Technology

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) Twitter, which is locked in a legal battle with the Indian government over content blocking orders, banned 45,191 accounts of the Indian users in the month of July over violation of its guidelines, the microblogging platform said in its monthly compliance report on Friday.

Twitter suspended 42,825 accounts for promoting child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and similar content in India, while blocking another 2,366 accounts for promoting terrorism, it said in its monthly compliance report as per the new IT Rules, 2021.

The microblogging platform received 874 grievances in the country through its local grievance mechanism between June 26-July 25, and took action on 70 complaints.

In June, Twitter had banned more than 43,140 accounts of the Indian users.

"While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our platform, we do not tolerate behaviour that harasses, threatens, dehumanises, or uses fear to silence the voices of others," Twitter said in the report.

Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.

Twitter receives complaints in its Grievance Officer-India channel that relate to account verification, account access, or seeking assistance or information regarding an account or Twitter's enforcement actions.

In addition, Twitter processed 124 grievances which were appealing account suspensions.

"These were all resolved and the appropriate responses were sent. We overturned none of these account suspensions after reviewing the specifics of the situation," said the company.

The compliance report came as whistleblower Peiter Zatko, former head of security at Twitter, alleged that the Indian government forced the platform to "hire a government agent on its payroll" and "grant access to sensitive user data", a claim which has been dismissed by Twitter.

In May, Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court against the Indian government's order to take down some content on its platform.

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New York, Sep 2 (IANS) YouTube is showing more election-fraud videos to users already skeptical about the legitimacy of the 2020 US presidential election, a study has revealed, showing how its algorithms perpetuate existing misperceptions.

The study, published in the Journal of Online Trust and Safety, found that those most skeptical of the election's legitimacy were shown three times as many election-fraud-related videos as were the least skeptical participants -- roughly eight additional recommendations out of approximately 400 videos suggested to each study participant.

The findings expose the consequences of a recommendation system that provides users with the content they want.

"For those most concerned about possible election fraud, showing them related content provided a mechanism by which misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies can find their way to those most likely to believe them," said the authors of the study.

Importantly, these patterns reflect the independent influence of the algorithm on what real users are shown while using the platform.

"Our findings uncover the detrimental consequences of recommendation algorithms and cast doubt on the view that online information environments are solely determined by user choice," said James Bisbee, who led the study at New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP).

Nearly two years after the 2020 presidential election, large numbers of Americans, particularly Republicans, don't believe in the legitimacy of the outcome.

"Roughly 70 per cent of Republicans don't see Biden as the legitimate winner," despite "multiple recounts and audits that confirmed Joe Biden's win," the Poynter Institute said earlier this year.

While it's well-known that social media platforms, such as YouTube, direct content to users based on their search preferences, the consequences of this dynamic may not be fully realised.

"Many believe that automated recommendation algorithms have little influence on online aecho chambers' in which users only see content that reaffirms their preexisting views," said Bisbee, now an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.

"This highlights the need for further investigation into how opaque recommendation algorithms operate on an issue-by-issue basis," said Bisbee.

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San Francisco, Sep 2 (IANS) Tech giant Apple is likely planning to declare some iPod models, including the last iPod nano, a few models of the final iPod shuffle, and fifth-generation iPod touch models, obsolete later this month.

In a memo sent to authorised service providers, the tech giant said that the late 2012 model of the iPod shuffle, alongside the seventh-generation iPod nano and the fifth-generation model iPod touch, will be marked as obsolete on September 30, reports MacRumors.

Apple has already designated the 16GB model of the fifth-generation iPod touch as obsolete, and it plans to add the 32GB and 64GB models to the list later this month.

The tech giant discontinued the iPod nano and iPod shuffle entirely in 2017, while the iPod touch remained available until earlier this year.

When the iPod touch was discontinued, Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak said the "spirit of iPod lives on" across other Apple products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod mini.

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New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) Bharti Airtel on Thursday launched a new Cloud portfolio to offer specialised products for multiple business segments, as the company plnas to roll out 5G services in the country.

The new cloud offerings will fall under Edge Cloud Portfolio and will include Edge content delivery network (CDN).

Airtel Cloud's Edge CDN accelerates web and video content delivery by using its edge network to bring content as close to users as possible.

This reduces latency, costs and load on servers making it easier for enterprises to focus on app performance for OTT, ed-tech, gaming and healthcare sectors.

"Airtel has three key strengths to offer a differentiated set of cloud offerings – we have 12 large data centres and 120+ edge locations. We also have a network with comprehensive coverage across the country and to most locations across the globe," said Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business.

Airtel is currently working with two of the largest OTT companies in India and others on this platform.

"With 5G around the corner, businesses will leverage the low latency, high bandwidth and high device density of the 5G spectrum to solve critical problems using edge computing," said Chitkara.

Airtel said it will utilise Edge Cloud applicationd eveloper Qwilt's 'Open Edge Cloud' solution for deployment.

"Our edge architecture provides a new economic model for streaming delivery, in which Airtel Cloud's Edge CDN plays a central role in the end-to-end value chain," said Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt.

Airtel recently became the first company to test a captive private network at the Bosch facility in Bengaluru. Airtel is also rolling out its Edge compute service to customers.

The company said there will be many targeted cloud solutions coming in for specific industry requrements soon.

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San Francisco, Sep 1 (IANS) Tech giant Apple may use "hybrid" OLED technology, which incorporates rigid and flexible OLED panel materials, as part of its rumoured plans to switch to OLED technology for upcoming iPad models.

The tech giant is hesitant to rely solely on the flexible OLED technology it employs in its iPhone models since the panels tend to "crumple", and the effect is more evident as displays get bigger, MacRumors reported citing The Elec.

"When it became known that Apple plans to apply hybrid OLED to the first OLED iPad, the industry has assumed that the cause was cost reduction," the report said.

However, it is understood that there is a reason why Apple preferred hybrid OLED other than this cost reduction.

An official from the parts industry said: "Apple hated the fact that a part of the product screen could look wrinkled to the user's eyes when using a flexible OLED.

"iPhone OLED has a 5-7 inch screen, so these characteristics are not well revealed, but it is relatively noticeable in large-screen (10-20 inch) IT products."

While the hybrid OLED technology has yet to be perfected and will take at least a year to become commercially viable before it could be incorporated into an OLED iPad by around 2024, the report said, adding that both Samsung and LG are pursuing ultra-thin glass substrates measuring just 0.2 mm thick to be used with the technology, down from the current standard of around 0.5 mm.

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New York, Aug 31 (IANS) Sharing articles on Facebook or Twitter, even when we haven't read them, can lead us to believe we are experts on a particular topic and this can be a risky situation, new research has revealed.

Sharing news articles with friends and followers on social media can prompt people to think they know more about the articles' topics than they actually do, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin in the US.

"When people feel they're more knowledgeable, they're more likely to make riskier decisions," said assistant professor Adrian Ward.

The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, said that social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline.

"Sharing can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers publicly commit to an expert identity. Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem," the findings showed.

To reach this conslusion, Susan M Broniarczyk and Ward Broniarczyk conducted several studies.

They found that people internalise their sharing into the self-concept, which leads them to believe they are as knowledgeable as their posts make them appear.

"Participants thought they knew more when their sharing publicly committed them to an expert identity: when sharing under their own identity versus an alias, when sharing with friends versus strangers, and when they had free choice in choosing what to share," said the study.

The research suggests there's merit to social media companies that have piloted ways to encourage people to read articles before sharing.

"If people feel more knowledgeable on a topic, they also feel they maybe don't need to read or learn additional information on that topic," Broniarczyk said. "This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct."

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San Francisco, Aug 31 (IANS) US-based action camera manufacturer GoPro may soon launch its flagship Hero11 model with some improvements in sensor and updates to the feature list.

GoPro Hero10, a flagship-grade model, was capable of recording videos in 5.3K resolution at 60 frames per second. It also had a 23MP sensor as well.

Now, the new report has revealed that the new Hero11 will practically be identical to the Hero10 in terms of design, citing WinFuture, GizmoChina reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the new model may include two displays, one at the back and the other next to the camera sensor at the front. The Hero11 Black might look the same as the Hero10 Black, with dual displays and identical button placements.

The upcoming action camera may even support 6K resolution and also offer better HDR recording as well, as per the report.

Meanwhile, GoPro Hero10 Black was launched in India last year for Rs 54,500 with a new GP2 processor.

The new processor enables HyperSmooth 4.0 video stabilisation for steadier shots. It also ensures higher resolution 23MP photos, and improved low-light performance.

GoPro Hero10 Black also has the ability to use the camera as a webcam for Zoom and Team calls.

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San Francisco, Aug 31 (IANS) Truth Social, the social media platform launched by Donald Trump to counter Twitter, is yet to get approval from Google Play Store and the former US President's company was working "in good faith with Google".

Google has notified Truth Social of "several violations of standard policies in their current app submission", reiterating that "having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play".

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that it has "no desire to litigate its business matters in the public sphere, but for the record, has promptly responded to all inquiries from Google".

It said that the Truth Social Android app complies with Google's policies without compromising the promise to be "a haven for free speech".

"As our users know, Truth Social is building a vibrant, family-friendly environment that works expeditiously to remove content that violates its Terms of Service, which independent observers have noted are among the most robust in the industry," the company said.

It alleged that some of its competitors' apps are allowed in the Google Play Store despite "rampantly violating Google's prohibition on sexual content and other policies, whereas Truth Social has zero tolerance for sexually explicit content".

Truth Social was launched in the Apple App Store on February 21.

According to reports, Truth Social is strapped for cash and facing tech and legal troubles.

"The most immediate problem is the platform's stalled SPAC, initially planned as a way to publicly trade shares in the new company without the diligence of an IPO," reports The Verge.

An SEC filings show that the company has lost over $6 million in the first half of this year and hasn't generated any revenue.

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San Francisco, Aug 31 (IANS) Tech giant Apple's upcoming fourth-generation iPhone SE is allegedly going to be identical to the iPhone XR, which was launched in 2018.

According to AppleInsider, the tech giant's expected fourth generation iPhone SE will effectively be a reworked iPhone XR. The prediction made by leaker Jon Prosser is most likely just a sensible extrapolation of Apple's prior designs for the iPhone SE, the report said.

To produce the less expensive iPhone SE model, Apple likes to modify the hardware from previous models slightly. The original model from 2016 modified the hardware from the iPhone 5S from 2013. Based on the iPhone 8, the 2022 model was created. First spotted by AppleTrackr, Prosser predicted on the Geared Up podcast.

"The iPhone SE 4, likely coming next year, will essentially be a rebranded iPhone XR. Expect a 6.1-inch display with Face ID, 12MP rear camera and IP67 water and dust resistance," Apple Track tweeted.

Meanwhile, in March, the tech giant launched the third generation iPhone SE with support for 5G networks in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB models in midnight, starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED, starting at Rs 43,900. It features a 4.7-inch Retina HD display with a 750x1334 pixels resolution that brings 326ppi of pixel density and has up to 625 nits of peak brightness.

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New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Google has launched a new bug bounty programme where it will award up to $31,337 (nearly Rs 25 lakh) to researchers who spot vulnerabilities in the company's Open Source projects.

Depending on the severity of the vulnerability and the project's importance, rewards will range from $100 to $31,337.

The larger amounts will also go to unusual or particularly interesting vulnerabilities, "so creativity is encouraged," said Google while launching its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Programme (OSS VRP).

As the maintainer of major projects such as Golang, Angular, and Fuchsia, Google is among the largest contributors and users of open source in the world.

Last year, Google saw a 650 per cent year-over-year increase in attacks targeting the open source supply chain.

With the addition of Google's own vulnerability reward programme (VRP), researchers can now be rewarded for finding bugs that could potentially impact the entire open source ecosystem.

The original VRP programme was one of the first in the world and is now approaching its 12th anniversary.

"Over time, our VRP lineup has expanded to include programmes focused on Chrome, Android, and other areas. Collectively, these programs have rewarded more than 13,000 submissions, totalling over $38 million paid," Google said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Google said its OSS VRP is part of "our $10 billion commitment to improving cybersecurity, including securing the supply chain against these types of attacks for both Google's users and open source consumers worldwide".

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