issues in the US, announced last week that it would be forming an Office of Technology and hiring more tech experts. 

Leading the new office is Stephanie Nguyen, the agency’s existing chief technology officer, who recently spoke with PopSci about what the new department will do and what her priorities for it are. 

“In general, the FTC has always stayed on the cutting edge of emerging technology to enforce the law,” she says. “In the 1930s, we looked at deceptive radio ads.” Earlier this century, she notes, they focused on “high-tech spyware.” The goal of the agency in general involves tackling problems that plague the public, like the scourge of robocalls.

“The shift in the pace and volume of evolving tech changes means that we can’t rely on a case-by-case approach,” she adds. “We need to staff up.” And the staffing up comes at a time when the tech landscape is as complex and formidable as it’s ever been, with the rise of controversial tools like generative AI and chatbots, and companies such as Amazon—which just scooped up One Medical, a primary care company, and in 2017 purchased Whole Foods—becoming more and more powerful. 

A relatively recent example of a tech issue the FTC has tackled comes from Twitter, which was hit with a $150 million fine in 2022 for abusing the phone numbers and email addresses it had collected for security purposes because it had permitted “advertisers to use this data to target specific users,” as the FTC noted last year. The Commission has also taken on GoodRx for the way it handled and shared people’s medical data. They have an ongoing lawsuit against Facebook-owner Meta for “anticompetitive conduct.” Meanwhile, in a different case, the FTC was unsuccessful at attempting to block Meta’s acquisition of a VR company called Within Unlimited, which CNBC referred to as “a significant defeat” for the FTC. 

[Related: Why the new FTC chair is causing such a stir]

Nguyen says that as the lines become increasingly blurry between what is, and isn’t, a tech company, the creation of the office became necessary. “Tech cannot be viewed in a silo,” she says. “It cuts across sectors and industries and business models, and that is why the Office of Technology will be a key nexus point for our consumer protection and competition work to enable us to create and scale the best practices.” 

The move at the FTC comes at a time when the tech literacy of various government players is in the spotlight and is crucially important. The Supreme Court has been considering two cases that relate to a law known as Section 230, and Justice Elana Kagan even referred to herself and her fellow justices as “not the nine greatest experts on the internet.” 

At the FTC, what having the new Office of Technology will mean in practice is that the amount of what she refers to as in-house “technologists” will roughly double, as they hire about 12 new people. She says that as they create the team, “we need security and software engineers, data scientists and AI experts, human-computer interaction designers and researchers,” and well as “folks who are experts on ad tech or augmented and virtual reality.”

Tejas Narechania, the faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, says that the FTC’s creation of this new office represents a positive step. “I think it’s a really good development,” he says. “It reflects a growing institutional capacity within the executive branch and within our agencies.” 

“The FTC has been operating in this space for a while,” he adds. “It has done quite a bit with data privacy, and it has sometimes been criticized for not really fully understanding the technology, or the development of the technology, that has undergirded some of the industries that it is charged with overseeing and regulating.” (The agency has faced other challenges too.)

One of the ways the people working for the new office will be able to help internally at the FTC, Nguyen says, is to function as in-house subject matter experts and conduct new research. She says they’ll tackle issues like “shifts in digital advertising, to help the FTC understand implications of privacy, competition, and consumer protection, or dissecting claims made about AI-powered products and assessing whether it’s snake oil.” 

Having in-house expertise will help them approach tech questions more independently, Narechania speculates. The FTC will “be able to bring its own knowledge to bear on these questions, rather than relying on the very entities it’s supposed to be scrutinizing for information,” he reflects. “To have that independent capacity for evaluation is really important.” 

For Nguyen, she says the big-picture goal of the new office is that they are “here to strengthen the agency’s ability to be knowledgeable and take action on tech changes that impact the public.”

The post The FTC is trying to get more tech-savvy appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

There are few laws more fundamental to the way the internet works than Section 230. Just 26 words long, it created the framework for much of the modern web. But now the Supreme Court has taken up two cases that challenge its basic premise: Gonzalez v. Google LLC and Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh. If you want to know what all the hubbub is about, here’s what the law says, and what people think about it.

What is Section 230? 

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was initially passed in 1996. That’s before Google, Facebook, Amazon, or many of today’s internet giants were founded. Instead, it was designed to deal with an internet filled with message boards and rudimentary search engines. 

Section 230 has two key provisions: (c)(1), which states, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider;” and (c)(2), which provides protection from liability for “any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of” objectionable content, whether or not that content is constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. 

In general, the courts in the US have taken a broad approach to interpreting Section 230. They have largely ruled that search engines, large social media services, e-commerce sites, and even small blogs that host comment sections aren’t liable for content that users post—though there are exceptions for things like illegal content and content that violates intellectual property law. The courts have also ruled that platforms have broad rights to remove whatever content they like, which is how former President Donald Trump got himself banned. 

This law has very important ramifications for how websites have been able to operate over the past 26 years. Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, explains that “Section 230 is considered both an immunity from suit as well as from liability.” (The EFF has filed amicus briefs in support of Section 230 in both recent Supreme Court cases, and has long argued that it is an essential law for maintaining free speech rights on the internet.)

The law means that not only are websites and social networks off the hook from any potential civil settlements for any harm that comes to a plaintiff from user-generated content these platforms host, but they can get out of any lawsuit early without having to defend against the specifics of the claim. 

As Cope explains, without Section 230, “Platforms would have to defend themselves all the way to the very end of a case that might take several years… and then there could be multiple appeals that cost a lot of money and take a lot of time.” 

Why do tech companies like Section 230? 

Section 230 is often described as a “liability shield,” and really, that’s why tech companies like it. 

In other countries around the world, tech companies have far stricter obligations to remove content than they presently do in the US. In Germany, for example, social media companies have to promptly remove illegal content (that can include crimes such as insulting a public office) or face up to a €50 million (roughly $53 million) fine. 

And not only are they forced to pay fines, but they’re forced to employ lawyers and lobbyists to argue against the cases and the laws in the first place. It’s why they have fought so hard against the latest spate of European Union laws like the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act that are expressly designed to rein American tech companies in. 

How do politicians feel about Section 230?

As much as tech companies enjoy the protection of Section 230, politicians from across the political spectrum take issue with it. 

As Cope explains it, Republican politicians over the past several years tend to feel that, under Section 230, “platforms are taking down too much content—particularly too much conservative or Republican content.” Former President Trump, for example, has called for it to be abolished. 

“But on the other hand,” says Cope, “You have the Democrats, or more the liberals, who actually think that not enough content is being taken down. They complain about a lot of bad content, like hate speech, which is protected under our First Amendment.” 

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month, President Joe Biden called for “bipartisan action from Congress to hold Big Tech accountable,” including amending Section 230 to make the companies more liable for the content they host.

What else is there to know about Section 230?

For better or worse, change could be on the horizon. “It seems like there’s consensus in Congress that after 25 years of Section 230, they want to do something,” says Cope, “but it’s not a hundred percent clear what it is they would do.” 

First though, the Supreme Court has to consider it. Both Gonzalez v. Google LLC and Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh are being taken under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, and both hinge on how the court interprets Section 230. In reporting on the first of those cases yesterday, The New York Times said that the court appears leary of making big changes to the law. 

It’s the first time the highest court has considered Section 230, and whatever it decides will have serious implications for the future of the internet around the world. 

The post A guide to Section 230, the law that made the internet the Wild West appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

In living rooms, backyards, and public parks throughout the country, baby showers are being replaced by something a bit more dramatic. Some of today’s expectant parents share their joy by “revealing” their child’s sex in parties that feature balloons, cake, and confetti in pink or blue (or occasionally purple, if the parents want to signal that they will not know their child’s chosen gender for many years to come). But the biggest ones, fueled by social media trends, go even further, involving extravagant stunts. And these spectacles can wreak havoc on the environment. 

A pink pigeon found in New York City, who some speculate was brightly colored for a gender reveal party, died from inhaling the dye’s toxins earlier this month. A couple who used a pyrotechnic device to reveal their baby’s gender started the El Dorado fire in California in 2020, which killed a firefighter and destroyed five homes and 15 buildings. An off-duty border patrol agent lit an Arizona forest on fire with a blue-colored explosive. And in one gender reveal party in Brazil, a couple dyed an entire river blue.

[Related:

[Related: How to build and extinguish a campfire without sparking a catastrophe]

While most gender reveal parties stick to colored cupcakes or other tame features, social media could be driving a few expectant parents to go bigger. Popular videos and posts can encourage people to mimic what others are doing, such as learning a TikTok dance, says Laura Tropp, a professor of communication arts at Marymount Manhattan College who specializes in representations of pregnancy, motherhood, and families in popular culture. Or they can take a trend to dangerous heights, which seems to be the case with the pigeon, river, and fires. Insurance companies are even posting liability advice for when reveals go wrong.

“You’re seeing this pressure on a lot of people to have the next-level gender reveal party,” Tropp says. “They involve color; they involve objects. And I think people love to watch all these extreme parties happening because they’re exciting.” 

Not only are gender reveals visual phenomena—they are also able to make what used to be a very private human experience something more social. “Pregnancy is long, most of it is just happening inside a woman’s body,” Tropp explains. “So it’s the ability to kind of take an aspect of pregnancy, move it outside a woman’s body, and then make it exciting. And then maybe make it extreme to get the social media views that people want.”

[Related: TikTokers are taking a diabetes drug to lose weight. Now it’s in short supply.]

Tropp says it’s all part of the commoditization of pregnancy and parenthood. The baby product industry is estimated to reach $352 billion by 2023, and offers everything from “it’s a boy!” hand sanitizer to edible glitter bombs. “There’s this pressure on parents to be a part of all these rituals that were never associated with pregnancy or parenting,” she notes. “Gender reveal parties are a part of this moment where you could publicly express an aspect of your pregnancy really early on. So I think we’re seeing this kind of shift from parenting starting at the moment of birth to parenting starting much, much earlier.”

But gender reveal parties are just one of many human rituals that can be harmful to the environment, according to Bron Taylor, a professor of religion, nature and ethics at the University of Florida, who has written about environmental ethics. “Fireworks are an obvious example,” he writes in an email to PopSci. “They pollute the air, soil, and water, and of course, their production, distribution, and use, contributes to anthropogenic climate disruption. But these practices, whether for nationalistic, calendrical, or religious rituals, are now so well-established, that many consider questioning them unthinkable … In this age of profound environmental crises, we should be rethinking everything, including every sort of ceremony and ritualized practice.” 

For those who still want to throw a gender reveal party, a good starting point may be to “eschew things that burn, explode, or otherwise risk hurting people or ecosystems,” Taylor says. Share your excitement in a responsible way—or you could just stick to cupcakes and piñatas.

The post Gender reveal parties are turning nature pink and blue appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the heartbreakers at the Federal Trade Commission recently released their latest report on online romance scammers and the aftermath of their schemes. According to the FTC’s statistics, almost 70,000 people reported falling for romantic scams amounting to $1.3 billion in personal losses. The median loss for individuals tallied up to around $4,400 per person.

As the FTC report details, con artists are constantly improving their tactics and are frequently scouring social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for personal information on their targets. As such, they approach their potential victims armed with quick, seemingly meant-to-be similarities. “You like a thing, so that’s their thing, too. You’re looking to settle down. They’re ready too,” explains Emma Fletcher, author of the FTC’s Data Spotlight rundown.

[Related: Cryptocurrency scammers are mining dating sites for victims.]

After approaching people via these digital venues, conversations often transfer over to messaging apps like Telegram, Google Chat, or WhatsApp. From there, malicious scammers try to elicit money, more personal details, alongside potentially explicit images and videos which they can then use for blackmailing—a tactic often referred to as “sextortion.”

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of payments sent to scam artists came in the form of cryptocurrency and wire transfers, given their highly anonymized natures. Other runners-up include gift card requests and asking for payment to cover a nonexistent package’s shipping costs.

The FTC conducted a breakdown of scammers’ preferred storylines via keyword analysis based on over 8 million romance scam reports resulting in monetary losses. Nearly a quarter of lies stem from someone claiming a friend or relative is sick, hurt, or in jail. Grifters also like to claim they can teach victims how to invest, are deployed overseas in the military, or have recently come into some fortune they inexplicably want to share.

[Related: Social media scammers made off with $770 million last year.]

Anyone hoping to avoid becoming a lovelorn statistic should abide by a few straightforward rules: First off, virtually no one is going to out-of-the-blue request money or investment opportunities via crypto or gift cards—swipe left if a suitor ever does. Vet your potential lover’s stories by friends and family to see if anyone raises an eyebrow, and trust those suspicions.

Lastly, the FTC also suggests a rather ingenious bit of amateur sleuthing if you ever start getting second thoughts: Conduct a reverse image search if a pursuer ever offers any supposed photographs or selfies. If the stories don’t line up, then it’s time to wade elsewhere in the online dating pool.

The post Don’t fall for an online love scam this Valentine’s Day appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Ever since Elon Musk officially became the owner of Twitter, user experience on the platform has been… interesting. The company has endured massive layoffs, glitches, and scandals, and the also-owner of Tesla and SpaceX has taken it upon himself to manage things from the comfort of his own Twitter polls. Needless to say, some people have had a problem with all this.

Twitter hasn’t imploded (yet), despite predictions its collapse is imminent, but if you don’t want to stay to witness that, you might want a place where you can re-create the pre-Musk Twitter experience. 

Well, we checked, and some of the countless available social media platforms do have the potential to feel a bit like Twitter. If you’re thinking about where to set up shop next, these should be your first stops. 

People can tip or pay a creator on a post-to-post basis using a point system that translates into money: one point equals one cent. You get 50 points for free upon signing up, but you’ll need to start spending your own money if you want to keep tipping. That’s when the currency conversion gets a little iffy. For example, a bundle of 10,000 points, which should translate to $100, is actually $127 (with a discount, because buying in bulk is cheaper). Logically, that $27 difference goes to expenses like taxes and operational costs, but since we didn’t see any ads in the time we spent there, it’s easy to assume this is one of the ways Post makes money. Even if some of the initial payments go to the platform, Post’s developers say tips go entirely to creators.  

[Related: 11 Twitter bots that will make the most of your timeline]

Aesthetically, Post looks like a put-together version of Twitter: as soon as you create a profile, you can start scrolling a curated feed that gets refined the more you click and scroll. The interface is clean and the site uses a legible serif font. You can share original content and like and repost stuff from other users, but instead of Twitter-like replies where everything you say is in the form of a new tweet, you can comment the old-fashioned way—publicly, but not showing as a new item on your personal timeline.

Overall, things are generally civil over at Post, and even though you can find a large variety of wholesome content, there’s a lot of politics and journalism from reputable sources going around. 

If you never experienced the good ol’ days of peak Tumblr, the best way to understand the platform is to think of it as Twitter’s and Instagram’s forbidden love child. Its design makes it more of a visual-first platform than Twitter, but you can post all sorts of content: text, photos, videos, GIFs, and even audio. You can also interact with posts from people you follow by reposting (retweeting) them and replying to them just like you would on Twitter. 

In the beginning and during its heyday, this platform was a haven for women, fandoms, artists, and the LGBTQI+ community, who were free to post all sorts of content. Tumblr’s decline began when Yahoo bought the platform in 2013, but the biggest hit came when Verizon acquired the site in 2017. The telecom company set up stricter community guidelines that purged adult content from the site (including that of an artistic or educational nature), driving a lot of users onto other platforms, like Twitter. 

Pillowfort was highly attractive to those users for two main reasons: its interface is similar to Tumblr’s (especially because it gives more space to photos and videos) and community guidelines are more flexible, which is why the platform currently has a thriving fandom community. 

The site emphasizes content filtering and giving users the ability to interact with a handpicked group of people. Sign up, and you’ll be able to blacklist bothersome accounts, preventing them from seeing your posts or contacting you in any way—even through reposted content or instant messaging. 

Right now, Pillowfort is still in an open beta stage, and new users can only create accounts by paying a one-time $5 fee or by signing up for the waitlist, which promises to send you an invitation code in less than an hour.

If you don’t want to pay or wait, you can take a tour of the platform as a “demo user,” which will give you a pretty good idea of what you’ll encounter if you decide to join. 

With an easy-to-use and retro-looking interface, Cohost works a lot like Tumblr, but there’s no algorithm. This means you’ll only see the content from accounts you follow and tags you’ve bookmarked. As an anti-spam measure, new users cannot post or comment until a day or two after opening their accounts, but you can bypass that if you have an invite code from an existing user. 

Because there’s no algorithm, the easiest way to find people and posts you’re interested in (and make it easy for other users to find you) is by using tags. Users are encouraged to slap as many as possible onto each post, even if they’re super niche or more of an extra comment than a label. 

Cohost also attracts the artistic and LGBTQI+ communities, and has a strong population of Furries. In general, users are nice and respectful, while looking to make friends, show their work, and share humor. A cute extra feature is Cohost’s mascot, Eggbug, a round magenta bug who’s the star of a lot of fan art and merchandise.  

People can interact freely with each other at a “federal” level—meaning regardless of what community they belong to—or join more than one server at a time. If you change your mind, the platform allows you to move your entire account, including your followers, from one community to another. 

All this makes the Mastodon concept a little difficult to understand upfront, so the learning curve for new users is a bit steeper than for other platforms. Still, the best way to truly see if Mastodon is the Twitter alternative for you is to create an account and dive in head first. 

What makes CounterSocial different from other platforms is its claim to have a zero-tolerance policy for bullies, trolls, ads, and fake news. The network takes this so far that it has completely banned entire countries for being “well known to be origin points of an overwhelming majority of bots and trolls.” The list currently includes Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Syria, and the platform reserves the right to add and remove territories to this list at its own discretion. 

[Related: 8 tricks for making your Twitter feed less toxic]

CounterSocial (also known as COSO) puts a particular emphasis on news and politics. You’ll see MSNBC’s news ribbon at the top of your screen, and Counter Pro accounts even have access to news video clips on the homepage. Something you won’t see anywhere else is COSO’s current overall network sentiment—you’ll see it in the form of a thermometer at the top of the first column. This tool is constantly taking the pulse of the platform, measuring its level of toxicity. By looking at it you can be sure that people are, indeed, on edge, and it’s not just you. 

In terms of community, CounterSocial has a variety of folks sharing things like random thoughts, music, and the latest decal they’ve stuck to their bikes. Still, in the time we spent there, most posts were about politics, and all of them were very clearly from the same blue side of the US political spectrum. 

As an added bonus, COSO Pro users ($4.99 a month) get access to Counter Realms, which is a virtual reality iteration of the social network. There, users can create spaces or join those formed by others, and talk to other people using their avatars. If you have a VR set, you can use it in Realms, but if you prefer to keep it old-school, you can also access the platform with only your computer. 

This story has been updated. It was first published on April 27, 2022.

The post 6 Twitter alternatives, in case you’re looking appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Elon Musk has long claimed Twitter suffers from a major bot problem. But his latest attempt to fix the dubious issue has many critics worried about the collateral damage. On Thursday, the social media platform’s official developer account announced the company will no longer offer free access to its application program interface, or API, beginning on February 9. Third-party users and developers have long relied on data obtained through the Twitter API for research projects, information dissemination, as well as popular generative text and image bots. 

“While Twitter has long charged researchers to access older tweets, the ability to use a robust and researcher-friendly API to scrape Twitter data was a fantastic resource,” recounts Matthew Hannah, an assistant professor of digital humanities at Purdue University.

[Related: Hackers could be selling your Twitter data for the lowball price of $2.]

Hannah explains he previously utilized automated API tools to track Twitter conversations regarding trending topics like the QAnon movement for his own work. The platform’s research-friendly interface proved “incredibly useful” for teaching students how to understand and work with Twitter data in the classroom, he added. “I fear that is now a thing of the past,” he says.

Another unfortunate byproduct to Musk’s latest disruption to the online Twitter ecosystem will be the deaths of many positive bot projects that have for years provided users with entertainment and creative content. Cameron Ezell, creator of a bot that tweeted random screenshots from King of the Hill to its 78,000 followers every 30 minutes, confirmed via the account on Thursday that its tenure on Twitter would cease next week. “I hope Twitter changes course between now and then, but if not you can follow another version of this account over on Mastodon,” Ezell said via the “King of the Hill Screens” account.

[Related: Twitter suspensions, Elon Musk’s jet, and other messes you may have missed this week.]

“It’s really shameful and is going to take away a lot of the joy people get from using Twitter,” Ezell writes to PopSci. “When people follow a stupid account like [mine], it’s just because it makes their timeline a little more interesting… [it] just drives home the point that this is going to make people spend less time on Twitter.”

Ezell isn’t alone in migrating their project to the decentralized social media platform. Others such as Mark Sample’s “Moby Dick at Sea” and “ClipArt1994” accounts, are also planning Mastodon transfers.

“In the darkest times on Twitter, these accounts often brought a spark of joy and humor, and this decision betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about what makes Twitter enjoyable for so many,” Hannah also argues.

Since assuming control of Twitter in October 2022, multiple reports indicate Musk has consistently struggled to generate reliable revenue streams through the social media platform. Although Twitter subsequently mentioned that a “paid basic tier will be available instead,” the specifics remain unknown as to what that could entail. On Wednesday, Musk claimed Twitter’s free API is “abused badly right now” by “bot scammers & opinion manipulators,” and lamented the lack of verification process or fees. “Just ~$100/month for API access with ID verification will clean things up greatly,” he concluded.

The post Twitter’s latest bad idea will kill vital research and fun bot accounts appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Nearly six years ago, on March 10, 2017, the Netflix Twitter account made a very simple claim: “Love is sharing a password.” 

Apparently, there’s been a lot of love going around. More than 100 million people use Netflix passwords from their friends, families, and sometimes even strangers, a figure that Netflix notes in its fourth quarter shareholder letter released on January 19, 2023. It even happens with celebrities—bestselling author and YouTube star John Green revealed on TikTok that he shares his Netflix account with a hacker named Omar.

But account sharing, of course, is bad business for Netflix, and all good love stories must come to an end. Netflix made headlines last year when it announced it was beginning to trial new strategies to curb account sharing on its platform. The company announced in the Q4 shareholder letter that they’re planning to launch new paid sharing features later this financial quarter. Then they updated their FAQ section, and the public noticed.

But what does this change mean for your Netflix account? Is this decision something to worry about? Here’s what you need to know:

The largest change to the platform is that Netflix is redefining which users can share one account. As the first line in the updated Netflix FAQ reads: “A Netflix account is for people who live together in a single household.” The definition for “household” obviously changes depending on who you ask, but Netflix appears to be using a definition based on proximity (more accurately, using “location based information like IP addresses and device IDs,” according to the new FAQ page). If you live in the same location, that counts as one household. If your device is in the correct location, then everything should work as expected, with no changes at all. 

Once you start introducing multiple devices, Wi-Fi networks, and locations, that’s where the new rules will come into play. When someone logs in to Netflix from a device outside of the household, they may be asked for verification, according to their FAQ. The account owner will get an email or text with a code to be input on the device attempting to log in—a slightly altered version of the common two-factor authentication methodologies used by most major websites.

The outcry from the public following the announced changes stems largely from information that has since been removed from the Netflix FAQ page—the original version of the new rules on device sharing had much harsher restrictions. Under those rules, Netflix users had to log into their account from their home network once every 31 days to maintain access. Travelers could request a temporary code to give them access to the site for seven days. 

Netflix has four subscription options in the United States—basic with ads, basic, standard, and premium. The biggest difference between the accounts is how many users can be logged in at once. Both basic plans allow just one user to watch at a time, while the standard and premium plans let two and four viewers watch concurrently, respectively. Regardless of your Netflix plan, you can have different profiles—that’s the screen with the avatars that pops up when you first log in to the site. 

Last year, the company tested features out for users in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, allowing standard and premium users to add “subaccounts” and letting users transfer existing profiles to a new account. The subaccounts from the tests in Latin America worked well enough that the functionality will be expanded to more countries with the new password-sharing rules to let old borrowers maintain access to their old profiles, as announced in Netflix’s third-quarter shareholder letter. This did come with an extra charge, however. Adding a secondary location costs a user about $3, depending on the country. 

Netflix’s decision to crack down on password sharing will make it unique among streaming platforms like Hulu, HBO Max, and Disney+. 

The moves represent a departure from just six years ago when Netflix tweeted about love and password sharing. Love, it appears, might be more complex than sharing a password, and Netflix access is going to cost you. 

The post Prepare for the great Netflix password-sharing crackdown appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Floodwaters up to 30-feet-high swept through Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province last Friday, destroying dozens of homes and killing at least five people. Unfortunately, experts warn the nation’s monsoon season is far from over, and will likely worsen in the years ahead due to climate change.

However, locals now have access to a potentially vital new tool to help communicate, coordinate, and prepare against an area increasingly beset by dire natural disasters—and it’s a first for one of the world’s most popular messaging apps.

[Related: New factory retrofit could reduce a steel plant’s carbon emissions by 90 percent.]

Today, disaster relief management nonprofit Yayasan Peta Bencana announced the debut of BencanaBot, a “Humanitarian WhatsApp Chatbot.” Billed as the first of its kind, BecanaBot’s AI-assisted chat features can now guide locals through the process of submitting disaster reports that are then mapped in real-time on the free, open source platform, PetaBencana.id. There, anyone in need can view and share updates to coordinate decisions regarding safety and responses via collaborative evidence verified by government agencies.

“With over 80 million active users of WhatsApp in Indonesia, the launch of BencanaBot on WhatsApp represents a new milestone in enabling residents all across the archipelago to participate in, and benefit from, this free disaster information sharing system,” Nashin Mahtani, director of Yayasan Peta Bencana, said in a statement.

Going forward, anyone in Indonesia can now anonymously share disaster information via WhatsApp (+628584-BENCANA), Twitter (@petabencana), Facebook Messenger (@petabencana), and Telegram (@bencanabot). WhatsApp’s default end-to-end encryption also ensures an added layer of privacy for its users, although like all messaging platforms, it is likely not without its faults.

[Related: A chunk of ice twice the size of New York City broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf.]

Using such an exhaustive program may sound intimidating to some, but BencanaBot’s creators specifically designed the service to be intuitive and easy-to-understand for underfunded communities in Indonesia. In particular, the platform is designed to be “data-light,” meaning it works seamlessly through the existing instant messaging, social media, and SMS-based communications its users already know, without requiring a lot of device data usage.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), access to local and timely information remains one of the greatest hurdles for populations adapting to climate change’s rapidly multiplying existential threats. The rise of tools like BencanaBot are crucial for societal adaptation to these issues, and can strengthen communities’ resilience in the face of some of the planet’s most difficult ongoing climate challenges.

The post Indonesia activates a disaster-relief chatbot after destructive floods appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Misinformation is rampant on social media, and a new study has shed some light on why. Researchers from Yale University and the University of Southern California argue that basically, some people develop a habit for sharing things on social media—whether they’re true or not. Although “individual deficits in critical reasoning and partisan bias” are commonly cited as reasons that people share fake news, the authors wrote in the paper, “the structure of online sharing built into social platforms is more important.” 

Previous studies have found that some people—especially older people—just don’t consider whether something is true before sharing it. Other research has shown that some people are motivated to share news headlines that support their identity and match their existing beliefs, whether the headlines are true or not—especially Conservatives. 

While the research team from Yale and USC accept these as contributing factors to the spread of misinformation online, they hypothesized that they may not be the only mechanisms that lead people to share fake news. Both the idea that people share misinformation because of a lack of critical thinking or that it’s a result of partisan bias assume that they would share less fake news if they were sufficiently motivated or able to consider the accuracy of the headlines they are sharing, however, the Yale-USC team’s research suggests that may not be the case. 

Instead, the team argues that “misinformation sharing appears to be part of a larger pattern of frequent online sharing of information.” To support that, they found that the people in their 2,476-participant study who shared the greatest amount of fake news stories, also shared more true news stories. The paper is based on four related, but separately conducted studies all aimed at teasing out how habitual sharing affects the spread of misinformation. 

[Related: The biggest consumers of fake news may benefit from this one tech intervention]

In the first study, 200 online participants were shown eight stories with true headlines and eight stories with false headlines and asked if they’d share them on Facebook. The researchers also measured how strong their habitual sharing was on social media using data on how frequently they shared content in the past and a self-reported index that measured if they did so without thinking. 

As the researchers expected, participants with stronger sharing habits reposted more stories and were less discerning about whether they were true or not than participants with weaker habits. The participants with the strongest habits shared 43 percent of the true headlines and 38 percent of the false headlines while those with the weakest habits shared just 15 percent of the true headlines and 6 percent of the false ones. In total, the top 15 percent of habitual sharers were responsible for 37 percent of the shared false headlines across this study. 

The second study, which contained 839 participants, was aimed at seeing if participants would be deterred from habitual sharing after they were asked to consider the accuracy of a given story.

While asking participants to assess the headline accuracy before sharing reduced the amount of fake headlines shared, it was least effective in the most habitual participants. When participants had  to assess the accuracy before being asked about whether or not they would share a sample of stories,they shared 42 percent of the true headlines and still shared 22 percent of the false ones. But, when participants were only asked about whether or not they would share the stories, the most habitual participants shared 42 percent of the true headlines and 30 percent of the false ones.

[Related: These psychologists found a better way to teach people to spot misinformation]

The third study aimed to assess if people with strong sharing habits were less sensitive to partisan bias and shared information that didn’t align with their political views. The structure was similar to the previous study, with around 836 participants asked to assess the whether a sample of headlines aligned with liberal and conservative politics, and whether or not they’d share them. 

Again the most habitual sharers were less discerning about what they shared. Those not asked to assess the politics of the headlines beforehand reposted 47 percent of the stories that aligned with their stated political orientation and 20 percent of the stories that didn’t. Even when asked to assess the political bias first, habitual sharers reposted 43 percent of the stories that aligned with their political views and 13 percent of the ones that didn’t. In both conditions, the least habitual sharers only shared approximately 22 percent of the headlines that aligned with their views and just 3 percent of the stories that didn’t. 

Finally, in the fourth study, the researchers tested whether changing the reward structure on social media could change how frequently misinformation was shared. They theorized that if people get a reward response to likes and comments, it would encourage the formation of habitual sharing—and that the reward structure could be changed. 

To test this, they split 601 participants into three groups: a control, a misinformation training condition, and an accuracy training condition. In each group, participants were shown 80 trial headlines and asked whether or not they’d share them before seeing the eight true and eight false test headlines similar to the previous studies. In the control condition, nothing happened if they shared the true or false headline, while in the misinformation condition, participants were told they got “+5 points” when they shared a false headline or didn’t share a true one, and in the accuracy condition they were told they got “+5 points” when they shared a true headline or didn’t share a false one. 

As predicted, both accuracy training and misinformation training were effective in changing participants sharing behaviors compared to the controls. Participants in the accuracy condition shared 72 percent of the true headlines and 26 percent of the false headlines compared with participants in the misinformation condition who shared 48 percent of the true headlines and 43 percent of the false ones. (Control participants shared 45 percent of the true headlines and 19 percent of the false.)

The researchers conclude that their studies all show that habitual sharing is a major factor in the spread of misinformation. The top 15 percent most habitual sharers across were responsible for between 30 and 40 percent of all shared misinformation across all studies. They argue that this is part of the broader response patterns established by social media platforms—but that they could be restructured by internal engineers to promote the sharing of accurate information instead. 

The post The real reason people share so much fake news on social media appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

With nearly 3 billion daily users to its name, Facebook is buzzing with activity—particularly if several hundred of those people happen to be friends with you. Between wedding photos of friends-of-friends-of-friends, angry articles from your political uncle, and all-caps updates from the girl you haven’t seen since middle school, your News Feed can get cluttered with information you couldn’t care less about. Don’t settle for reading every other post—here’s how to clean up your feed so it will only show the people and news you actually care about.

1. Unfollow your friends

Facebook includes more options than you might think for cleaning up your News Feed, including the ability to unfollow your friends. This isn’t the same as unfriending someone; you’ll stay friends with them but their posts won’t appear in your feed. It’s perfect if you want to occasionally check up on or message people, but aren’t interested in the minutiae of their daily lives. And don’t worry—they won’t know you’ve unfollowed them.

[Related: How to make your Facebook account more private]

Click on the three dots next to any post in your News Feed and choose the Unfollow option to unfollow your friend. Alternatively, go to your friend’s profile page on the web, click the Friends button at the top, and select Unfollow from the drop-down menu. If you’re viewing a profile on the mobile app, tap the Friends button and choose Take a Break.

2. See fewer posts from someone

Let’s say you don’t want to see as many posts from someone, but you’d still like to get the occasional update. Instead of unfollowing that friend, you can opt to see fewer posts from them. You’ll find this setting via the same drop-down menu as the unfollow option: in the top right of any post in the News Feed. Click Hide post, and you won’t see as many posts from that person in the future. If you hide a post from an ad or a Page, you won’t hear about it again.

When you hide a sponsored post, rather than something from one of your friends, Facebook asks for some feedback about why you took the action you did. It uses your response to decide which ads to serve you in the future. If you decide to tell Facebook why, you’ll see another menu with other privacy-related steps you can take. Click the Make changes to your ad preferences option to take more control over the ads Facebook shows you (see below for more on this).

3. Prioritize your close friends

In any group of acquaintances, there will be some people you care about more than others. To help you focus on your nearest and dearest, Facebook creates a custom friends list for you called Close Friends. Updates from anyone in this select group will always prompt a notification (if you’ve got them enabled) and put the post high up in your News Feed. Fortunately for your friends’ self-esteem, they won’t know whether or not they’re on your Close Friends list.

[Related: You don’t have to delete Facebook, but you could definitely be using it better]

To set up your list, you’ll need to open Facebook in a web browser and look at the scrollable menu on the left side of the screen—these options aren’t available in the mobile app. Click Friends and find the Custom Lists option. Click that, then the Close Friends link. You can add or remove friends via the Manage button in the top right. While you’re there, you might notice that Facebook has suggested other lists for you, such as Acquaintances. More on that feature below.

4. Set up your own friend lists

You don’t have to settle for the friend lists Facebook makes for you. From the Custom Lists screen, click Create List, and you can make a group based on the buddies you play cards with, the relatives you’re closest to, or any other mix of people you like.

The lists you make for yourself won’t affect how often you see your friends in your News Feed, but you can bookmark each list for quick access. Facebook used to offer the ability to see only updates from people on a given list, but that no longer appears to be the case. Now, the most you can do is click on the individual profiles of people on a list to see what they’ve posted recently.

That said, custom lists remain useful as a way to limit the audience who sees anything you post on Facebook. For example, you might want to tweak your settings so only your closest friends and relatives will see all the baby photos you’re uploading. To do so, click the audience drop-down menu under your name when you are creating a post. Scroll down to find the desired list, select the circle to its right, decide if you want this to be your default audience, and hit Done.

5. Choose who you see first

If you’d rather not get notifications each time your close friends post, you can use a different setting to choose who comes first in your News Feed. Go to Facebook in a web browser, click your profile photo in the top right, open Settings & privacy, and select Feed. The top option (Favorites) lets you set who you’ll see first in your News Feed. Just click the star icon next to any page or profile to mark them as preferred.

[Related: Make Facebook useful by turning off all its annoying features]

This works a lot like Close Friends, but you won’t get notifications about everything these people or pages do—their posts will just be prioritized in your News Feed. If you’re using the mobile app, you can tap the Menu button in the bottom right, select Feeds, and choose Favorites from the top of the screen to see only posts from these accounts. Again, your friends won’t get any alerts about how you’re sorting them, so you don’t have to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings.

6. View posts in chronological order

Another option for your feed is to switch to seeing posts in chronological order. On the web, go to the scrollable menu on the left-hand side of the screen and click Most Recent. This will clean up your News Feed so the newest posts are at the top.

Unlike the tips we’ve already mentioned, this actually gives you less control over what appears in your News Feed. But it’s still a useful way to switch up what’s displayed, and perhaps see updates from people you haven’t checked in on for a while. To go back to the normal view, click the Home icon (a house) at the top of the screen, or the Facebook icon in the top left.

7. Adjust your ad settings

Facebook uses a lot of personal data to decide which ads to display on your News Feed. To view and edit some of this information, click your profile photo at the right end of the toolbar at the top of the Facebook site. Pick Settings & privacy from the list, then Settings, and select Ads from the menu on the left to open the Ad Preferences page. Follow the same steps in the mobile app, but tap Ad Preferences after Settings.

From here, you can edit a lot of different options. Click Ad Settings, Categories used to reach you, Other categories, and See all categories to view what information Facebook is using to serve you ads, and click the Remove button next to any one of these to eliminate it. From this same series of menus, you can prevent Facebook from showing ads based on details such as your relationship status or job title. Back on the Ad Preferences page, behind the Advertisers option and Advertisers whose ads you’ve clicked button, it’s possible to block Hide Ads from certain companies.

Facebook can also show you ads based on what you do on sites and apps beyond the social network, and it goes the other way as well: Your behavior on Facebook can affect which ads you see when you’re browsing around the rest of the internet. You can manage and learn about some of these options from the web (Ad Preferences > Ad Settings > Data about your activity from partners), but you have much more control from the mobile app.

The post 7 ways to clean up your Facebook News Feed appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Meta’s Oversight Board—an independent group responsible for overseeing Facebook and Instagram’s content moderation policies—wants to suggest a change the company’s long standing nudity policy to be more inclusive and respectful of human rights. It comes as the Oversight Board overturned Meta’s original decision earlier this month to remove two posts on Instagram that depicted transgender and non-binary people with bare chests. 

The case was brought to the Oversight Board by a US couple who identify as transgender and non-binary. In 2021 and 2022 they posted two images on Instagram where, according to the Board’s decision, they were “bare-chested with the nipples covered.” The captions discussed transgender healthcare and said the couple were fundraising and selling t-shirts so one of them could undergo top surgery—gender-affirming surgery that generally involves the removal of breast tissue.

After a series of alerts from both Meta’s content moderation AIs and reports from users, the posts were “reviewed multiple times for potential violations of various Community Standards” by the human moderation team. In the end, both posts were removed for violating the Sexual Solicitation Community Standard—which is meant to ban sex workers soliciting payments—“seemingly because they contain breasts and a link to a fundraising page.”

The couple appealed the content moderation decision to Instagram and then the Oversight Board on the basis that the reason for the removals did not match the actual intention for the post. After the Board accepted the two cases, Meta’s moderation team decided it had been wrong to remove the posts and restored them. This was too little, too late for the Board, which heard the cases anyway in order to give broader recommendations on Meta’s nudity policies. 

The decision released this week found in the couple’s favor. The Oversight Board decided that removing the posts was “not in line with Meta’s Community Standards, values or human rights responsibilities,” and highlighted “fundamental issues with Meta’s policies.” It found that Meta’s guidance to moderators about the Sexual Solicitation policy was too broad for the stated rationale and publicly available guidance. 

The Oversight Board also found that the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard—which “prohibits images containing female nipples other than in specified circumstances, such as breastfeeding and gender confirmation surgery”—is inappropriately based on a binary view of gender. The distinction between male and female bodies makes it unclear to both users and moderators “how the rules apply to intersex, non-binary and transgender people, and requires reviewers to make rapid and subjective assessments of sex and gender.” Regardless of the ethics of the situation, the Board highlights that it’s “not practical when moderating at scale.”

Similarly, the Board called the restrictions and exceptions to the rules on showing female nipples “confusing, particularly as they apply to transgender and non-binary people.” Female nipples are allowed be shown as part of a protest, during childbirth, and in medical and health contexts (including top surgery) but not while someone is at the beach or in other context where anyone may “traditionally go bare-chested.” It argues that, as these cases show, “Meta’s policies on adult nudity result in greater barriers to expression for women, trans and gender non-binary people on its platforms” and that LGBTQI+ people can be “disproportionally affected.” 

As well as overturning Meta’s original decision to remove the posts, the Board had three recommendations for improving the company’s policies around nudity, LGBTQI+ expression, and nipples in general. 

First, Meta should “define clear, objective, rights-respecting criteria to govern its Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity Community Standard, so that all people are treated in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, without discrimination on the basis of sex or gender.” Second, it should “provide more detail in its public-facing Sexual Solicitation Community Standard on the criteria that leads to content being removed.” Finally, it needed to “revise its guidance for moderators on the Sexual Solicitation Community Standard so that it more accurately reflects the public rules on the policy,” which could help reduce the number of enforcement errors. 

All in all, it’s a pretty clear win for free expression—though as TechCrunch notes, if some of the Board’s recommendations are taken to the fullest extent, it could result in some pretty major changes to how nudity is moderated on Facebook and Instagram. Automatically presuming that nude female, transgender, and non-binary bodies are sexually suggestive while male bodies are not is at odds with the kind of gender-neutral policies that international human rights standards call for. 

Meta says that it welcomes the Oversight Board’s decision and that it already reinstated the affected content. It says it will conduct a review of the Board’s recommendations, and will issue an update when it decides how it plans to move forward. 

The post Facebook and Instagram might revamp their nudity policies appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

By design, it’s very easy to publish to social media from just about any location and any device connected to the internet, so there are going to be times you wish you could undo a post. Maybe you wish you hadn’t said what you said, shared a photo without permission, or simply made an embarrassing typo.

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all enable you to go back and edit your posts, or delete them completely. We can’t guarantee that no one will have reacted to or screenshotted your original post in the meantime though, so quicker is better when it comes to making these changes.

How to edit a tweet

The wrinkle with Twitter is that you need to be a paid-up member of the Twitter Blue club to edit tweets. Twitter Blue costs $8 a month for the web ($11 if you sign up on a phone), and gives you extras such as app themes and folders for bookmarked tweets, as well as editing functionality.

If you have a Twitter Blue subscription, you’ll get a 30-minute window after you post a tweet to make edits to it. After that, you’ll need to leave the tweet as it is, or delete it. What’s more, other users will be able to see a label that says the tweet has been edited, and can select the tweet to see the earlier versions of it.

To edit a tweet, you must be on the same device you used to post it. If that’s a phone, tap a tweet on your profile, then touch the three dots to the right of it. If the edit window hasn’t closed, you’ll see Edit Tweet on the menu that pops up. Choose that, and you’ll be able to make whatever changes you want. Finally, tap Update to send the new version live.

On the web, you’ll also see three dots next to all of the tweets on your profile—click on them to find the Edit Tweet option, and if you see it, you’ll be able to make alterations. To get rid of a tweet completely, the Delete Tweet option is in the same menu, and you’ll be asked to confirm your decision before it’s erased.

How to edit an Instagram post

Unlike Twitter, there’s no time limit for editing Instagram posts, so you can fix typos going back years. On the web, go to your profile and select the post you want to change. Then click the three dots (top right) and choose Edit.

You can adjust the caption of your photo or video, change who’s tagged in the photo or video, and add or edit a location tag. If you’re editing a multiple-image carousel post, you can delete individual pictures or videos from the group. You can’t swap out the photo or video though, or add new content to the post—you’ll need a whole new post for that. When you’re happy with the way the post looks, click Done.

[Related: Why the web version of Instagram is better than the app]

The process is similar on the mobile apps. Tap your profile picture (bottom right), then pick a photo or video. Touch the three dots in the top right, choose Edit, and you make your changes. To confirm them, tap the blue checkmark (Android) or Done (iOS) in the top right corner. The post stays where it is in your timeline, and although it gets marked with an “edited” label, people won’t be able to see past versions.

You can find the option to Delete an Instagram post in the same menu as the edit option: behind the three dots. And while you can’t edit comments you’ve left on other people’s posts, you can remove them: Click or tap the three dots next to a comment you’ve left, then pick Delete on the next dialog.

How to edit a Facebook post

As on Instagram, there’s no time limit on editing Facebook posts. If you have the site open in a web browser, head to your profile via the link on the left, then scroll down to the post you want to alter. Next, click the three dots at the top right of the post, then Edit post.

You can change just about everything in a Facebook post, if needed, including the text, attached images, and the location and contact tags. You can even change the post audience by clicking the current audience label at the top (it will say whatever the current audience is, such as Friends or Public). Tap Save when you’re done.

On the Facebook mobile apps, tap your profile picture (top right), then your name. Touch the three dots next to the post you want to change, then Edit post, and you’ll be able to make your changes. All the same options are available as on the web, and you can tap Save when you’ve finished. Note that anyone who can see the post can view its edit history via the menu behind the three dots.

Tapping on those three dots also gives you the option to delete posts. You can also edit and delete any comments you leave across Facebook, whether they’re on your own posts or on posts from other people: click or tap the three dots to the side of a comment, then choose Edit or Delete as needed.

The post Instantly edit Facebook posts and other social media mistakes appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The ability to stuff multiple pictures into a single Instagram post is incredibly useful, especially because most of us don’t have the time, energy, or money to commit to daily curated posting like the most successful influencers. What can be complicated is figuring out how to delete one of those images when it no longer belongs in an existing photo dump.

So if you’ve fallen out of love with a picture (or a person) in one of your posts, but haven’t trashed it because you like the other photos, it’s time you learned how to excise that malignant memory like a skilled social media surgeon.

One catch: you can’t delete one image from a two-photo carousel, potentially because that would make it a single-item post and mess with something inside Instagram, though we can’t say for sure. These steps will only work with a post stocked with at least three pieces of media.

• Step 1: Go to the post and tap the three dots in its top right corner.
• Step 2: When the options menu appears, ignore the bright red “delete” option and hit Edit.
• Step 3: Swipe to the image or video you want to send to the trash.
• Step 4: Tap the little trash can icon in the top left corner of the image. If you can’t see this, scroll up, as the app defaults to editing the post caption. If you still can’t see it, you’re likely working in a two-picture post.

• Step 5: Instagram will ask if you really want to scrap it, and you do, so hit Delete to confirm. Your problematic post has been cleansed.
• Step 6: Hit Done (iOS) or the blue check (Android) in the top right to save your changes.

Instagram’s post editing feature also lets you add and edit tags, the alt text, location, and caption. Unfortunately, you currently can’t use the Edit button to change the order of photos in a carousel post after it goes live, or add images or video at a later date.

How to recover deleted photos or videos on Instagram

Any deleted items will hang out in a folder deep within your settings for 30 days. If you change your mind, you can recover them before that time runs out. Or you can go in and delete them permanently so you’re not tempted to restore them in the future.

To find these discarded pics in their purgatorial location, go to your main Instagram profile page and follow the steps below.

• Step 1: Tap the three lines in the top right corner.
• Step 2: Go to Your activity.
• Step 3: Scroll down and tap Recently deleted.

• Step 4: Tap on the image you want to revive
• Step 5: Hit the three dots in the top right.
• Step 6: Choose one of the two available options: Restore and Delete. Deleting anything from the Recently Deleted folder will erase it forever, while restoring it will put it back where it was—kind of.

We say “kind of” because if you delete an image from a carousel and then restore it, the photo won’t go back to its original spot in the lineup. It’ll show up at the very end. This may not matter, but if you’ve carefully curated a group of pictures to tell a specific story or exude a certain aesthetic, this could ruin that. And if that’s a problem for you, just reupload the whole batch—maybe you’ll get more likes this time around.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on November 20, 2021.

The post How to delete one photo from an Instagram carousel (and get it back if you change your mind) appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Meta announced yesterday that it is pursuing legal action against a data scraping-for-hire firm called Voyager Labs for allegedly “improperly” amassing Facebook and Instagram users’ publicly available information, which it then sold to organizations including the Los Angeles Police Department, Meta says. As The Verge and other outlets note, the LAPD then utilized the data trove to compile profiles of potential future criminals. Critics have repeatedly voiced concerns over methodology and algorithms behind this strategy as being reductionist, unethical, and racist.

Public knowledge of Voyager Labs’ tactics can be traced back to November 2021 via a report from The Guardian, but Meta only recently instigated a wholesale ban of the company alongside more than 38,000 fake user profiles from its social media platforms, according to a legal complaint filed on Thursday. Using a proprietary software system, Voyager Labs allegedly launched multiple campaigns utilizing false accounts spread across a diverse computer network in various countries to hide its activity. From there, Meta claims it amassed “profile information, posts, friends lists, photos and comments” from over 600,000 users. Those datasets were then sold to third-party buyers for their own purposes, such as the LAPD.

[Related: Meta will pay $725 million for a single Cambridge Analytica privacy settlement.]

In its legal complaint, Meta alleges that Voyager Labs violated the company’s Terms of Service against fake accounts, alongside unauthorized and automated scraping. Voyager Labs also conducted similar strategies on other platforms including Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube, according to the lawsuit.

“We cannot comment on this aspect of the legal action,” a spokesperson for Meta told PopSci.

Situations such as what allegedly happened with Voyager Labs are often difficult to cope with for even the biggest tech giants like Meta. Legal cases can move notoriously slowly—all the while, the problematic companies can continue their potentially illegal tactics, often emboldened by the perceived inaction. Previously, Meta launched similar legal action against a different data-scraping company, Octopus, for amassing information on over 350,000 Instagram users. 

Meta is seeking a permanent injunction for the company, as well as restitution for “ill-gotten profits in an amount to be proven at trial.” The request does not specify if Meta’s users affected by Voyager Labs’ actions will be included in the compensation.

The post Meta sues data-scraping firm for selling user data to LAPD appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

In an attempt to make its app less awful to use, Instagram announced this week that it will redesign the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen next month. From February, instead of Reels being at the center of the navigation bar, the shortcut to create content (the + button) will be back where it belongs. Reels will shift to the right and the Shop tab will be removed entirely. 

Instagram originally changed the navigation bar in 2020 in a not-so-subtle attempt to push users to try all the new features—like Reels and Shopping—that they didn’t ask for. It meant the Compose button and Activity tab moved to the top right of the app (where I still struggle to find them). Presumably, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, was hoping to pump its Reels and Shopping engagement numbers, which it may feel offer better revenue-generating opportunities than pictures posted to a feed or story. 

While these changes happened without major backlash, other shifts Instagram made over the past year, like trying full screen videos, have been less well received. Meta’s attempt to make the app increasingly more like TikTok with lots of suggested videos from people you don’t follow broke one of the cardinal rules of social media: don’t piss off the Kardashians. A campaign to “make Instagram Instagram again” drew a response from Instagram head Adam Mosseri who admitted things were “not good yet” and that if users were seeing a lot of suggested posts that they weren’t interested in, they were “doing a bad job.” The internet largely agreed with him and the hubbub died down after Instagram walked back a few of the changes, like temporarily limiting the number of suggested posts users would see, though the underlying issues of Instagram losing its way weren’t solved. By chasing trends, and younger users, the Instagram app today has lost much of its original appeal in the midst of its many reinventions.

[Related: It’s not just you—everyone hates Instagram now. Here’s why.]

Now, in the face of increased competition from TikTok, especially among teen users, Instagram is trying the wild idea of making its app nicer to use. Sure, moving a few buttons isn’t going to fix everything—but it at least gives the impression that posting content—rather than watching an endless stream of suggested videos—is something you’re meant to do on the platform. 

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that businesses who use the Shopping feature have no reason to be concerned. “You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across Feed, Stories, Reels, ads, and more,” they said. To us, that sounds like anyone relying on the Shopping feature does have a reason to be concerned.

These improvements to the navigation bar aren’t the only changes coming to Instagram over the next month or two. Meta is also going to change how users under-18 can be targeted by ads on both Facebook and Instagram. It is ending the ability for advertisers to target them based on their in-app activity, like who they follow and their gender. Advertisers will only be able to target teens based on their age and location. Teen users will also get the option to “see less” of any topic to control what kind of ads are served to them. These changes come after Meta was fined €405 million (~$435 million) by Irish Data Protection Commission last year for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for how it handled teen users’ data. (Meta has been fined more than $1 billion over the past year by EU regulators for breaching similar privacy laws.) 

Whether these changes are all a sign that Instagram is course correcting after trying too hard to be TikTok is still unclear, but they are welcome nonetheless. Though if you truly want a better Instagram experience right now, we’ve got one tip here for you at PopSci: skip the mobile app and use the web app instead.

The post Instagram’s new update promises to make the platform suck a little less appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Seattle’s school district has announced an unprecedented lawsuit against Meta, Google, TikTok, ByteDance, and Snap, arguing that their social media platforms both facilitated and profited off of American adolescents’ and teens’ mental health crises for years. While families across the country have recently filed multiple, similar cases, the new complaint made public on January 6 is the first of its kind in claiming that students’ well-documented addictions to platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook “directly affects Seattle public schools’ ability to fulfill its educational mission.”

“Defendants’ growth is a product of choices they made to design and operate their platforms in ways that exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of their users into spending more and more time on their platforms,” argues the legal filing made by Keller Rohrback, LLP, adding that, “These techniques are both particularly effective and harmful to the youth audience defendants have intentionally cultivated, creating a mental health crisis among America’s youth.”

[Related: Meta will pay $725 million for a single Cambridge Analytica privacy settlement.]

Excessive social media usage’s dire effects on users including changes in brain chemistry, anxiety, and depression—particularly children and teenagers—is widely documented at this point. In his State of the Union address last year, President Biden urged lawmakers to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.”

Much of the issues stem from the fact that the brain’s prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed in adolescents and teens, meaning they have difficulty exercising self-control on social media. A Pew Research study in August 2022, for example, highlighted how one-in-five teenages say they use YouTube “almost constantly,” and admitted they would have extreme difficulty giving up social media. Seattle schools’ complaint also cites copious studies showing that higher screen time directly correlates to diagnoses of anxiety and depression when compared to lower screen time users.

These issues particularly came to light during former Facebook employee, Francis Haugen’s October 2021 high-profile congressional whistleblower testimony. At the time, Haugen offered internal documents and communications showing how company executives were not only well aware of their platforms’ negative psychological effects, but they relied on them to generate as much data collection as possible for ad revenue streams. Shortly after Haugen’s testimony, internal documents from Instagram—also owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta—called US teens a revenue “pipeline.”

[Related: Study confirms the youth have abandoned Facebook.]

These companies sought even younger crowds through the development of “kid versions” of their platforms that, although legally prohibited from collecting and using their information, were reportedly “designed to fuel [kids’] interest in the grown-up version.”

With nearly 50,000 students spread across 106 schools, the Seattle public school district’s size and geographic location send a stark message to Big Tech. Both Amazon and Microsoft have long counted Seattle as their base of operations, while Meta expanded its own offices into the area in 2020. As Bloomberg noted over the weekend, however, the Big Tech companies could possess a broad defense in Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which grants internet platforms broad immunity from claims of users’ harmful content.

According to the legal filing, the plaintiffs seek an enjoinment on the companies’ ongoing strategies, relief funds dedicated to prevention education and treatment of issues related to social media overuse, alongside unspecified statutory and compensatory fines.

The post Seattle schools sue social media companies over students’ worsening mental health appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This week, Meta was fined €390 million ($410 million) by the European Union for illegally forcing users to accept personalized ads or stop using its services. It now has three months to outline how it will change its practices to comply with EU law. 

The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into force in 2018 and since then, they’ve been a major headache for Meta. Amongst other things, it requires organizations to be transparent about why they are collecting data, have a lawful reason to do so, and get clear, affirmative consent users. This is why so many sites inflict large GDPR popups on visitors, and it’s what has caused Meta its latest issues. 

This fine stems from two complaints, one against Facebook and one against Instagram, both filed on May 25, 2018, —the date that GDPR came into operation. In essence, Meta attempted to comply with GDPR by changing the Terms of Service so that personalized ads and other data-driven services were a core part of what the company offered. By clicking “I Accept” on the Terms of Service popup, users weren’t opting into personalized ads, they were agreeing to a contract with Meta that happened to include them. Both complaints argued that by doing this, Meta was forcing users to opt-in to data collection and thus was falling afoul of the requirements of the GDPR. 

The specifics of Meta’s legal wangling get into the weeds, but the gist of it is that the Irish Data Protection Commission (which is Meta’s main regulator in Europe as it has its headquarters there) found that the company was in breach of its obligations to be transparent with users about what data it was collecting and why. As a result, it was fined €210 million ($~ 221 million) for Facebook and €180 million ($~ 189 million) for Instagram and it has been given three months to outline how it will comply with the ruling and bring its Terms of Service in line with GDPR.

These latest penalties bring the total that Meta has been fined by the EU in the past 12 months to more than $1 billion. According to the Irish Times, the company has set aside $2 billion to deal with the penalties it expects to receive this year. 

While the fines amount to a small chunk of its overall profits, Meta’s revenue fell last quarter for the first time and it laid off more than 11,000 employees worldwide. It also has to contend with declining advertising revenue and major investments in the Metaverse that, so far, does not seem to be paying off. 

Meta isn’t the only company having issues with the EU. Over the past few years, the 27-country bloc has been open in its attempt to control how the US tech giants operate within its borders. Amazon, Twitter, and Google have all been hit with fines for breaching the terms of GDPR. A new law that requires all portable electronic devices to use USB-C is forcing Apple to ditch its lightning connector. Over the next two years, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is going to add a whole host of new obligations to “online gatekeepers”—including forcing Apple to open up its App Store. While the wheels of bureaucracy turn very very slowly, the US tech giants might finally be facing a reckoning in Europe—though expect the legal process to drag out for the next decade.

The post EU fines Meta for forcing users to accept personalized ads appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The latest dramatic twist to Twitter’s ongoing chaos under the tumultuous tenure of Elon Musk—a massive data breach of 235 million users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names, and other credentials. The information is now available to anyone on the dark web with a couple extra bucks to spend.

The news, first brought to public attention by The Washington Post on Wednesday evening and subsequently covered by multiple outlets, traces the major security exploitation to 2021—which, admittedly, was well before Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform in October 2022. The files, posted to an online hacking forum via an anonymous account “StayMad” under the title “Breached,” were reportedly amassed via a former API vulnerability that allowed them to search user info attached to over 200 million accounts. The bug resulted in a “bizarre ‘lookup’ function” that allowed anyone to insert an email or phone number to find out if the credentials were connected to active accounts, per Gizmodo’s rundown on Thursday. “StayMad” is allegedly offering the data trove for the equivalent of $2 in cryptocurrency.

[Related: Former Twitter employees warn of platform’s imminent collapse.]

The API weakness was first discovered in January 2022, thanks to Twitter’s previous implementation of a bug bounty program to encourage crowdsourced security oversight. Twitter publicly announced the issue 8 months later, but assured users the loophole had since been addressed and that there was “no evidence to suggest someone had taken advantage of the vulnerability.”

While it is currently unclear how expansive the fallout will be for Twitter’s latest breach, experts warned WaPo that the exposure could easily be exploited by bad actors like repressive governments seeking to silence, intimidate, or even physically harm dissidents and critical journalists. What’s more, there doesn’t seem to be much victims can do about the situation, unless their accounts were created using dummy emails or burner phone numbers. Concerned users can hypothetically reset their attached email addresses, although doing so for phone numbers is usually far more difficult and potentially expensive.

Twitter, for its part, hasn’t said anything regarding the news since its reveal earlier this week. Much of the social media platform’s security experts and teams have been axed since Musk’s takeover, as well as the company’s entire PR department.

The post Hackers could be selling your Twitter data for the lowball price of $2 appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

In theory, social media promises to connect you with the world. In practice, it compromises your personal privacy, puts you at risk of online abuse, and makes you angrier. 

If you’re irritated by Twitter or depressed by Facebook, you can avoid social media for limited periods of time. But when you’re ready to say goodbye for good, the next step will be to delete those apps from your phone and shut down your accounts entirely. Here’s how to do it, one network at a time.

Next, make sure you’re deleting your account for the right reasons. If you’re ready to bid farewell to the whirlwind of social media for the sake of time or mental health, that’s fine. But if you’re only closing your accounts so you can create a new one and get a fresh start, we recommend hitting pause. Your first step should be to check the do-over options some platforms offer. On Instagram, for instance, you can change your username without shutting down your existing account. Once you’ve exhausted your options, you can move on to deactivating or deleting your account.

To deactivate your account from a web browser, visit the site and click your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen. Choose Settings & privacy, then Settings, Privacy, and go to Your Facebook Information. From there, click Deactivation and deletion, select Deactivate account, and hit Continue to account deactivation. On the next screen, Facebook will prompt you for your password and ask you to give a reason for leaving, such as privacy concerns or wasted time. Make your choice and click Continue to finish up.

You can also deactivate your account through a mobile app. On iOS, open the app and hit the menu button (three lines) in the lower right corner. Then tap Settings & privacy, Settings, Personal and Account Information, Account Ownership and Control, and Deactivation and Deletion. Finish by tapping Deactivate Account and then Continue to account deactivation. On Android, you can follow the same process, but the menu button looks like three horizontal lines and you can reach Account Ownership and Control from the first submenu.

Deactivation is a good way to test the waters and see if you can live without Facebook. Give it a few months and see how you feel. When you’re ready to say goodbye to your account forever, delete it. To do so, follow the same steps for deactivation, but choose Delete account when given the option. As far as your friends are concerned, you will disappear immediately. However, Facebook will only erase of your data after 30 days, so you may change your mind within that timeframe. But once it’s done, there’s no going back.

To trash Twitter, you’ll need to visit this page in a web browser and click Deactivate your account. Read the information Twitter provides, then click Deactivate. You’ll receive a prompt to enter your password and confirm that yes, you really do want to deactivate your account.

Once you do so, the process of erasing your Twitter presence starts. As far as other users can see, your profile and tweets will vanish immediately. However, Twitter hangs on to your data for a grace period of 30 days (verified users get the option of a full 12 months) to make sure you don’t change your mind. During this time, you can still log back into the site, an act that will restore your profile and all of your tweets from the digital grave.

After that 30- or 365-day period ends, Twitter will officially delete your data and you will lose it forever. So if you repent and decide to return to Twitter, you’ll need to sign up for a brand-new account.

To deactivate online, go to the Instagram website. Log in, click your profile icon in the top right, choose Settings, and Edit Profile. Scroll all the way down and select Temporarily deactivate my account—you’ll notice this is not so much a button but a link to the right of the Submit button, so it’s easy to miss. Once you do that, you’ll have to decide on a reason why you no longer feel the Instagram love—options range from Just need a break to Too many ads. Finally, enter your account password and click Temporarily Deactivate Account.

Much like Facebook’s deactivation option, this choice will put your account on hold. As far as other users know, your Instagram page will be gone, but the social network will hang on to your photos, comments, and other data. Log into the site again, and it will instantly restore your account.

For a more permanent fix, you’ll need to go to the dedicated Delete Your Account page online. Log in, give a reason for your desertion, and enter your password. Finally, click Delete [username]. This will wipe all traces of your Instagram life from the network’s servers, including the likes and instant messages. But before this happens, you’ll have 30 days to change your mind. If you do, just log in again and everything will be right where you left it. But wait too long, and you’ll have to start from scratch. 

If you have an Android phone, you’ll have to go through all of these steps on the web, but if you have an iPhone, you can also find these options on the app. Tap your profile icon, then the menu button (three lines) Settings, Account, and Delete account. There, the app will ask if you want to disable your account instead of deleting it, but both options are available.

To proceed, you must first decide what you want to do. You can tap Deactivate account, which, as in other platforms, hits the pause button on your page. Your content will disappear and users won’t be able to find you through the search feature. Tap Delete account permanently instead, and TikTok will delete all of your account information after a 30-day period where you can change your mind and come back. If you truly want to call it quits, the app will ask why you are leaving, and—depending on the reason—offer a solution to try to retain you. For example, if you think you’re spending too much time on the platform, a message will appear offering you to set up a limit to your watch time.  

If you’re sure and just want to get out of there, tap Skip at the top right corner of your screen and bow out. You’ll still get 30 days before your account is completely gone, so if you change your mind before then, just log into the platform with your credentials and tap Cancel deactivation at the bottom of the screen. 

From this point on, your friends won’t be able to contact you on Snapchat, but as with Twitter, you’ll get a 30-day grace period before permanent deletion actually occurs. If you log back into the network before that time is up, your account will reappear and you can carry on as before with the same username and contact list.

After the 30 days pass, Snapchat will permanently erase your account. To come back from that, you’ll have to start adding friends and collecting Snaps all over again.

Keep in mind that if you requested your data from Snapchat and haven’t received it yet, you should wait until you hear back from them before terminating your account. Once you finish the process, all your ties with the platform will be cut, so when your data is ready, they won’t be able to notify you or send you a download link. 

If you decide to go through with deletion, the platform will immediately log you out of your account and other users will be unable to find your content and profile. BeReal gives you a 15-day period for you to change your mind. If you do, you can regain access to your account (and everything you’ve posted on it) just by signing in again with your credentials. But if you let that grace period go by, the platform will obliterate your data and your content will be lost forever. 

As on other platforms, BeReal will ask you why you’re leaving. You can make your choice or just tap Other, and finalize your decision by tapping Yes, I’m sure. The next screen will show you the date your account will be deleted if you don’t log back in, and then the app will automatically kick you out. 

The post Reset your digital life by deleting all your social media accounts appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Facebook’s owner, Meta, agreed Friday to pay a $725 million class action lawsuit settlement over the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal—the largest data privacy sum in history, according to lawyers speaking with the BBC. In exchange, Facebook will not be required to admit any wrongdoing regarding its role in facilitating the mishandling of over 87 million users’ personal data via third-party companies.

One of those businesses, the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica, became a focal point of the Big Tech controversy for its leverage of a relatively obscure app’s trove of personal user information. Despite only 300,000 people installing an app called This Is Your Digital Life, its access to users’ friend networks allowed it to build a vast set of voter “psychoanalytic profiles,” which it then sold to both Ted Cruz’s and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaigns.

[Related: Meta lays off more than 11,000 employees.]

The ensuing fallout prompted numerous congressional hearings involving Meta (then just Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alongside an eventual $5 billion fine paid to the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 to settle its own privacy investigations. As Engadget details, additional fines have also included a $100 million Securities and Exchange Commission settlement, alongside a roughly ​​$644,000 fine paid in the UK—a number that would have been much steeper if the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) law had already gone into effect.

Meta’s legal woes surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal are far from over, however, as it faces an ongoing lawsuit by the Washington DC attorney general, as well as other lawsuits on various issues from multiple state attorneys general.

Despite all this, the newest $725 million fine is paltry to a massive tech company like Meta, with one expert telling Reuters that it only amounts to “less than a tenth” of last year’s expenses related to its burgeoning “metaverse” project. Still, it’s another thorn in Zuckerberg’s side, who has seen Meta’s stock tank over 60 percent during the course of 2022, a dramatic downturn that resulted in a massive layoff announcement of over 11,000 global employees last month.

The post Meta will pay $725 million for a single Cambridge Analytica privacy settlement appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

TikTok is launching a new feature that will let users see why a particular video has appeared in their For You feed. According to a blog post this week, it’s all part of the company’s goal to “bring meaningful transparency” to its platform. 

TikTok’s For You feed offers up a never ending stream of suggested videos. Its algorithm bases its recommendations on lots of different factors, including the people users follow, the videos they like, interact with or watch, and the kind of content they create. But largely, TikTok has been cagey regarding the specifics of what goes into their secret formula. However, leaked reports to the New York Times suggest that the app might also be taking into account what users are sending to each other on private messages. Once the algorithm learns what a given user likes—and doesn’t like—it gets remarkably good at keeping users engaged with the app. Its success is why Meta is trying—and largely failing—to cram as many TikTok-like features into Instagram. Whatever the algorithm is doing under the hood, its recommendations seem to resonate with users in a way that suggested posts on other social networks just don’t.

Experts have previously told PopSci that part of this is because TikTok is pulling its inventory of videos from everyone on the platform, instead of just from a user’s friends and following. And Bytedance engineers have published a pretty technical preprint paper on the app’s recommendation system. 

[Related: How to find your recently watched TikTok videos]

But being good at mysteriously accessing user interests can often come at a fault. Investigations by publications like Wall Street Journal showcases how the app can steer users down a rabbit hole of potentially toxic content, although TikTok has since refuted this, saying that WSJ’s experiment “isn’t representative of real user behavior because humans have a diverse set of interests.”

Now though, TikTok is going to give users some information about why exactly a video has appeared in their feed. To see it, you tap the Share icon and then the Question Mark icon called “Why This Video?”

While it won’t reveal any major details about how TikTok’s algorithm works (sorry, Meta), it does give users a hint as to why a particular video has been shown to them. In the blog post, TikTok says that it will offer explanations like the post is similar to the content a user has interacted with or searched for, it was posted by an account that they follow, or simply that it is popular or was just posted in their geographic region (a ‘Nearby’ feed was rumored to be in the works earlier this year).

[Related: 7 tricks to make the most of TikTok]

TikTok provides tools for users to stop certain content being recommended. You can tap the Share icon and then “Not Interested” on any video. If you tap “Details” after, you can also permanently filter out specific #hashtags. TikTok also maintains a list of content, like dangerous stunts, overtly sexualized content, and content promoting alcohol or tobacco misuse, that will never be shown in the For You feed. 

This new feature is coming out just as the app is coming under fire from US regulators for how it handles the privacy and security of its users. Last year, its chief operating officer was grilled at a Senate hearing about what kind of data it collects, and where the data goes. This month, several states have already moved to ban the app from being downloaded or opened on government devices. TikTok is also a part of an ongoing national security review by the Biden administration.  

Regulatory drama aside, TikTok says the “Why This Video?” feature will be rolling out to everyone over the next few weeks. We didn’t have access to it yet at PopSci, so we have not been able to test just how detailed the explanations currently were. Though the company claims that it will “continue to expand this feature to bring more granularity and transparency to content recommendations.”

The post TikTok to tell users the ‘why’ behind ‘For You’ appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Online content moderation is hard (as Elon Musk is currently finding out). But Meta—the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—is hoping to make it easier for other platforms. Last week it announced that it would open up the source code for its Hasher-Matcher-Actioner (HMA) tool and make it freely available. This news comes as Meta is set to assume the chair of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)’s Operating Board. 

Founded in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube, GIFCT has since evolved into a nonprofit organization that works with member companies, governments, and civil society organizations to tackle terrorist and violent extremist content on the internet. One aspect of this is maintaining a shared hash database of extremist content so that if one company, say Facebook, flags something as terrorist-related, other companies, like YouTube, would be able to automatically take it down.

In order for these databases to work efficiently (and so that no company has to store petabytes of horrifically violent content), they don’t store a complete copy of the offending content. Instead, they store a unique digital fingerprint, or hash. 

Here’s how hashes are made: In essence, a copy of the extremist video, terrorist photo, PDF manifesto, or anything else is fed through an algorithm that converts it to a unique string of digits and letters. You can’t recreate the content using the hash, but putting the same video through the algorithm will always yield the same result. As long as all the platforms are using the same algorithm to create the hashes, they can use a shared database to track terrorist content.

[Related: Antivaxxers use emojis to evade Facebook guidelines]

Meta’s HMA tool allows platforms to automate the process of hashing any image or video, matching it against a database, and taking action against it—like stopping the video from being posted, or blocking the account trying to do so. It isn’t limited to terrorist content, and can work with a shared database like the one maintained by GIFCT, or a proprietary one like YouTube’s Content ID. 

It’s worth pointing out that all this happens in the background, all the time. Once HMA or any other similar automated tool is up and running, all the photos and videos users post are hashed and checked against the relevant databases as they are being uploaded. If something is later flagged by moderators as violent, offensive, or otherwise warranting removal, it can go back and automatically remove the other instances that are live on the platform. It’s a continuous process that strives to keep objectionable content from being seen or spread.

While most big platforms already operate with some kind of automated content moderation, Meta hopes that its HMA tool will help smaller companies that lack the resources of the major platforms. “Many companies do not have the in-house technology capabilities to find and moderate violating content in high volumes,” explains Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and now Meta’s President of Global Affairs, in the press release. And the greater the number of companies participating in the shared hash database, the better every company becomes at removing horrific content—especially as it is rarely just shared in a single place. “People will often move from one platform to another to share this content.”

Meta claims to have spend around $5 billion on safety and security last year and is committed to tackling terrorist content as “part of a wider approach to protecting users from harmful content on our services.” Clegg claims that “hate speech is now viewed two times for every 10,000 views of content on Facebook, down from 10-11 times per 10,000 views less than three years ago.”Without access to Facebook’s internal data we can’t verify that claim, and somereports seem to indicate that the company’s own system is far from perfect. However, initiatives like HMA and the Oversight Board at least give the impression that Meta is serious about solving the problem of content moderation in a fair and consistent manner—unlike Twitter.

The post Meta is open sourcing its automated content moderation tool appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Update 12/19/22: Musk adhered to the results of their public Twitter poll, and reinstated a number of previously suspended journalists’ accounts over the weekend.

Elon Musk’s chaotic tenure as Twitter overseer continued this week—sudden policy about-faces, journalists’ accounts suspensions, and new signs of Twitter’s dire financial situation are combining into a storm of issues that change by the hour. Here is a brief rundown of the recent events. 

Elon Musk stance on ‘free speech’ on Twitter remains inconsistent

In past 48 hours, Twitter suspended @ElonJet, an account created by a Florida college student tracking the world’s second-richest man’s private plane takeoffs and landings in real time based on what is ostensibly publicly available information. Open source intelligence (OSINT) experts have already condemned the move, calling it a dangerous overstep that limits accountability and access to important information.

The ban came despite a previous promise of amnesty to the account on the grounds of “free speech absolutism.” Musk claimed that due to this account, a stranger a targeted a car he believed to be transporting Twitter’s CEO but contained one of Musk’s ten children, X Æ A-Xii. Musk uploaded a video to Twitter, allegedly taken at the scene of an altercation, showing a portion of a man’s face and full vehicle license plate number alongside the question, “Anyone recognize this person or car?” OSINT researchers have contested the details of Musk’s claim.

[Related: Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, fires CEO.]

Within hours, Musk additionally suspended a number of prominent journalists from the platform, including longtime journalist and sports commentator, Keith Olberman, as well as The New York Times’ Ryan Mac. Musk then arrived unannounced to a Twitter Spaces audio event hosted by BuzzFeed News tech reporter Katie Notopoulos to briefly defend his actions in front of an estimated 30,000 listeners. “You’re just a Twitter citizen. So no special treatment,” Musk said during the event. “You dox, you get suspended, end of story.” Notopoylos pushed back that the journalists were simply reporting on @ElonJet suspension. As of Friday morning, Twitter Spaces appears to have been disabled entirely, although Musk claims it is due to software bug updates.

Trust and Safety Council disbanded, then reformed

Musk recently disbanded Twitter’s Trust and Safety Board, which focused on child sexual exploitation, suicide prevention, human rights, among others. Musk then rebooted the team and offered to partner with a controversial “anti-sex trafficking” organization which has been subject of several exposes. The shakeup stems from Musk’s dubious claims that the company wasn’t taking the issue of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) seriously enough prior to his acquisition, going so far as to apparently endorse a tweet accusing Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth as being pro-child sexualization. Roth fled his residence due to threats.

QAnon has taken a renewed interest in Elon Musk

Musk’s recent transphobic tweets and his Monday evening “Follow the [rabbit emoji]” alert, which is likely a reference to The Matrix and/or his ongoing efforts to drum up controversy regarding Twitter’s past content guidelines, dubbed “the Twitter Files.” This appears to have been taken as a sign by believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, who use pop cultural phrases such “follow the white rabbit” in regards to piecing together their perceived evidence of a global cabal of Satanic, blood-drinking pedophiles run by prominent Democrats.

Twitter shows financial woes

Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in October, a deal partially shored up via multiple large bank loans, upon which repayments are due soon. Advertisers who previously contributed to the bulk of Twitter’s revenue have abandoned the platform in droves, and attempts to monetize the site via the convoluted Twitter Blue premium subscription aren’t going well, either. This week, there were also reports that Musk has stopped paying rent on Twitter headquarters, and hoped to renege on severance packages offered to hundreds of previous employees who were laid off shortly after Musk assumed company control. Multiple outlets reported earlier this week on auctions offering the company headquarters’ furniture, kitchenware, and decorations. (On Wednesday, news also broke that Musk had recently sold off another $3.6 billion of his stock in Tesla, despite assurances to investors in April of “no further [Tesla] sales planned.”)

The post Twitter suspensions, Elon Musk’s jet, and other messes you may have missed this week appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Talks around banning TikTok have been going on since the Trump administration. Over the past five years, the federal government has taken a series of actions to alleviate concerns over spying, including a still-in-progress deal to transfer US users’ data on the social video-sharing app to an American company, and a recent Senate hearing with the company’s chief operating officer. 

However, not everyone was satisfied with the requirements in the potential data-transfer agreement, and skeptics aren’t convinced by TikTok’s process for handling users’ personal information. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Intelligence Committee’s top Republican, stated to The New York Times earlier this year that unless the tie between TikTok and ByteDance (the Chinese company that currently owns the app) is completely severed, “significant national security issues regarding operations, data, and algorithms [will still be] unresolved.”

This week, Rubio pushed even further by introducing a bill that proposes to put a nation-wide ban on TikTok and any other apps or platforms owned by ByteDance. (The name is a mouthful: Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act.) If it passes, it would block and prohibit “all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern.” Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) introduced companion legislation in the House.  

TikTok, the envy of older, beleaguered apps like Facebook and YouTube, has become a de facto search engine and source of news for younger users. But it has drawn both positive and negative attention since it first launched stateside in 2016. 

Critics of the recent bill note that this kind of broad ban will mostly impact more than one billion everyday users, especially those in the younger generations that have been using TikTok as a stage for political activism, social commentary, and other forms of constitutionally protected expression. Moreover, Techdirt notes that hyper-focusing on just one app ignores the bigger problem that pervades many modern technology companies (including American ones) that sell and broker data. 

[Related: How data brokers threaten your privacy]

“TikTok’s security, privacy, and its relationship with the Chinese government is indeed concerning, but a total ban is not the answer,” Electronic Frontier Foundation Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel Kurt Opsahl tells PopSci. “A total ban is not narrowly tailored to the least restrictive means to address the security and privacy concerns, and instead lays a censorial blow against the speech of millions of ordinary Americans.” He declined to comment on whether the bill could actually pass.

Hilary McQuaide, a spokesperson for TikTok, told multiple outlets that she felt this bill was rash considering that there is an ongoing national security review by the Biden administration. ​​“We will continue to brief members of Congress on the plans that have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies—plans that we are well underway in implementing—to further secure our platform in the US,” McQuaide said to CNN.

Rubio is not the only congressperson making efforts to corral the influence of TikTok. In an attempt to deal with the larger national security concerns that have been brought up during the Intelligence Committee hearing with TikTok, on Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed a bill introduced by Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that would ban the download and use of the app on government-issued devices. The legislation has to go through the House and President Joe Biden’s approval before it can become law. 

The post Why bills to totally ban TikTok in the US might do more harm than good appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Twitter officially relaunched its shelved Twitter Blue subscription service Monday. The subscription promises to offer three color-coded checks, additional user experience features, as well as an iOS surcharge. First launched in June 2021, Twitter Blue was SEO Elon Musk’s attempt at providing a “paid verification” system for users to purchase subscriptions to blue checks, like those of legacy verified, “notable” accounts long used by public figures, celebrities, and news sources (aside from a mouse-over alert that subscribers paid for Twitter.) Twitter Blue was briefly suspended last month due to an uncontrollable deluge of account impersonations, scams, and parodies.

[Related: Elon Musk completes purchase of Twitter, fires CEO.]

According to the company’s Director of Product Management, Esther Crawford, aside from the blue check marks, Twitter users will soon see gold checkmarks designating businesses and gray checkmarks for “government and multilateral accounts.” Crawford and Musk previously mentioned a $3 Apple device fee atop Blue’s existing $8 per month rate, but the fluctuation isn’t currently featured on Blue’s official webpage. The roughly 30 percent price hike stems from Musk’s criticism of the company’s longstanding, ubiquitous App Store profit cut across all in-app purchases, unofficially dubbed its “Apple Tax.” Upgrading to Blue via a web browser will waive the fee.

Twitter Blue users will purportedly gain a number of other features not available to free accounts, such as an Edit button, dedicated reader mode, and 1080p video uploads, alongside the possibility of future perks like search result amplifications, fewer ads, and the ability to post longform videos. Verified users should be able to change their account handles, profile photos, and names, but doing so will reportedly result in a temporary checkmark loss while Twitter manually reviews the alterations. It is unclear who will tackle this undertaking, given Musk’s recent dramatic reduction in the company’s workforce and absence of a communications department.

[Related: Elon Musk hopes humans will be testing Neuralink brain implants in the next six months.]

Last week, Musk also hinted at an impending purge of over 1.5 billion Twitter accounts deemed inactive in order to free up dormant name handles while stressing that the move would only pertain to “obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years [sic].”

Musk repeatedly stated Twitter Blue is a key component in his strategy to generate sustainable profits. Historically, advertising has accounted for an estimated 90 percent of the social media platform’s entire revenue, although since his purchase of the company in October, many major advertisers have indefinitely suspended or abandoned their marketing plans on the website, while instances of hate speech, spam, and misinformation increased dramatically. Many of Musk’s own recent tweets have featured transphobic comments, anti-union jokes, and opposition to pandemic quarantine efforts.

The post Twitter Blue is back and more confusing than ever appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Google announced this week that it is bringing continuous scrolling to desktop browsers. Now when you scroll down to the bottom of the search results page, Google will automatically load another page worth of results without you having to click on an additional button. This feature has been available on mobile devices since last year, but it will now roll out to all US users searching in English—and from there, it will presumably expand to other countries and languages. 

Google is careful to call this feature “continuous scrolling” rather than “infinite scrolling.” A similar function exists across most social media sites or apps where as you scroll, new content keeps popping up into your feed just as you get to the bottom of the page. Though, infinite scroll has had its critics, some of which blame the feature for wreaking havoc on our attention spans. 

Google, though, will only load six pages of results before you need to click a button that says “See More Results.” (On mobile devices, you can scroll through up to four pages before you have to tap anything.) Also, Google doesn’t load the six pages of results all at once—how fast it presents the next pages is related to the speed that the user scrolls at.

Until now, Google has displayed search results across multiple pages with ten results per page interspersed with ads, suggested results, and other call-out boxes. There’s an entire industry of search engine optimization (SEO) consultants, companies, blogs, and tools that are able to quantify the value of different organic (which means not a paid ad or other feature) search positions, and provide advice on how to rank your website higher. 

According to one recent analysis of 4 million Google search results by SEO training website Backlinko, an average of 27.6 percent of searchers clicked on the top result. By comparison, less than five percent of searchers clicked on the results in positions six through ten on the first page. The rates are even worse for results that don’t make the first page: 0.63 percent of Google searchers clicked on any link on the second page. (Other similar analysis have come to pretty much the same conclusions.)

Presumably, Google is hoping its new continuous scrolling will encourage searchers to click on or at least consider more results—which increase the likelihood that they will find what they are looking for. 

To that end, it’s also rolled out a few other features in recent months aimed at improving the quality of the results that people see, though these are mostly available on the mobile app in the US (which seems to be where most new features get released first). Google added a “Discussions and forums” call out box nested within the first page of search, similar to the existing “News” and “Images” ones, for queries that could “benefit from the diverse personal experiences found in online discussions.” It’s also taken steps to tweak its algorithm and make visual search more natural and intuitive by allowing you to add additional queries using “multisearch.” This will supposedly allow the engine to take on more complex questions. Similarly, it has tried to encourage searchers to explore deeper by offering up topic suggestions based on their searches and showing more visuals when they shop for products on a desktop. Notably, it hasn’t committed to showing less ads.

Given the growing narrative that Google’s search results and overall user experience are getting worse (even if it might really be an internet-wide issue), getting the right results to people when they look for them is clearly important to the company—especially as more people turn to social media like Reddit and TikTok for information, but those platforms come with their own issues around misinformation and taking statements out of context. Google is also competing against other browsers like Bing and the privacy-centric DuckDuckGo (see how results across the sites vary here). Whether Google’s wide-ranging attempts to improve its product are enough to keep searchers happy remains to be seen. 

The post Google Search’s new changes are designed to make you see even more results appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Please, eager sightseers, do not swat golf balls or anything else into the majesty that is the Grand Canyon in the hopes of potentially going viral. And if you do—expect a fine.

Per a post on the Grand Canyon National Park Service’s Instagram alongside an article yesterday from The New York Times, Katie Sigmond—a popular TikTok and Instagram influencer who frequently uploads modeling, workout, and golf-related content—posted a clip on October 26 to Snapchat of her smashing a golf ball off a ledge of the Grand Canyon. As The New York Times reports, the TikTok star was initially charged with littering, tossing items into the canyon, and creating hazardous conditions with disorderly conduct—all of which carry a combined maximum fine of $5,000 and up to six months in prison.

However, an out-of-court agreement first confirmed by The Arizona Republic revealed that the influencer entered into an agreement to pay just $285.

The video, which has since been removed from the social media platform, showed a portion of Sigmond’s golf club flying from her hands and into the chasm. The TikTok personality’s identity was quickly revealed after someone uploaded a screenshot of the video to r/NationalParks last month.

“Do we really need to say, ‘don’t hit golf balls into the Grand Canyon?'” read the National Park Service’s subsequent Instagram post alongside the Snapchat screenshot showing the culprit’s golf club in midair. “Throwing objects over the rim of the canyon is not only illegal but can also endanger hikers and wildlife who may be below.”

[Related: Roam the Grand Canyon virtually with Google Maps.]

Unfortunately, the social media stunt is only the most recent in the persistent problem of visitors trashing national parks such as the Grand Canyon. Last year, the park posted a far more unsanitary issue plaguing NPS staff on Facebook—people apparently have a habit of relieving themselves in less-than-appropriate spots. “Pro tip for proper trail etiquette: Carry ALL trash out of the canyon—plan to use the restrooms provided, bag or bury waste, and bring a bag to carry out toilet paper,” the NPS wrote on Facebook at the time. “It may make you uncomfortable but no one else should need to handle your waste.”

Parks across the country have dealt with a lot of similar issues over the past few years as the tradeoff to the major uptick in visitors following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans turned to outdoor activities such as visits to nearby state and national parks as lockdowns and social distancing policies became the norm for months, and unfortunately, some of those visitors haven’t followed proper outdoor etiquette. So, please, leave your fireworks and golf clubs back at the house the next time you take a trip to some of our country’s greatest natural wonders.

The post Reddit ratted out an influencer for golfing into the Grand Canyon appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Since January 2020, Twitter’s internal statistics cite over 11,000 accounts suspensions and nearly 100,000 post removals for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Examples included erroneously promoting ivermectin as a viable alternative COVID-19 treatment and spreading conspiracy theories such as claims that vaccines contained 5G microchips. Last week, Twitter quietly ended its pandemic misinformation moderation policy.

Although the policy update is dated November 23, Twitter has yet to make an explicit public announcement regarding the reversal. News of the change has trickled down to the public via users, reporters, and media outlets.

[Related: Twitter overwhelmed by NSFW spam during protests in China.]

“… [A]s the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines expands around the world at varying degrees of pace and scale, people continue to turn to Twitter to discuss what’s happening and find the latest authoritative public health information. As such, we continue to prioritize removing or annotating potentially harmful and misleading information to ensure that users can readily find credible information during this critical phase,” the platform’s COVID-19 policy page still reads. At the top of the page, a statement now says the platform “is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”

Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk has previously expressed strong opposition to pandemic lockdown procedures, vaccine mandates, and masking—procedures which are repeatedly proven to slow the deadly virus that has already claimed an estimated 6.6 million lives, per World Health Organization data.

The company’s swift change comes as Musk continues his campaign of reinventing the social media platform to reflect his interpretation of a totally “free speech” environment. Musk recently reinstated the personal accounts of Ye (formerly Kanye West), Jordan Peterson, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene following past suspensions for antisemitic, transphobic, and misleading pandemic-related statements, respectively.

[Related: Elon Musk Twitter layoffs have begun.]

Upon taking control of the social media company following his $44 billion acquisition, Musk almost immediately conducted massive layoffs. This led to the dissolution of entire teams dedicated to areas such as human rights, accessibility, news curation, and moderation. Earlier today, reports surfaced indicating the downsizing also decimated Twitter’s department focused on child sexual abuse materials, reducing it to a “skeleton crew” of less than 10 people for the entire website. Musk has previously stated eliminating CSAM was his “Priority #1” for the platform.

Both former employees and security experts warn that Twitter’s current team of around 2,000 people (down from 7,500 pre-Musk’s takeover) will not be able to handle engineering and content problems as they arise. Over the weekend, NSFW spam from China inundated the site in what some perceived to be a coordinated attack to obfuscate realtime coverage of the country’s ongoing protests. Around the same time, re-uploaded video clips of the deadly 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque mass shooting proliferated due to a lack of moderation teams.

Yesterday, Musk began tweeting a series of messages alleging that Apple had threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store, “but won’t tell [Musk] why.”

The post Twitter quietly removed its ban on COVID-19 misinformation last week appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Yesterday, a security lapse from 2021 cost the Facebook’s parent company, Meta, approximately $275 million thanks to Irish regulators enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a law passed in 2018 meant to better safeguard European consumers’ privacy. Last April, hackers collected over 500 million of the social media users’ names, locations, and birth dates via a vast data scraping scheme, and then turned around to sell the information on an online hacking forum. This is a violation of the GDPR’s rule requiring companies so safeguard personal info.

The massive fee is only the latest in a string of heavy financial penalties levied against what was once the world’s most dominant social media site. As The New York Times reports, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission previously fined Meta $400 million in September for its “mistreatment of children’s data,” less than a year after the same authorities charged the company $235 million for various violations related to its messaging service, WhatsApp.

[Related: Meta lays off more than 11,000 employees.]

The EU’s GDPR law is far more restrictive than American legislation when it comes to citizens’ online data privacy. Currently, the US lacks a comprehensive federal data privacy law, although there have been recent pushes for similar regulation. EU law, however, allows for heavier fines that otherwise may not be enacted stateside. Because major tech companies such as Meta, Twitter, and Google all have their EU headquarters located in Ireland, Europe often turns to its Data Protection Commission for enforcement and penalties.

Last year, Facebook rebranded its parent company Meta as part of an attempt to pivot towards CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s goals of realizing his vision of a “metaverse.” Although it’s currently unknown if Meta will appeal this week’s verdict as it has for the previous two decisions, the newest headache comes within weeks of it laying off over 11,000 global employees in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as the “one of the worst downturns” in the company’s history. Meta’s stock has dropped precipitously in recent months, and reported a 50-percent decline in quarterly profits last month. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” Zuckerberg wrote in his letter announcing the decision.

The post A massive data leak just cost Meta $275 million appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

As a wave of unprecedented citizen protests over China’s revived “zero COVID” response spread throughout major cities, so did an overwhelming flood of “Not Safe For Work” (NSFW) spam posts from what appear to be countless, long-dormant Twitter bot accounts. First highlighted by multiple security researchers over the weekend and subsequently confirmed by The Washington Post this morning, the situation is only the most recent example of Twitter’s dangerously strained oversight and maintenance capabilities in the wake of Elon Musk’s dramatic $44 billion acquisition and internal shakeup last month. Yesterday, Twitter also suffered from a largely un-flagged proliferation of re-uploaded videos of the deadly 2019 mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

[Related: Former Twitter employees warn of platform’s imminent collapse.]

Musk more than halved the company’s global workforce from 7,500 to just over 2,000 since assuming leadership, a reduction many experts and former employees warn opens up one of the world’s most popular social media platforms to numerous content, engineering, and security issues. As one ex-staffer told WaPo, among the many staff cuts and department shutterings included the resignation of “all the China influence operations and analysts,” leaving a massive blindspot across the country.

Overwhelming keyword searches for major cities like Shanghai, Urumqi, and Chengdu with NSFW content makes it much more difficult for people looking for reliable realtime information on developing events in those areas. “50 percent porn, 50 percent protests,” one anonymous US government contractor and China expert described their Twitter feed to WaPo. “Once I got 3 to 4 scrolls into the feed… [it was] all porn.”

[Related: Elon Musk completes purchase of Twitter, fires CEO.]

“Search the name of any major city in Chinese… and you’ll see thousands of nsfw escort ads,” Mengyu Dong, a Stanford University researcher, tweeted on Sunday. Dong continued by explaining that, although similar ads have existed for years, they have not been shared nearly as frequently as over this past weekend, and recent posts often came from years’ long dormant accounts. Analysis from another account specializing in publicly available Chinese data seemed to show that suspected spam accounts at one point comprised over 95 percent of the “Latest” results after searching “Beijing” in Chinese, adding that, “They tweet at a high, steady rate throughout the day, suggesting automation.”

On Friday, Musk tweeted screenshots of presentation slides he claimed were from a recent “company talk,” one of which included the caption “Reported impersonation spiked, then fell” alongside a line graph citing “Twitter Internal” data.

The post Twitter overwhelmed by NSFW spam during protests in China appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Twitter’s basic functionalities may not last through the end of the month due to unaddressed glitches, disorganization, and an overall devastating attrition of employees, according to sources familiar with the matter. Experts and former employees warn that Twitter may become unrecognizable and unusable in a matter of weeks.

The estimate comes from numerous former company engineers speaking out in the wake of Elon Musk’s most recent ultimatum sent to the remaining staff, as well as the firing of several veteran engineers who have been critical of Musk in internal Slack channels. “You’re seeing you can only push the workers so far before they’re going to revolt,” Melissa Ingle, a senior data scientist contractor recently laid off by Musk, told MIT Technology Review earlier today. “These people have options. They’re successful in their careers. They don’t want to be put through this.”

On Wednesday, Musk sent an internal email demanding those still employed to commit to a “extremely hardcore” work environment involving “long hours at high intensity” in order to build what he dubbed a “breakthrough Twitter 2.0.” “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” he wrote in his email, alongside a link to a Google Form agreement which, if not checked “Yes,” would supposedly constitute a formal resignation. The ultimatum has reportedly backfired. Additionally, lawyers representing a former Twitter staff stated Musk’s previous lay-off strategies may violate state labor laws.

“The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried,” Musk tweeted shortly before 11pm last night, almost six hours past his Google Form ultimatum’s deadline.

[Related: Elon Musk completes purchase of Twitter, fires CEO.]

Preceding Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in October, Twitter boasted an estimated global workforce of roughly 7,500 employees, including various software engineers responsible for maintaining the site’s basic operations, as well as teams dedicated to users’ newsfeed curation, communications, accessibility features, machine learning, and human rights issues. Earlier this month, Musk laid off around half of the entire workforce, and axed many of the aforementioned departments. The total count of remaining Twitter employees is currently unknown, but some estimates point to a number in the low hundreds.

“If [Twitter] does break, there is no one left to fix things in many areas,” an unnamed internal source explained to Reuters this morning.

Since its debut in 2006, Twitter has become a nexus for cultural events, political discussions, and social movements, while simultaneously drawing criticism for its handling of misinformation, targeted harassment, and hate speech. Last night, a Twitter Spaces event co-organized by Buzzfeed reporter Katie Notopoulos garnered almost 200,000 listeners during the group audio chat’s hours-long discussion on the site’s legacy, as well as of its particular importance within Black and disabled spaces.

[Related: Elon Musk Twitter layoffs have begun.]

Shortly following yesterday’s afternoon deadline to opt into Musk’s “Twitter 2.0,” the company announced it was closing its offices until Monday. “Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere,” read an email seen by CNBC.

As of writing, Musk’s Twitter bio no longer mentions his involvement with the company.

The post Former Twitter employees warn of platform’s imminent collapse appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The social media landscape’s dramatic shakeup continued this morning as Meta announced a 13 percent reduction in its global workforce. In all, more than 11,000 employees are being laid off, in response to what CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg recently called “one of the worst downturns” in the company’s history.

The New York Times reports that the majority of staff cuts manifested within Meta’s recruiting and business teams alongside a hiring freeze extension through Q1 2023. Those affected will receive a severance equal to 16 weeks of their base pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year employed at Meta. Healthcare benefits for themselves and their families will extend for six more months, as well.

[Related: How social media companies can benefit from election misinformation.]

Meta’s steep fall comes as competitors like TikTok establish themselves as younger generations’ social media platform of choice, while Zuckerberg’s team continues to pitch consumers on VR/AR products like the Meta Quest 2 alongside its burgeoning “metaverse.” An industry-wide decrease in digital advertising from previous all-time highs during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic also factored into Meta’s ongoing woes—something Zuckerberg reportedly didn’t expect. “Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended … Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,” he wrote in a public letter posted to Facebook’s news blog this morning.

[Related: Meta’s new AI tool can predict protein shapes.]

Going forward, Meta reportedly plans to focus on more targeted areas of development, particularly artificial intelligence systems, advertising, and a continued push for its metaverse. It’s currently unclear if, and when, the workforce reduction and strategic reorientation will be noticeable for everyday users of Facebook and Instagram. PopSci has reached out to Meta representatives for comment, and will update accordingly.

This year alone, company stock worth has dropped roughly 70 percent, while Meta reported a 50-percent decline in quarterly profits just last month. “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” Zuckerberg wrote in his letter. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”

The post Meta lays off more than 11,000 employees after ‘worst downturn’ in company’s history appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This story is developing.

Elon Musk is wasting no time following through on rumors of his promise to gut Twitter’s workforce. Upon his recent $44 billion purchase of the social media platform, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO floated firing about half of the company’s roughly 7,500 employees. In an internal, unsigned email sent to staff yesterday and subsequently circulated online, it was conveyed that “in an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global work force.” A few employees already reported receiving termination notices on Thursday, with many more announcing wholesale shutdowns of various departments early this morning.

As reported by Gizmodo, at least five former employees are already readying a class action lawsuit against Twitter for failure to comply with California’s WARN Act, “a law that requires large employers to provide 60 days of notice to employees before mass layoffs.” Meanwhile, as many as 1 million users have already deactivated their Twitter accounts, according to MIT Technology Review.

Based on former employee tweets and news outlet sources, the cuts as anticipated appear to affect roughly half the workforce, including product trust and safety, policy, curation, AI, data science, research, social good, machine learning, and vital engineering teams. The Washington Post also notes via anonymous sources that Twitter’s entire communications team now consists of just two people.

A running list of what areas Twitter HQ is shuttering can be found below, along with brief explanations of their functions. Any former or current Twitter employees are encouraged to reach out to PopSci by emailing editorial@popsci.com and/or andrew.paul@recurrent.io

Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability (META) Team

Confirmed via former Twitter employee Joan Deitchman, the META team (not relation to Facebook’s parent company) was responsible for “researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice… studying algorithmic amplification… [and] inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies.”

The department’s dissolution could make it more difficult to understand how Twitter’s algorithms decide what stories and trends are pushed more than others, as well as decrease transparency in the ways the company decides to mitigate and address AI bias.

Curation Team

Confirmed via former employee, Andrew Haigh, the Curation Team’s recently launched website described its focus as being “responsible for highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter… including Topics, Trends descriptions, and Moments, makes it easy for customers to experience only-on-Twitter conversations and get the most out of the platform, regardless of which accounts they follow.” Another former team member, James Glynn, was the group’s Senior Curation Lead dedicated to “Misinfo, Elections, [and] Crisis Situations.”

Decreased focus on how stories and news cycles are both promoted, described, and fact-checked could make it much harder for Twitter users to trust trending topics’ veracity and objectivity.

Accessibility Experience Team

Confirmed by former engineering manager, Gerard Cohen, Accessibility Experience pretty much concerned what the name implies—making Twitter’s interface and interactions as intuitive to users as possible, regardless of physical access issues. Most recently, the team introduced the “Alt Text” feature for images, which provided descriptions of tweeted media for users with vision impairments and issues. “We had so much more to do, but we worked hard! There aren’t very many people that have had the opportunity to make such an important global platform like Twitter accessible, but we understood the mission,” Cohen wrote on Twitter.

The lack of a dedicated accessibility team might mean far less support for users who could benefit from interface accommodations and upgrades. This, hypothetically, may minimize who can use Twitter.

Human Rights Team

Shannon Raj Singh, now former Human Rights Counsel at Twitter, tweeted today that the entire team has been cut from the company. The team was focused on protecting Twitter users, journalists, and activists facing human rights violations around the world, including those in the midst of conflicts like those in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. According to Singh’s tweet, the team had also implemented the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights.

The post Elon Musk is axing entire departments at Twitter—here’s how that could affect users appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

A new, in-depth study from Bloomberg published on Thursday analyzed thousands of social media posts from some of America’s controversial politicians, and the results are stark. When compared to other topics, candidates’ baseless claims surrounding US election fraud conspiracies are an engagement boon not only for themselves, but the social media companies that allow the content.

After reviewing all Facebook and Twitter content posted by every Republican running this year for Senate, Congress, governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, the report found that the two platforms, despite previously flagging election falsehoods, “did not have any context added to the misleading posts” at the time of analysis. These posts were identified via trawling for keywords and phrases like “rigged election” and “illegitimate president,” and vastly outperformed candidates’ content about other subjects like border security and the economy.

[Related: It’s possible to inoculate yourself against misinformation.]

“Nearly 400 election-denying posts from Republican candidates on Facebook collected at least 421,300 total likes, shares and comments across the platform, and reached as many as 120.4 million people,” writes Bloomberg, citing the Facebook-owned analysis tool, CrowdTangle. Bloomberg adds that, “On Twitter, 526 tweets promoting the Big Lie [a popular nickname given to the 2020 stolen election conspiracy] carried at least 401,200 shares on the platform.”

As another example, just six Twitter posts about from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump loyalist from Georgia, garnered over 163,000 likes, retweets, and replies. Rep. Greene’s personal Twitter account was permanently banned in January 2022 following repeated inflammatory and false content, although her official political account remains online.

[Related: The complex realm of misinformation intervention.]

The outsized online attention doesn’t only benefit those perpetuating these lies, but the mediums themselves. Social media companies like Meta (which owns Facebook) and Twitter rely on user engagement as their chief profit source. The longer people spend on their platforms and engaging with posts, each other, and advertising, the more personal data can be harvested and subsequently sold to third-party companies for targeted marketing and other purposes. Whether intentional or not, the financial benefits are too lucrative to ignore. It’s a toxic loop—one that erodes public health and institutional trust.

For their part, companies like Facebook rebut these claims, with a Meta spokesperson telling Bloomberg that, “Meta has invested a huge amount to help protect elections and prevent voter interference, and we have clear policies about the kind of content we’ll remove, such as misinformation about who can vote and when, calls for violence related to voting, as well as ads that encourage people not to vote or question the legitimacy of the upcoming election.” Following Elon Musk’s recent $44 billion purchase of Twitter, hate speech soared on the platform while its content enforcement team was largely curtailed.

The post How social media companies can benefit from election misinformation appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Elon Musk is wasting no time ushering a dramatically new era for Twitter after assuming ownership of the social media platform last week. Although rumors continue to swirl around the future of verified accounts, free speech, content moderation, as well as the return of previously banned accounts including the former President of the United States, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has so far only asked the public’s input on one potential update: The return of the beloved short-form video sharing platform, Vine.

“Bring back Vine?” Musk tweeted on October 30 alongside a Yes/No poll for his nearly 113 million followers.

Less than a day later, Axios additionally reported that multiple anonymous sources indicated Musk has instructed Twitter engineers to begin planning a Vine revitalization with an eye to release by the end of the year.

[Related: Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, fires CEO.]

Founded in 2012, Twitter acquired Vine mere months before the app’s official launch in January 2013. Within two years, the platform amassed over 200 million users and a devoted fan base surrounding the platform’s short video format. Twitter announced it was disabling Vine’s upload feature on October 26, 2016, eventually reducing it to an internet archive of previously uploaded content before shuttering the site completely in 2019. Although never as profitable or ubiquitous as its parent company or other major social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, its online cultural influence lived on via countless memes, as well as the current, similarly video-oriented giant, TikTok.

While fans—and potentially Musk himself—are extremely excited at the prospect of Vine’s possible return, the app’s original developers have already warned the world’s wealthiest man that doing so won’t be as easy as it sounds. “This code is 6+ years old. Some of it is 10+. You don’t want to look there,” Sara Beykpour, a former Vine employee and later Twitter product manager, tweeted yesterday afternoon. “If you want to revive Vine, you should start over,” she added.

[Related: Musk threatens funding for Ukraine’s Starlink access.]

Apps require constant updating and management to keep up a host of regular issues including scalability, bug fixes, malware attempts, as well as keeping up with operating systems’ own developments and alterations.

The underlying, detail-oriented complexities of resurrecting a years’ dead online platform illustrates the real world challenges faced by Musk’s often seemingly off-the-cuff ideas and strategies. Yesterday, CNN reported on internal documents it obtained pointing towards the possibility of Twitter charging as much as $19.99 per month for verified users to retain their “Blue Checkmark” status. As of last year, approximately 400,000 of the platform’s users possess this status—less than 1 percent of all accounts. Even if every Verified users opted into the rumored new system, the annual generated revenue would add up to about $96 million, a fraction of the $1 billion in interest due on Musk’s loans taken to acquire the platform.

In a separate poll tweeted out asking how much users were willing to pay for verification, over 80 percent of respondents have said they wouldn’t pay at all. “Interesting,” Musk wrote in response to the tweet.

The post Vine could be next on the list for Musk to remake appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

UPDATE (November 1, 2022): Instagram announced via Twitter it resolved the issue at approximately 6pm ET on 10/31, citing a “bug” which caused “people in different parts of the world to have issues accessing their accounts and caused a temporary change for some in number of followers.”

Twitter won the award last week for most chaotic social media platform—but Instagram may be pushing for the title today. Earlier this morning, Instagram confirmed via tweet that many users are experiencing accessibility issues in the form of seemingly random account suspensions. “We’re looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience,” the message concludes alongside the hashtag “#instagramdown.”

As The Verge notes, many prominent Instagram accounts’ follower totals have dropped precipitously, with the social media company’s official account down over a million users since yesterday. Multiple users are taking to other social media platforms such as Twitter to detail their Instagram woes, usually alongside screenshots detailing their suspensions, which appear to be the generic flagged page seen when hit with the censor. As of 10:19 a.m. EDT, 7,000 reports of issues with the app have popped up.

One PopSci‘s staffer is experiencing the problem—their Instagram account was randomly and inexplicably suspended for roughly 2-3 hours before being restored, although they still are seeing app issues.

Instagram is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the same parent company as Facebook.

The post Instagram is down for some users—here’s what we know so far appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on December 1, 2020.

Lately I’ve experimented with another solution: reinventing how I use these sites. This doesn’t require you to delete your profiles and avoid social media entirely—changing your focus and doing a little cleanup to the list of people and accounts you follow can be enough to do the trick.

Instead, I’ve found Facebook’s Groups feature to be an incredible replacement for my usually-toxic feed. You can join small communities of people focused on a specific topic, which means the conversation rarely strays into dangerous territory. My wife and I have been most successful with local and neighborhood groups, like Being Neighborly (a general group with chapters across the US), Buy Nothing (where people in your neighborhood can give things away they don’t need), and the San Diego New Mom’s Network (where she can connect with other moms in the area and share things like hand-me-downs and helpful articles). You may even find your online fitness trainer has a group for all their clients and followers, or that your favorite small-time podcast has a close-knit community sharing that interest on Facebook. My wife is even part of a group created by fans of her favorite cooking blog.

[Related: Tips and apps for finding a virtual personal trainer]

To start looking, head to Facebook’s Groups page. If you’re lucky, you might find some good stuff in Facebook’s suggestions (click Discover on the left if you don’t see any), but you’ll most likely have to throw some searches out to see what comes up. Pop in some topics and limit the location to your city, or put your neighborhood’s name in the search terms. If your favorite podcast, blog, or YouTube channel mentions a Facebook group every week on the show, look it up and join.

Experiment with what you find, but the smaller and more specific the better. Large public “gaming” groups, for example, are probably going to be rougher around the edges than a private group dedicated to dads who play Rocket League. A few hundred to a couple thousand members is usually good—once you get more than that, you have a large enough group where toxicity and mob mentality start to slowly take over.

Mix a good selection of groups in with the few people you actually care about, and you’ll have a pretty decent feed that’s completely different from what you started with—and more focused on positive communities than bickering “friends” you don’t even know that well.

Twitter: Turn it into a news feed

When it comes to sheer levels of toxicity, Twitter may be even worse than Facebook. The platform was designed to be a fast-scrolling feed of quick posts sent from one person to many, which makes it a terrible place for any discussion that requires detail or nuance. Combine that with a high volume of politically-inclined folks and an algorithm that promotes controversy, and you’ve got a recipe for endless doomscrolling.

If you, like most people, use this platform to keep up with current events, you could just ditch Twitter and pick up a newspaper. But just as I reinvented my Facebook account, I turned my Twitter into a modern RSS feed.

[Related: Elon Musk completes purchase of Twitter, fires CEO]

This meant creating an entirely new Twitter account from scratch, and there was only one rule when it came to my feed—follow sites, not people. Instead of the unhinged rants of celebrities, politicians, and certain media colleagues of mine, I get the more reasoned, edited, fully-formed thoughts they put into articles and interviews. In other words, I get a surprisingly good collection of topics I’m interested in, without the vitriol. Now I can dock Twitter to the side of my monitor and let it scroll by with useful information as I work.

But using social media for news does encourage you to only follow the things you want to hear, creating what is known as the “filter bubble effect.” This is dangerous, as it turns your feed into a fertile ground for misinformation and confirmation bias, so it’s important to try to counter it. While some publications have multiple Twitter feeds for different verticals—PopSci has its own DIY account, hint hint—casting a wider net and following a publication’s main account ensures you get news you might not have otherwise seen, which is important in being a responsible, well-informed citizen. Plus, you’ll get cool stories about wasp venom you might not have sought out.

I still have a personal account that I occasionally check in on, tweet from, and use to joke around in my friends’ mentions. But most of the day, I can stick to keeping up on current events without feeling my blood boil.

Look to other social media sites you’ve ignored

While Facebook and Twitter are the most obvious doomscrolling culprits, all of this goes for other sites and social networks, so you may also want to rethink how you use those platforms.

The post How to banish toxic posts from your social feeds appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on October 25, 2018.

Social media networks know a lot about you. In fact, that’s their primary job. They want to collect information about you and use that to sell advertisements that you can’t resist. In return for your data, these companies give you a chance to interact with other users and share your life no matter how interesting or banal. Think about all the secret interests Facebook thinks you want to see ads about. The results are sometimes hilariously wrong, but they can also be worryingly accurate. Your information is a product that companies use.

In a perfect world, this exchange would result in a harmonious civilization in which people find others with similar interests and we enjoy our hobbies in peace. In real life, however, our information crawls around the dark corners of the web, where it’s compromised, sold, leveraged, and otherwise abused. And that’s not even mentioning what happens when one of these social media sites flickers out of existence and takes all of your stuff with it.

This article provides a quick primer on how to see what data sites have collected about you, as well as how to download and delete it. It’s handy information to have before the next site shuts down or accidentally tells a bunch of bad guys your favorite movie and your cellphone number.

How to download your Twitter data

To grab your Twitter archive, head to the account settings page (Settings & privacy on the app) and click on Your account. Then, navigate to Download an archive of your data, where you’ll have to enter your password, log in, or otherwise verify you own the account. When you’re in, hit Request archive to ask for a ZIP file stuffed with your account information, history, activity, ads data, and other details. Once Twitter has processed your request, it’ll send you a link for downloading. You’ll need to have a confirmed email address if you want to go through with the process.

If you want an archive of everything you’ve ever done on Facebook, you can do that here (Settings > Privacy > Your Facebook information. To download a copy, click View next to Download profile information. From there, you can choose the file format, the quality of photos and videos, a date range, and the categories of data you want to grab. When you’re ready, scroll to the bottom of the page and hit Request a download. The resulting file will be big—like, multiple gigabytes big.

For a little more fun, go back to the Facebook information tab within the site’s privacy settings and select View next to Access profile information. There, choose Logged information and find Ads interests. Poke around on this page and hit See All Interests to see things that may surprise you. For instance, Facebook thinks I’m in the “established adult life” stage of my life, whatever that means. You may also be able to see a map of places you have been. Weird.

How to see Instagram ad preferences and download your data

If you want to see the topics Instagram thinks you’ll like when it comes to ads, tap the three lines in the upper right corner of the app, hit Settings > Ads > Ad topics. This page will give you a running list of things the app thinks you want to see advertised. The results are often kind of weird, and in some cases just plain wrong. But others are strikingly accurate.

Downloading your Instagram data is on a separate page: From the main menu (three lines), tap Your activity followed by Download your information. Enter an email and hit Request Download to get a link to all your stuff.

How to save your TikTok data

TikTok is the newest entry on this list, and downloading all your data from the short-form video app is straightforward. Just tap Profile at the bottom of the screen, hit the three lines in the top right, and select Settings and privacy. From there, choose Manage account at the top of the page and tap Download your data. Read the explanation, select your preferred file format, and slam that Request data button at the bottom.

How to archive your ancient Myspace account

“Why the heck is MySpace near the top?” you wonder as you scroll through this article. Well, mostly because every time some drama surrounding some other social media site hits the news, people inevitably remember their long-abandoned MySpace account. Unfortunately, MySpace doesn’t exactly make it easy to get your stuff from that account you probably haven’t touched in years.

You can download your songs (if Myspace didn’t lose them all in 2019) and/or videos by going to the separate Uploads pages for Music and Videos, finding the media you want to pull down, and clicking the pencil icon to get to the download menu. Maybe while you’re over there, delete your whole account. I wish I had done that ages ago because I don’t have any of my login information or my old email. Now I can visit myself on MySpace but not log in.

How to download your Apple data

In 2018, Apple gave users in the United States the ability to download their personal data, which made sense in light of its CEO’s big privacy speech. Apple is primarily a hardware company, so it doesn’t rely as heavily on collecting user data to make money. As a result, you might find that your Apple data is welcomely boring.

If you want to check it out, go to the Data and Privacy page and log in. Find where it says Get a copy of your data, and click the Request a copy of your data link underneath it. Choose everything you want bundled into the file and hit Continue to proceed.

If you go to the My Activity page, you will see a running tally of everything you have done using Google products. The sheer volume of entries on that page might be impressive. It likely includes every search you’ve requested, every time you’ve used Google Maps, all of the YouTube videos you’ve watched, and smart home functions you’ve done via app or a Google Assistant speaker. You can even listen to your Google Assistant voice requests.

[Related: How to secure your Google account]

Although viewing your Google activity is fairly easy, actually downloading it is a little harder. To do so, navigate to the Other activity page and find Download your data from My Activity. There’s a lot on this page, so your best bet will likely be to hit Cmd+F or Ctrl+F and search for “download”. From there, hit Download your data and move through the steps on the screen.

Now, if you want to delete this activity, you can do so by clicking Delete at the top of the page and selecting the dates you want to delete. So, if you want to erase your YouTube history after some questionable binge watching, you can do so. If you haven’t enabled Google’s auto-delete function, go to the Activity controls page and turn it on under the relevant categories.

Before you consider your Google account nice and tidy, you might consider doing its built-in privacy checkup, which will run you through your settings and show you what the company’s services are collecting.

How to save your Snapchat data

If you’re still using Snapchat (or you stopped, but want to know what information the company has about you), you can go into your app settings (tap your avatar, then the gear icon in the top right), scroll to the Account Actions heading, and tap My Data. Then, hit Submit Request and enter a valid email address. It will take a while for the company to put your data into a ZIP file (usually a couple hours) and then you’ll get a link that will start the download.

Once you log into your Microsoft account, You can head to the Privacy tab, where you can download various categories of your personal data. If you use a Windows computer, expect to find a bunch of information in there. Find the Manage your activity data heading and click any category to expand it. If there’s anything available, you should see a Download your data link. Click that, hit Create an archive, and when the archive is ready you can download it to your device.

How to view and delete Alexa voice recordings on Amazon

It’s easy enough to see most of the information about your Amazon account through the regular menus on the site or through the app, but you may not know that Amazon keeps audio from your Alexa requests and links them to your account. You can find them by going to the Alexa Privacy Settings page in a browser or tapping through Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History in the app. You cannot download them, but Amazon offers several ways to delete these recordings.

How to find out what data brokers know about you

While tracking down your info on specific tech and social media sites is relatively straightforward, finding the shadowy information that’s tracked, scraped, and extrapolated by data collection companies is much harder to pin down.

Acxiom, for example, is a large “marketing data” company that takes information about people on the web and forms profiles that marketers can use for targeted advertising. You used to be able to see the data it collects about you by creating an account at its AboutTheData website, but that feature is no longer available. Yes, you had to give them your personal information to see what personal information they had about you.

You can, however, opt out of Acxiom’s data collection practices. This will stop the company from tracking you further, but it won’t erase the information that’s already there.

Acxiom is just one company of many, though. Popular Science has its own advice on removing your personal information from the web, and Motherboard has a massive list of data brokers with links to help you opt out of their tracking. Motherboard’s list, though may now be out of date. Both are great resources, but it will likely take you at least a few hours to get the job done.

Some larger agencies will even make you send them a copy of your photo ID to prove your identity due to the sensitive nature of the data.

The big takeaway from all of this data is to keep an eye on your privacy settings when you use apps and sites. It’s still a maze of permissions and privacy agreements, but it’s actually easier now than it ever has been thanks to reforms like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Be vigilant.

The post How to download your data from Twitter and other sites appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Editor’s note (October 28, 2022): This story is developing…

Elon Musk has completed his multibillion dollar purchase of Twitter, reports The New York Times. Musk addressed the sale by posting to the social media platform late last night. The news comes after a months’ long saga filled with promises, teases, reversals, and legal threats surrounding the world’s wealthiest man. Already the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, Musk now assumes de facto control of a chaotic social media platform recently revealed to have been hemorrhaging its most active and profitable users since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. His acquisition comes at cost of $44 billion—a price tag whose financing was shored up in recent weeks thanks in part to assuming $12.5 billion in debt via Wall Street banks.

[Related: Internal documents reveal how Twitter is losing its ‘heavy users.’]

According to multiple outlets, Musk has already reportedly fired at least four of the company’s top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Sega, and public policy lawyer Vijaya Gadde, who reportedly has been called Twitter’s “chief censor” by the right. Bloomberg reports that Musk has appointed himself Twitter’s CEO, although the role may be temporary. Per New York Times, sources indicate he is also taking the company private, a move that would disavow him from answering to shareholders and the need to regularly disclose company performance; this would also allow him to change Twitter’s service features without public oversight or knowledge. Musk has also hinted he would restore banned accounts, including that of Donald Trump, although the former President previously indicted he plans to stick with his own “free speech” alternative, Truth Social.

It is currently unclear what other changes are soon to come, and as CNBC notes, how Musk will fully finance the deal. The cryptocurrency exchange Binance confirmed it remains one of the deal’s initial backers, with CEO Changpeng Zhao saying in a statement that, “We’re excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter. We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.”

Although Musk has stated he envisions Twitter to become “X,” his long-desired, WeChat-inspired “everything app” that includes social media, private messaging, and widespread financial transactions, a recent post indicates he is currently more concerned with giving users a more personalized advertising experience. “Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!” he tweeted yesterday.

[Related: Musk threatens funding for Ukraine’s Starlink access.]

Apart from assurances as a “free speech absolutist” to turn Twitter into a “common digital town square,” Musk also floated pursing subscription partnerships, and gutting the social media platform’s over 7,500 person staff by 75-percent. In the days leading up to Friday’s acquisition finalization, Musk also suggested Ukraine cede contested regions to Russia, flip-flopped on a decision to withhold Starlink internet satellite access to the country, and welcomed Kanye West back onto Twitter following the latter’s temporary ban for antisemitic comments.

“That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” he said in the same note posted yesterday via his Twitter account.

The post Elon Musk completes purchase of Twitter, fires CEO appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

You are more than a data point. The Opt Out is here to help you take your privacy back.

ALGORITHMS are what they eat. These intricate pieces of code need nourishment to thrive and do accurate work, and when they don’t get enough bytes of good-quality data, they struggle and fail. 

I encountered a malnourished algorithm when I looked at my 2022 Spotify Wrapped and saw my favorite artist was Peppa Pig. I frowned, befuddled. Why did Spotify think the cartoon piglet was my latest obsession? Then I remembered I’d spent a week with my 2-year-old niece over the summer, and how playing Peppa Pig songs on my phone was the only way to keep her entertained. 

Well, that made more sense. 

But I soon realized that the little porker had mucked up even more than my year in review: My recommendation algorithm was a mess as well. For weeks, at least one out of the four Daily Mix playlists the platform put together for me included compilations of music for kids. 

It was annoying, but I wondered if, maybe, my niece’s obsession was actually a useful way to deal a staggering blow to the detailed profile tech companies have on each of us. After all, if Spotify, Instagram, Google, or any other platform thinks I’m someone I’m not, they’ll show me ads that are relevant to that fake version of me—but not to the real me. And if they happen to provide my data to a third party, like a data broker, they’ll be handing them details describing someone who doesn’t exist, with my true likes and interests buried in a mountain of Peppa Pig songs. Weaponizing this mistaken identity can help us hide in plain sight and, by extension, protect our privacy.

A camouflage suit made out of bad data 

Feeding the algorithms in your life bad data is called data poisoning or obfuscation, and it’s a technique that aims to obscure your true identity by generating a large quantity of inaccurate information. The concept refers to synchronized attacks that deliberately seek to erase or alter the datasets fueling a platform’s algorithms to make them underperform and fail. This requires specific skills and know-how, as well as a lot of computing power.

You may not have any of those things, but you can use the same principle to protect yourself from constant surveillance online. The images you see, the posts you like, the videos you play, the songs you listen to, and the places where you check in—that’s all data that platforms collect and use to build a profile of who you are. Their goal is to understand you as much as possible (better than you know yourself) so they can predict what you’ll want and need. Tech companies and advertisers don’t do this for altruistic reasons, of course, but to show us ads that they hope will manipulate us into spending money—or make us feel or vote a certain way. 

The easiest way to engage in data poisoning is to use a name, gender, location, and date of birth that is not yours when you sign up for a service. To advance beyond that baseline, you can like posts you don’t actually like, randomly click on ads that don’t interest you, or play content (videos, music, movies, etc.) that’s not to your taste. For the last of those options, just press play on whatever platform you’re using, turn off your screen, turn down the volume, and let it run overnight. If you want to throw off YouTube, use the autoplay feature and let the site go deep down a rabbit hole of content for hours and hours while you sleep or work. Finally, whenever you have to answer a question, like why you’re returning an item you bought online, use “other” as your default response and write whatever you want as a reason.

Where data poisoning can fail

If this all sounds too simple, you’re right—there are some caveats. Using fake information when you sign up for something might be pointless if the platform builds and refines your profile by aggregating numerous data points. For example, if you say you’re in California but consume local news from Wisconsin, list your workplace in Milwaukee, and tag a photo of yourself on the shore of Lake Michigan, the platform’s baseline assumption that you live in the Golden State won’t matter much. The same thing will happen if you say you were born in 1920, but you like content and hashtags typically associated with Generation Z. Let’s face it—it’s totally plausible for an 82-year-old to be a huge Blackpink fan, but it’s not terribly likely. And then there’s the risk that a service or site will require you to provide real identification if you ever get locked out or hacked.

Playing content that doesn’t interest you while you sleep may throw off the recommendation algorithms on whatever platform you’re using, but doing so will also require resources you may not have at your disposal. You’ll need a device consuming electricity for hours on end, and an uncapped internet connection fast enough to stream whatever comes through the tubes. Messing with the algorithms also messes up your user experience. If you depend on Netflix to tell you what you watch next or Instagram to keep you updated on emerging fashion trends, you’re not likely to enjoy what shows up if the platform doesn’t actually know what you’re interested in. It could even ruin the entire app for you—just think what would happen if you started swiping left and rejecting all the people you actually liked on a dating app.  

Also, just as eating one salad doesn’t make you healthy, your data poisoning schemes must be constant to make a long-lasting impression. It’s not enough to click on a couple of uninteresting ads here and there and hope that’s enough to throw off the algorithm—you need to do it repeatedly to reinforce that aspect of your fake profile. You’ve probably noticed that after browsing an online store and seeing the brand or product you were interested in plastered on every website you visited afterward, the ads were eventually replaced by others. That’s because online ads are cyclical, which makes sense, as human interest comes and goes. 

But the biggest caveat of all is uncertainty—we just don’t know how much damage we’re doing to the data tech companies and advertisers are collecting from us. Studies suggest that poisoning a minimal amount of data (1 to 3 percent) can significantly affect the performance of an algorithm that’s trying to figure out what you like. This means that even clicking on a small percentage of uninteresting ads might prompt an algorithm to put you in the wrong category and assume, for example, that you’re a parent when you’re not. But these are only estimates. The engineers behind Google, Facebook, and other big online platforms are constantly updating their algorithms, making them an ever-moving target. Not to mention this code is proprietary, so the only people who know for sure how effective data poisoning is are working for these companies, and it’s highly unlikely they would reveal their vulnerability to this technique. In the case of Google’s AdSense, for example, advertisers pay per click, and if they knew their money was paying for fake clicks (even just a few), it could jeopardize Google’s authority to reach audiences and sell products. 

Does any of this matter?

Not knowing whether poisoning your data is actually doing anything to protect your privacy might make you think there’s no point in trying. But not all is lost. Anecdotal evidence—my Spotify Wrapped, YouTube’s sometimes wacky recommendations, Netflix’s occasionally baffling genre suggestions, and ads that think you’re interested in buying a product because you clicked on something accidentally—makes it clear that platforms are not immune to our white lies, and bad data is not innocuous. There’s also a very telling experiment by privacy researchers Helen Nissenbaum and Lee McGuigan at Cornell Tech, that proved AdNauseam, an extension banned from the Chrome Store that automatically clicks on all ads on a page to throw off Google’s profiling algorithm, is effective and that the Big G cannot tell the difference between real and fake clicks.

Maybe you need to read this to believe it, but we don’t need to comply with everything online platforms ask of us. Data poisoning is neither dishonest nor unethical. It’s us users reclaiming our information in any way we can. As Jon Callas, a computer security expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation told me, we have no moral obligation to answer questions tech companies have no right to ask. They’re already accumulating thousands of data points on each and every one of us—why help them? 

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether data poisoning is highly or barely effective. We know it does something. And at a time when companies don’t have our best interests at heart and regulation is light years behind thanks to the billions of dollars tech companies spend lobbying elected officials, we the users are on our own. We might as well use every strategy we can to protect ourselves from constant surveillance. 

Read more PopSci+ stories.

The post The Opt Out: The rewards and risks of lying to tech companies appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

A trove of internal research first revealed by Reuters on Tuesday presents a grim outlook for Twitter, mere days before a federal judge’s deadline for Elon Musk to complete a $44 billion acquisition of the company. According to the report, an in-house company study titled “Where Did the Tweeters Go?” describes that the app’s most frequent (and subsequently profitable) users—dubbed “heavy tweeters”—are in “absolute decline” since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Companies like Twitter earn the vast majority of their revenue through the monetization of their users’ data and online preferences, which can be amassed and subsequently sold to third-parties for advertising purposes. As such, the more you use an app such as Twitter, the more valuable you are to the app maker for generating desirable data troves. Twitter’s “heavy tweeter” is defined by the company as someone who visits the platform almost daily and posts at least three-to-four times a week. As such, although this category reportedly only covers 10 percent of monthly overall users, they generate 90 percent of all tweets and half of the company’s global revenue stream.

[Related: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter (again).]

The report doesn’t include concrete numbers, but it describes Twitter’s English-speaking base as declining by a “devastating” percentage. According to the company report, the platform amassed more ad money from the United States than every other market combined in its last fourth quarter. Still, English-speaking users continue to abandon the app for competitors like Instagram and TikTok.

The emergency is exacerbated in a number of other ways, including shifting audience interests. Twitter has long been one of the few social media platforms to allow “Not Safe For Work” content like pornography, a medium most mainstream advertisers generally avoid. Unfortunately for the company, audience interest in this kind of explicit material has risen on the app, and now makes up about 13 percent of Twitter’s posts, according to an additional report seen by Reuters. This, coupled with a decreased interest in subjects like cryptocurrency following the market’s dramatic crash earlier this year, makes the remaining English users less ideal for advertisers—and thus less profitable for Twitter.

Friday is the last day for Musk to close a deal for the purchase of the social media platform. If he fails to do so, a November start date will be set for trial between the social media platform and the world’s wealthiest man.

The post Internal documents reveal how Twitter is losing its ‘heavy tweeters’ appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Coded language is nothing new—but the scale at which it can be deployed via social media is essentially unprecedented. Observers often compare online content moderation to games of Whack-a-Mole, in which platforms can barely stem the influx of targeted misinformation, conspiracy theories, propaganda imagery, and hate speech.

As a report from Bloomberg last week detailed, antivaxxers in particular are becoming increasingly reliant on coded language, often using emojis to convey prohibited misinformation and propaganda on social media platforms such as Facebook. What’s more, a former Facebook exec overseeing public policy says it is becoming clear that current AI moderation programs aren’t up to challenge—and there’s reason to believe they may never be.

“All these systems that these platforms continue to build are frankly still very much in their infancy of being able to do some of the stuff that they would like them to be able to do,” Katie Harbath, CEO of the tech policy strategy group, Anchor Change and a Nonresident Senior Fellow for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab who previously served for ten years as Facebook’s head of public policy, tells PopSci.

[Related: The complex realm of misinformation intervention.]

Meeting and conversing within groups and pages with vague names like “Died Suddenly,” Bloomberg notes antivaxxers continue to peddle patently false COVID-19 misinformation using phrases like “eaten the cake” to refer to taking vaccines. “Sometimes, users claim that loved ones have taken four or five ‘slices’ of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, using emoji for pizza, cupcakes and various fruits to express their point,” adds the report.

Context is key for flagging and removing prohibited content, something that is made even more complicated for AI monitoring programs by the introduction of emoji code languages. AI content moderation utilizes machine learning algorithms to identify, flag, and if needed, remove content it identifies as problematic—typically sexually explicit or violent images and writing, but coded language and emojis are still often an Achilles’ Heel for them. “[M]achines can still miss some important nuances, like misinformation, bias, or hate speech. So achieving one hundred percent clear, safe, and user-friendly content on the Internet seems almost impossible,” explains a rundown from data annotation service Label Your Data.

Harbath says that the challenge for tackling both emojis and coded language is twofold, both for AI systems and human overseers. “One, you have to retrain your moderators to be able to try to understand that context, and to figure out if they are trying to use this emoji,” she says. “That can be challenging, based on how much [context and material] the content moderators do or do not get.” Harbath says that these moderators often only see a single post or message at a time, depriving them of potentially vital context for enforcement decisions.

[Related: It’s possible to inoculate yourself against misinformation.]

Trying to get ahead of these groups presents its own challenges, as well. Harbath explains that updating or broadening a moderator system’s classifiers and nomenclature can also lead to higher false positives, creating new headaches and complications while simultaneously doing more harm than good. “Most people use emojis in a relatively benign way,” she says, “… It’s a constant fight that all the platforms have to deal with.”

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, chose to cite its successes in this realm when reached for comment on the issue. “Attempts to evade detection or enforcement are a sign that we are effectively enforcing our policies against COVID misinformation,” Aaron Simpson, a policy communications manager at Facebook, writes via email. Simpson also notes that, since the pandemic’s onset, Facebook has removed “more than 27 million pieces of content” for violating polices regarding COVID-19 misinformation across both Facebook and Instagram. Facebook alone counts approximately 241 million Americans on its platform as of this year.

Despite these many issues, there are still silver linings. AI programs continue to improve their efficacy, and given its very nature, coded language is generally only used by people already “in the know,” and therefore isn’t necessarily pivotal for recruitment efforts or spreading propaganda. It may be small consolation, but people like Harvath are wary of the alternatives, urging for more digital literacy programs as opposed to such tactics as outright prohibiting emojis.

“You could go wholesale on banning that stuff altogether, but then they would just go [back] to coded words,” says Harvath. “You’re pretty much getting to the point of, like, ‘Just shut the internet down.'”

The post AI moderators can’t keep up with vaccine disinformation’s newest language: emojis appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This article was originally featured on KHN.

Watch enough TikTok videos and you’re sure to see one extolling a special kind of do-it-yourself dentistry. Not about brushing and flossing, except maybe flossing with strands of your hair. These are videos on drilling into your teeth and cementing gems to them or filing your teeth to reshape them.

People have been styling their teeth for centuries across the globe throughout North and South America, Africa, and Asia. But social media — particularly TikTok, where everything old and new is nip/tucked into short videos with trendy sounds and served up fresh to young eyes — has breathed life into trends like tooth gems. Celebrities such as Drake, Rihanna, and Bella Hadid wore them years ago. Now, some TikTok influencers are selling DIY gem kits.

But it doesn’t stop there. There are DIY tooth replacement kits and bedazzled grills available online for under $25, and recipes for homemade toothpaste and whitening treatments. The TikTok hashtag #DIYdentist has 2.6 million views. It’s enough to make any licensed dentist or orthodontist cringe.

The professionals wholeheartedly agree that DIY dentistry is a very bad idea. Dental care can be expensive, and orthodontic treatment is usually considered cosmetic and not covered by dental insurance — which 65 million Americans don’t have. And, according to the 2020 “Annual Review of Public Health” report, people who are low-income, uninsured, members of racial minority groups, immigrants, or living in rural areas are more likely to have poor oral health.

So, is the high cost of dental treatment driving these viral trends among young people, or is it the lure of supposedly painless, instantly changed smiles?

Dr. Ruchi Sahota, a Fremont, California, dentist and spokesperson for the American Dental Association, said she can understand why patients want to try DIY dentistry at home. “I just don’t know how [they] could do it safely,” she said, especially altering the shape of their teeth. While filing teeth is something a dentist might do to smooth out imperfections or create space between teeth during treatment for braces, for instance, some people are doing it themselves to smooth away chips in teeth or create vampire-like fangs for aesthetic reasons. “When we practice dentistry, we do it with the background information of years of training, X-rays, and the experience that helps us decide when and how to do the treatment,” Sahota said.

Even tooth gems applied correctly with oral bonding materials are troublesome, she said, because they “are adding something to your teeth that will also attract bacteria. You’re increasing your risk of cavities, of gum infections. And you’re increasing your risk of chipped teeth, of inflammation inside your mouth.”

DIY prices are certainly part of the allure. On Amazon, a 25-piece tooth gem kit was selling for $12.99 from Tondiamo, a brand that also sells children’s earwax removal tools, waterproof adhesive bandages, and chainsaw chains. The kit comes with 10 rhinestones, a mini-LED keychain to cure the adhesive, four wooden sticks, five disposable applicator brushes, and five cotton rolls.

But no instructions.

Reviews on Amazon complained of the gems not sticking. Some suggested using nail glue — which is toxic and can damage tooth enamel. But among Amazon’s “frequently bought together” suggestions: a bottle of epoxy resin glue.

A gold-plated, single-tooth grill front for $7.98 from TCOTBE and a set of silver-plated, brass fronts for $10.99 from OOCC both advertised that “one size fits most,” but reviewers said otherwise. “Save your money and use foil (old school way) if you want a grill lol,” one buyer warned. Bleeding gums were a common complaint among the reviewers.

Perhaps the most bizarre DIY find was a temporary tooth repair kit for under $25 from CZsy. It came with plastic “veneers” in different shapes for missing teeth, and moldable plastic beads for repairs.

It also did not come with printed instructions, but these were buried in the product description on Amazon’s site:

1. Drop into hot water above 130 degrees for about two minutes.
2. Shape the size what you want.

No company information or websites could be found for some of these brands, but the products had one thing in common: a bar code sticker reading “Made in China.” Instead of responding to a request by KHN for an explanation of its policies, Amazon removed the listing for replacement teeth. The other items were still available to order at publication time.

It’s not just DIY dentistry giving licensed professionals a toothache. Vendors touting certificates to apply composite veneers and partials — dentures that replace missing teeth when someone still has multiple natural teeth in place — are sprouting up on social media. Vendors like Marie’s Beauty Bar in Philadelphia will apply composite veneers over less-than-perfect smiles — in this case, starting at $1,999 per hour with a $499 deposit — as a lower-cost alternative to porcelain veneers, which require shaving down the natural teeth. The merchant advertises veneer training for $5,999. Marie’s Beauty Bar did not respond to emails or voice messages seeking comment.

DIY dentistry isn’t just a phenomenon of young people on social media. “There are teens, adolescents, even adults that are trying these things,” said Dr. Amber Bonnaig, a dentist in Marietta, Georgia, and a state director for DentaQuest, a Boston company. “A major contributing factor is lack of access to dental care.”

DIY can appear a viable alternative, especially since a person with severely damaged teeth, in severe pain, or with mounting dental bills from repairing DIY damage rarely displays the disappointing results on TikTok. Social media users, for the most part, display carefully curated highlights, not adverse reactions.

“The ‘cool thing’ right now is all these hacks to make things supposedly easier or more accessible,” she said. Caveat emptor, or let the buyer beware, she cautioned. Reviews from influencers who often receive free services in exchange for promotional posts may be biased. Bonnaig warned that complications could occur many days, weeks, or months after treatment.

Even when people aren’t daring to drill their own teeth, they can do damage with other social trends like drinking “healthy Coke,” a concoction of balsamic vinegar — which has a higher acid content than the actual soft drink — and flavored carbonated water. It’s a recipe for severe erosion of tooth enamel.

Sahota has seen what these viral trends can do. “Patients have been drinking or swishing with lemon water, or maybe apple cider vinegar, and that has caused acid or erosions on their teeth,” she said. “The patients will say, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, I saw online that, you know, this will be better for my health. And so I’ve been doing it every night.’ That’s when I’ll bring a mirror and show them exactly what the effect of that trend has made on your teeth.”

Such low-cost hacks may end up costing patients far more in the long run. Sahota suggested that consumers looking for safe ways to enhance their smiles can scour the products on the Mouth Healthy site that sports the ADA seal of acceptance. Bonnaig and Sahota both implore patients to discuss their oral and cosmetic concerns with a dentist.

Every tooth and every mouth is unique, and there is no safe one-size-fits-all DIY hack. “You can have a beautiful smile,” Sahota said, “even if it’s not perfect.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

The post Why you shouldn’t follow TikTok’s DIY dental advice appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Parler has entered an “agreement in principle” to be purchased by Ye, the rapper, producer, and fashion designer formerly known as Kanye West. The announcement this morning comes via the conservative alternative social media platform’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, which notes that a definitive deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Founded in 2018 to supposedly foster a “truly non-cancelable environment” for users—a promise that routinely protects categorically inaccurate information and hate speech—Parler is part of a burgeoning alternative online ecosystem for reactionary media figures and politicians, as well as their followers.

“Ye has become the richest Black man in history through music and apparel and is taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech,” Parler said in its statement. Ye is actually not the richest Black man in history, or even today—there are multiple other Black billionaires who outrank him including Oprah Winfrey and African cement magnate Aliko Dangote.

[Related: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter again.]

Parler’s shakeup comes barely a week after both Twitter and Instagram temporarily suspended Ye for posting antisemitic remarks, including a promise to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE [sic].” Earlier this month, Vice leaked unaired footage from an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that showed West espousing additional antisemitic tropes, alongside recounting his divinely-inspired plans for “kinetic energy” cities and his belief that his children have been replaced by “fake actors.” An episode of HBO’s unscripted series, The Shop: Uninterrupted, featuring Ye was also later pulled for similar content, and his existing business partnerships with Adidas and Gap are reportedly being reevaluated.

“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” Parler CEO George Farmer added via an additional statement posted on the platform. “Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.” Farmer is currently married to vocal conservative media figure Candace Owens, who is reported to be currently working as an “adviser” for Ye.

[Related: All the recent Twitter news you may have missed.]

While far from the most widespread or even recognizable social media option, Parler was extremely popular with rightwing users leading up to the January 6 insurrection attempt. Perpetrators utilized the app to organize and coordinate their push to overturn the 2020 Presidential election’s verified, legal results as well as using the app inside the breached Capitol building. Apple and Google banned Parler from their respective app stores in the ensuing fallout, but was reinstated by the former in April 2021 and the latter just last month.

A study earlier this year published via Slate found that “Parler’s business model, platform design features, and content management system—which gave outsized influence to high-profile Republican politicians… combined to make the social media platform and its users especially vulnerable to high levels of manipulation and exposure to what Facebook and researchers refer to as coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

The business deal announcement echoes a similar, ongoing saga between Elon Musk and Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has waged an on again/off again courtship to purchase the social media platform over the past year, citing vows to retool it into another “free speech” haven.

As of writing, Ye’s Parler account—created earlier today—has only 1,700 followers and zero posts.

The post Kanye West plans to buy so-called ‘free speech’ social media platform, Parler appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Debates surrounding the creative integrity, originality, and even legality of AI-assisted artwork are by now as common as the images themselves, with many communities going so far as to outright ban their usage in effort to save everyone a lot of time and potential headaches. While some might find the latest group to take a stance on the burgeoning AI art industry might seem a bit odd, their history makes them a somewhat predictable addition to Team No Thanks.

As first spotted by Motherboard, the newest anti-AI art individuals are the moderators behind the biggest subreddit dedicated to all things Dune. First introduced by author Frank Herbert via the 1965 novel of the same name, the “Duneiverse” now encompasses dozens of books, board and video games, as well as multiple media adaptations including last year’s blockbuster film directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, and Zendaya. Earlier this week, r/Dune mods issued a proclamation earlier this week banning all AI artwork from their 234,000 member message board. “We acknowledge that many of these pieces are neat to look at, and the technology sure is fascinating, but it does technically qualify as low-effort content,” reads their post published on Wednesday. “[E]specially when compared to original, ‘human-made’ art, which we would like to prioritize going forward.”

[Related: Novel with AI-made art gets US copyright.]

Programs like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion employ advanced machine learning techniques to their generate artwork. After being given a human-entered text prompt, these AI systems build a “new” picture by synthesizing datapoints and common features between millions of archived image examples. While many outputs are less than ideal, they are generally pretty entertaining, and sometimes extremely impressive. Critics such as r/Dune’s moderators know that the backend of these systems are incredibly complex and illuminating, but a person’s usage of them are as simple as thinking up a creative phrase to illustrate.

Of course, banning troublesome AI is incredibly familiar territory for diehard Dune fans. A major event in the epic sci-fi space opera’s 30,000-plus year timeline, The Butlerian Jihad refers to a multigenerational, universe-spanning war once waged between humans and “thinking machines.” The struggle’s conclusion results in the destruction and future prohibition of all artificial intelligence and advanced computer systems—millions of lives are lost, a new interstellar feudal society is established, and psychedelic spacetime drugs are discovered, all of which eventually leads to Timothée Chalamet riding atop a giant sandworm.

[Related: Tips for using Dall-E mini, aka Craiyon.]

Alright, so we’re skipping a few steps there, but you get the idea. In any case, r/Dune will no longer allow your DALL-E “Pikachu using a Bene Gesserit pain box” pictures. That said, the moderators have set up an entirely new subreddit, r/DuneAI, expressly made for all your AI Duneiverse fan art.

The post Moderators ban AI-generated artwork from ‘Dune’ subreddit appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Elon Musk threatened to cut off Ukrainian armed forces’ funding for vital Starlink terminals on Friday morning, suggesting that he is “merely following [the] recommendation” of a Ukrainian diplomat’s recent Twitter reply. On October 3, the multibillionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX suggested the country cede the entirety of Crimea to Russia via multiple social media polls, prompting Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany to tell Musk to, in so many words, back off.

Musk’s hint comes shortly after CNN relayed news this week that his satellite internet company recently informed the Pentagon it could no longer afford to continue offering aid to the nation, whose citizens have pushed back against invading Russian forces since February. Ukrainian military officials have repeatedly voiced their troops’ reliance on the satellite internet access.

[Related: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter (again).]

Unlike other forms of communication, Starlink’s satellite internet allows Ukrainian forces to coordinate and remain connected across the country even without standard cellular data and ground internet infrastructures. Using the company’s (pricey) terminals and antennae, users instead rely on a network of thousands of orbital satellites—far from Russian weaponry—to ensure they not only stay online, but are able to coordinate campaigns like drone and artillery strikes. Without them, Ukraine is “really operating in the blind in many cases,” explained one policy expert, per CNN’s report.

Despite Musk’s implication that the tipping point for Starlink cutting services to Ukraine could be due to Melnyk’s retort, the decision may be far more related to finances than word choice. “Though Musk has received widespread acclaim and thanks for responding to requests for Starlink service to Ukraine right as the war was starting, in reality, the vast majority of the 20,000 terminals have received full or partial funding from outside sources,” CNN exclusively reported in its summary of a recent letter delivered to the Pentagon from SpaceX. The US government, the UK, and Poland have already funded a combined 85-percent of all terminals made available to the Ukrainian military, per SpaceX’s own figures as seen by CNN.

[Related: The shuffling Optimus robot revealed at Tesla’s AI Day.]

SpaceX estimates that an entire year’s worth of Starlink terminals and support would run Ukraine and its allies $380 million. Musk is worth $212 billion, along with SpaceX which is valued at $127 billion—$2 billion of which was raised this past year. The day after Musk’s Twitter polls, he offered to buy the social media platform once again for $44 billion, after attempting to back out of the business acquisition earlier this year.

The post SpaceX says it can no longer fund Ukraine’s Starlink access appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

On the internet, you can find just about anything—and quite a bit of it is misinformation. Online-derived falsities can range from silly to outright dangerous, and all of it can capture the minds of lots and lots of people if it catches wind on social media. 

While social media giants have taken different approaches, with varying success levels, one unique way that Twitter is using its own users to fish out less-than-true facts from their feeds is a program called Birdwatch. And as of this morning, the fact-checking notes that Birdwatch contributors place on questionable statements will now be visible to Twitter users across the entire country.

[Related: Whistleblower tells Congress that Twitter has a spy problem.]

The service, which expanded last month with hopes of bringing on 1,000 more contributors a month, is more or less a peer-to-peer fact checking service. It is kind of like sharing notes on a Google document with your classmates. You may have written something down incorrectly, but if you’re lucky, one of your peers may be able to add a suggested correction and context to a comment that isn’t quite accurate. 

But, with millions and millions of users, having just anybody throw their thoughts in the ring isn’t always the best way to go. Birdwatch contributors go through a vetting process that helps determine how helpful their comments are. A “rating impact” score supposedly makes sure that the fact checkers let into the fold continue to do a good job at the risk of having their Birdwatching abilities revoked.

This is a feature of the “bridging algorithm” Twitter integrated into the program that finds consensus among multiple groups for content that is highlighted, versus just running it like a popularity contest based on number of upvotes. “This is a novel approach. We’re not aware of other areas where this has been done before,” Twitter Product VP Keith Coleman tells TechCrunch. In testing, apparently people are 20-40 percent less likely to agree with a “misleading” post after viewing Birdwatch notes compared to those who just saw the tweet. 

[Related: Twitter’s fact-checking program might be headed to your feed.]

But, all of this does come with concerns—research from nonprofit media institute Poynter found that the most “prolific” Birdwatcher user’s notes are more likely to mark tweets critical of conservative politicians as “misleading” while marking similar tweets critical of left-wing politicians as “not misleading.” Additionally, less than half of Birdwatch comments include a source, according to the Poynter research. As recently as last month, the community allowed a QAnon account into the project.

This all follows news that buyer Elon Musk is back in his attempts to purchase Twitter. What that means for Birdwatch, and for Twitter in general, is for now, up in the air. 

The post Twitter’s fact-checking service Birdwatch is headed for your feed appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Facebook users reportedly can soon better hone their Feeds through the introduction of “show more” and “show less” toggle options within posts. The update comes from Meta’s Newsroom blog earlier today, which details how users can qualify certain content with these two relevancy ratings, as well as how it all works.

“Selecting Show more will temporarily increase the ranking score for that post and posts like it. If you select Show less, you’ll temporarily decrease its ranking score,” explains the post, while adding that it’s not an entirely altruistic decision. “By offering more ways to incorporate direct feedback into Feed ranking, we’re making our artificial intelligence systems smarter and more responsive.”

[Related: Facebook’s latest feed change, explained.]

For now, Facebook users will occasionally see the “show more” and “show less” options on certain posts, but can soon access the update by clicking every post’s three-dot menu in its upper right-hand corner. Meta also notes that the addition will soon be tested within Reels, as well. As The Verge notes, Facebook users can already hide posts, which in turn lets the platform know it needs to reduce the amount of related content it suggests. Users can also highlight “favorite” friends to follow, as well as muting individuals, pages, and groups.

The new announcement is the latest in a string of Meta platform updates purportedly meant to draw users back to its own algorithm-based feeds as it weathers the rapid rise of competitors like TikTok. Last month, Meta-owned Instagram also announced its testing of a new way for users to make make lists of keywords and emoji they aren’t interested in seeing. Earlier this summer, Facebook also bowed to consumer criticism and brought back a separate Newsfeed option dedicated solely to one’s family and friends, as opposed to a mix of suggested content.

[Related: How to improve your Facebook News Feed.]

But despite Meta touting its new customization preferences, similar features aren’t always as helpful as they first appear. As noted in a recent report from Mozilla, the designers of the privacy-focused Firefox internet browser, YouTube has long offered similar “Interested” and “Not Interested” toggles for its suggested videos, but further investigation indicates they are largely ineffective. In the study, nearly 23,000 participants collectively rated almost 568,000,000 recommended videos on the platform, only to find that their decisions did very little to sway algorithms’ future suggestion decisions.

“[R]esearch suggests that YouTube is not really that interested in hearing what its users really want, preferring to rely on opaque methods that drive engagement regardless of the best interests of its users,” the study’s authors wrote at the time. Of course, YouTube and Facebook are owned by two very different Big Tech giants, so the latter’s new recommendation features could still provide real improvements for users (unless Mozilla proves otherwise).

The post You can now tell Facebook to stop feeding you posts you hate appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

According to Bloomberg, Washington Post, and NBC, Elon Musk has decided to reverse course, and is offering to move forward with his acquisition of Twitter at his original $44 billion offer of $54.20 per share. The move comes after months of backtracking attempts from Musk, during which time the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX alleged the social media company misled him and investors regarding the platform’s total user count, as well as the supposed severity of its bot problem. Since then, Musk and Twitter have been involved in a legal scuffle regarding the deal, with the latter attempting to hold him to his initial price point.

[Related: All the recent Twitter news you may have missed.]

Accepting the original proposal would likely avoid a headline-dominating trial between the two sides in which both Musk and Twitter executives would be expected to testify—one that many legal experts suggest Musk would lose. Last week’s pretrial release revealed text conversations comprising of hundreds of messages held Musk and prominent Big Tech, political, and media personalities including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and podcast giant Joe Rogan regarding Twitter’s future.

“Are you going to liberate twitter [sic] from the censorship happy mob?” Rogan is shown to have texted Musk at one point, to which Musk replied, “I will provide advice, which they may or may not choose to follow.” Another redacted individual speaking with Musk urged him to reinstitute previously banned “right winger” accounts. Elon Musk has previously said he would allow Donald Trump back on the platform.

[Related: The shuffling Optimus robot revealed at Tesla’s AI Day.]

As The Wall Street Journal notes, Musk’s newest about-face doesn’t ensure a done deal:

There are no guarantees they will reach a deal—or that the unpredictable Mr. Musk will follow through with his proposal and close the transaction. The five-day trial, set to begin Oct. 17, could still go forward as planned. Mr. Musk was set to be deposed later this week as part of the preparations for the trial.

Both parties purportedly have until the end of the day to present a plan forward to their judge. Elon Musk has long described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” and voiced his intentions to make Twitter reflect this, were he in charge of the company. Yesterday, he floated his solution to Russian ongoing invasion of Ukraine which included ceding territory to Vladimir Putin.

Update 10/04/22: The SEC has published Elon Musk’s letter of intent to purchase Twitter “and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related thereto pending such closing or further order of the Court.”

The post Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter (again) appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced today it is charging Kim Kardashian with “unlawfully touting” a cryptocurrency to her 225 million Instagram followers last year. Kardashian was paid $250,000 for the social media shoutout. Despite Kardashian including “#AD” at the bottom of her post promoting an altcoin called EthereumMax on June 12, 2021, the SEC explained that investors were not made fully aware of the sponsored content’s origins. The celebrity, reportedly worth $1.4 billion, is being fined approximately $1.27 million in repayments and penalties.

[Related: Bitcoin will not be going green anytime soon.]

The SEC has pushed for closer federal regulation of crypto and other virtual assets for years, and Kardashian’s brief, murky partnership is just one of the cases they have shined a light on. “This case is a reminder that, when celebrities or influencers endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, it doesn’t mean that those investment products are right for all investors,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said via an official press release. “We encourage investors to consider an investment’s potential risks and opportunities in light of their own financial goals.”

“ARE YOU INTO CRYPTO??? THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE BUT SHARING WHAT MY FRIENDS JUST TOLD ME ABOUT THE ETHEREUM MAX TOKEN,” Kardashian posted to Instagram last year, around the same time as other paid EthereumMax endorsers, including boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and former NBA star Paul Pierce, posted similar messages on social media. Both Mayweather and Pierce are involved in similar legal issues stemming from the sponsorship deals.

[Related: The Ethereum ‘merge,’ explained.]

If you hadn’t heard of EthereumMax (EMAX), the altcoin pushed by Kardashian last year, until today—you aren’t alone. As recounted by the SEC, the owning company’s “numerous direct statements that the EMAX tokens would rise in value” via “touting future deals and relationships that would ‘drive value'” haven’t amounted to literally anything. At current rates, a single EMAX token is worth roughly $0.00000000467 at the time of reporting: a 7-percent bump over yesterday’s valuation thanks to the recent headlines.

The post SEC fines Kim Kardashian $1.27 million for ‘unlawfully touting’ a cryptocurrency appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Update 10/19/22: Apple has restored VKontakte to its App Store after receiving proof that it is not currently “majority owned or controlled by a sanctioned entity.”

Tens of millions in Russia lost their ability to download one of the country’s most popular social networks earlier this week. Apple announced Tuesday that it removed VKontakte (VK) from its global App Stores. Apple explained via spokesperson to The Verge that the decision is meant to comply with the UK government’s most recent round of sanctions against Russian elites—some with ties to VK—following a series of “illegal sham [election] referendums in Ukraine.”

“These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government,” Apple spokesperson Adam Dema said in a statement to The Verge. “In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location.”

[Related: Meta says it’s shut down a giant Russian misinformation network.]

However, users who have already downloaded the app may continue to use it on Apple devices. “In addition, you can use the mobile version of the site m.vk.com and desktop version with full functionality,” VKontakte wrote in an official press release translated from Russian and published Tuesday, adding that the company “will continue to develop and maintain iOS applications. Our experts are doing everything to maintain and continue to improve user comfort.”

Apple’s drastic restrictions are only the latest in a long line of Western divestments from Russia in the wake of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would cease selling physical products in the country. Additional businesses including Netflix, Microsoft, TikTok, and Roku have all introduced their own restrictions in service, access, and product availability.

[Related: 7 tips and tricks to become a Telegram power user.]

Founded in 2006 by Pavel Durov, VK is now Russia’s second-largest internet company. It is ostensibly the country’s equivalent to Facebook, and offers a suite of services including email, messaging, and marketplace apps. Durov was pushed out in 2014 for “refus[ing] to cooperate with the authorities,” and now oversees the privacy-focused communications app, Telegram. As of writing, VKontakte is still available on the Google Play Store.

The post Apple removes VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network, from the App Store appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

When you download an app, you generally expect the that it is the same version that everyone else is already using. That may be the case within individual countries, but a new study from a group of researchers at the University of Michigan surveying the global app availability landscape not only determined a wide array of discrepancies in both availability and features, but also identified how users’ privacy and security varies even when using the same app in various countries.

“While our study corroborates reports of takedowns due to government requests, we also found many differences introduced by app developers,” notes co-author Renuka Kumar in a summary for The Conversation. “We found instances of apps with settings and disclosures that expose users to higher or lower security and privacy risks depending on the country in which they’re downloaded.”

[Related: A ‘Data safety section’ is coming to Google Play Store.]

Kumar and colleagues poured over data from globally popular apps across the top 22 app categories in the Google Play Store, and found a staggering amount of geoblocking—aka online restrictions based on geographic location. Of the 5,684 apps surveyed, 3,672 were found to be unavailable in at least one of the 26 countries included in the study. While some of these instances likely boiled down to copyright issues, many more were due to nations’ own laws regarding issues like online gambling and political leanings. “While the Indian government’s takedown of Chinese apps happened with full public disclosure, surprisingly most of the takedowns we observed occurred without much public awareness or debate,” wrote Kumar.

Apart from simple availability, the team found a wide spectrum of differences within the apps’ security and data privacy regulations. 127 apps varied depending on location in what they were allowed to access on users’ phones , “49 of which had additional permissions deemed ‘dangerous’ by Google.” Canada is listed as one of the countries requesting the most additional permissions, alongside Bahrain and Tunisia.

[Related: App usage stands at 4-5 hours a day.]

Over 100 of the studied apps featured differing privacy policies based on country, and particularly posed a problem to consumers living under California’s Consumer Privacy Act and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. To top it off, almost 30 apps using dangerous permissions “make no mention [on this usage], despite Google’s policy requiring them to do so.”

Researchers offered a number of recommendations to begin addressing these issues, including urging app makers to better moderate countries’ targeting features, provide more detailed app takedown transparency reports, increase app vetting, and push for better developer clarity regarding their decisions to change app policies. The team also suggested to “host app privacy policies themselves to ensure their availability when the policies are blocked in certain countries.”

While unsurprising, the report is a sobering reminder a major goal for many apps is to reach as many people (and their data) as possible. Hardly anyone reads all those Terms & Conditions litanies, but studies like this one might you pause before pressing download.

The post App privacy depends a lot on where you were when you downloaded it appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Meta announced today that it has successfully dismantled what David Agranovich, the company’s director of threat disruption, called “probably the largest and most complex” Russian misinformation and propaganda social media campaign since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

As first reported by the Associated Press this morning, accounts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as non-Meta owned platforms like Telegram and Twitter, had been linking to websites that mimicked reputable European news sources such as The Guardian and Der Spiegel. Those sites, in turn, included fake stories with headlines like “Video: False Staging in Bucha Revealed,” referring to the confirmed Russian massacre of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in April.

[Related: Russian gas and Europe’s energy crisis affects CERN.]

Meta explained that over 1,600 fake accounts were used throughout the summer to spread misinformation within countries including the U.K., Germany, Italy, France, and Ukraine. In at least a handful of occurrences, official Facebook accounts of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia amplified these stories. Still, Meta alleges its security experts were able to identify and cut off the campaign before it “gained a large audience,” according to the AP. Although the tactics have not yet been explicitly linked to the Russian government, the amplification by actual country diplomats, as well as the level of sophistication regarding timing and multi-language translation, points towards a highly organized and well-funded effort, says AP.

[Related: It’s possible to inoculate yourself against misinformation.]

Social media propaganda techniques are nothing new within the online ecosystem and continually present challenges to tech companies as bad actors evolve and shift tactics to evade detection. Critics often point to evidence that entities like Meta and Twitter aren’t doing enough to combat the dire situation, so this move to uncover the expansive operation and subsequently address it is crucial. Unfortunately, pro-Russian online actors are likely already hard at work on their next methods of misinformation.

The post Meta says it’s shut down a giant Russian misinformation network appeared first on Popular Science.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.