This follows increased concern from US and EU lawmakers over how biometric technology is being used by companies, and Mircrosoft’s own research that resulted in a lack of consensus that the mechanism worked.
Instagram is testing new age verification tools, which could be good, however the company objective seems focused more on knowing user information than on keeping young children safely off the platform. Plans include verifying ages by 1) asking teens to submit ID, which the company would store, then later delete; 2) having teens ask three adult friends to vouch for their age; and 3) inviting them to submit a “video selfie,” which the parent company Meta would scan to “guess” ages. The second idea seems promising, but the other two... Read More >
Meta bought CrowdTangle in 2016. But rather than committing to fighting the misinformation, Meta seems to prefer not risking more PR embarrassment, since some of what was previously identified was on their own Facebook and Instagram sites.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.