Meta overhauled its approach to US moderation on Tuesday, ditching fact-checking, announcing a plan to move its trust and safety teams, and perhaps most impactfully, updating its Hateful Conduct policy. As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added, or removed, but here are some of the changes that jumped out at us.

These two sections outlining speech (written or visual) are new additions:

We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird.”

We do allow content arguing for gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs. We also allow the same content based on sexual orientation, when the content is based on religious beliefs.

Another section that specifically banned making dehumanizing references to transgender or non-binary people as “it” or referring to women “as household objects or property or objects in general” has been removed entirely.

The opening statement about what the policies are “designed to allow room for” that previously listed only health or positive support groups has changed too (new additions marked in bold):

People sometimes use sex- or gender-exclusive language when discussing access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement, or teaching roles, and health or support groups. Other times, they call for exclusion or use insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality. Finally, sometimes people curse at a gender in the context of a romantic break-up. Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.

The section that specifically banned targeting people or groups “with claims that they have or spread the novel coronavirus” has also been removed.

A link to this 2017 blog post about the “hard questions” Meta faces dealing with hate speech has been removed, and some references to hate speech are now changed to “hateful conduct.”

The policy still says that content about denying access to spaces and social services “on the basis of their protected characteristics” is not allowed, but there’s also a new exception (the added text is in bold):

...except for sex or gender-based exclusion from spaces commonly limited by sex or gender, such as restrooms, sports and sports leagues, health and support groups, and specific schools

Even before these changes, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD reported last year that Meta often failed to remove posts violating its hate speech policies. Now, even those guardrails that had been established to protect people from internet harassment are disappearing.

“Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives. With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement responding to the changes.

A note from Meta’s new policy chief Joel Kaplan said, “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate. It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.” Wired also reports that the changes “blindsided” organizations that have been partnering with Meta on its now-discarded moderation efforts, with one unnamed editor at a fact-checking organization saying the effect of the decision “is going to eventually drain us out.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the performance of his company’s AI chips is advancing faster than historical rates set by Moore’s Law, the rubric that drove computing progress for decades. “Our systems are progressing way faster than Moore’s Law,” said Huang in an interview with TechCrunch on Tuesday, the morning after he delivered a keynote […]

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People have abandoned their cars to escape the flames in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of L.A.

A soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI - including ChatGPT - to help plan the attack, police have said.

Different sources have already reported on the possible launch of new iPads and iPhone SE 4 in the first half of 2025. While Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously said that these products will be launched in the spring, he has now specified that Apple expects to launch the new iPads and iPhone SE 4 “by April.”

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You knew a man was gonna turn into a wolf, but did you want to see it out of context of the movie?

You probably didn’t have X CEO Linda Yaccarino praising Meta and Mark Zuckerberg on your CES 2025 bingo card, yet here we are. Speaking during a keynote address in Las Vegas, Yaccarino described Meta’s decision to end its longtime fact checking program and implement community notes as “exciting” and “validating.”

Yaccarino and and X owner Elon Musk have both championed the crowd-sourced fact-checking feature that Meta now plans to emulate on its own services. “I think it’s really exciting when you think about community notes being good for the world … and it couldn’t be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realize that,” Yaccarino said. “Mark, Meta, welcome to the party.”

Meta and Zuckerberg may find themselves in dubious company at the “party,” however. While X often touts the number of users who contribute to Community Notes, some researchers have pointed out flaws in the feature. A report last year from misinformation researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) noted that many misleading posts, including prominent posts from Musk himself, can rack up billions of views without receiving a correction.

It’s not surprising at all that Yaccarino would praise Zuckerberg's move to cut ties with the media institutions that have been its longtime partners for fact-checking content on Facebook and Instagram. Like her boss Musk, she’s made no secret of her disdain for “legacy media,” and she spent a significant portion of her time onstage railing against “legacy news that is designed to make you think a certain way.”

Zuckerberg’s move to loosen its content moderation standards is the latest sign of just how far the Facebook founder is willing to go to realign himself with the political right as Donald Trump prepares to take office. He also added a prominent Trump backer, UFC CEO Dana White, to Meta’s board and elevated the company’s most prominent Republican executive to run global affairs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/linda-yaccarino-on-meta-ending-fact-checking-welcome-to-the-party-231304753.html?src=rss

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The H5N1 bird flu situation in the US seems more fraught than ever this week as the virus continues to spread swiftly in dairy cattle and birds while sporadically jumping to humans.

On Monday, officials in Louisiana announced that the person who had developed the country's first severe H5N1 infection had died of the infection, marking the country's first H5N1 death. Meanwhile, with no signs of H5N1 slowing, seasonal flu is skyrocketing, raising anxiety that the different flu viruses could mingle, swap genetic elements, and generate a yet more dangerous virus strain.

But, despite the seemingly fever-pitch of viral activity and fears, a representative for the World Health Organization today noted that risk to the general population remains low—as long as one critical factor remains absent: person-to-person spread.

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Experts warn that Meta’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program could allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.

The company announced today that it’s phasing out a program launched in 2016 where it partners with independent fact-checkers around the world to identify and review misinformation across its social media platforms. Meta is replacing the program with a crowdsourced approach to content moderation similar to X’s Community Notes.

Meta is essentially shifting responsibility to users to weed out lies on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, raising fears that it’ll be easier to spread misleading information about climate change, clean energy, public health risks, and communities often targeted with violence.

“It’s going to hurt Meta’s users first because the program worked well at reducing the virality of hoax content and conspiracy theories,” says Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter.

“A lot of people think Community Notes-style moderation doesn’t work at all and it’s merely window dressing so that platforms can say they’re...

Read the full story at The Verge.

CES 2025 is officially underway in Las Vegas. Monday’s press day saw keynotes from Samsung, Nvidia, Toyota, and Sony, among others, while Tuesday was all about the exciting new gadgets on the show floor. TechCrunch reporters are on the ground giving you the latest reveals at the conference.  Below, you’ll find a list of the […]

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According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta trust and safety workers will be relocated to Texas to prevent them from “censoring” users. Experts point to other advantages.

This year, it’s shaping up to be AI, all the time.

For several years, an innovative, California-based launch company named Relativity Space has been the darling of investors and media.

Relativity promised to disrupt launch by taking a somewhat niche technology in the space industry at the time, 3D printing, and using it as the foundation for manufacturing rockets. The pitch worked. Relativity's chief executive Tim Ellis liked to brag that his first investor call was to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who cut the company's first check. Cuban invested half a million dollars.

That was just the beginning of the torrent of fundraising by Ellis, who, by November 2023, turned the privately held Relativity into a $4.5 billion company following its latest, Series F funding. This was an impressive start for the company founded by Ellis and Jordan Noone, both engineers, in 2016.

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The original StanByMe portable TV and the Inspector Gadget-like briefcase follow-up were surprisingly popular, so of course, we’re getting a new one to kick off 2025. I like to imagine LG literally toting the StanbyME 2 to CES by the carrying straps you can affix to it, as the rep did in this video below.

The 27-inch 1440p touchscreen on the StanbyME 2 should offer a sharper picture than the original’s 1080p. It also lasts longer with a four-hour battery life, up from three and a half, but LG has not revealed pricing or availability details.

You can still mount the TV to a floor stand that holds and charges it, but LG is unashamedly emphasizing its portability with the carrying strap, which you can also use to hang from a wall like a picture frame on a sturdy enough hook. It’s also compatible with a folio cover that protects the display during transport and doubles as a tabletop stand, and you can magnetically attach the remote to the top of the TV. It has two USB-C ports that you can use for charging and peripherals like webcams, plus a traditional HDMI input.

These upgrades feel relatively minor, but if you aspire to be a modern-day Radio Raheem with a TV on your shoulder — and, presumably, the matching pill-shaped StanbyME XT7 Bluetooth speaker under your arm — the StanbyME 2 might be the television for you.

Baseus announced a new power bank at CES 2025 that does double duty as a portable charger and a mobile hotspot. The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank is expected to be available sometime in April 2025 for $89.99 and will be compatible with 4G networks in over 100 countries including the US, Canada, and Japan.

Up to 10 devices can be wirelessly connected to the power bank over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Download speeds are expected to be up to 50Mbps, but that will vary depending on the network it’s connected to and signal strength. Pricing for the mobile data hasn’t been announced, but the company says it will offer “flexible network plans with no monthly fees or usage restrictions” that can be customized through a mobile app.

The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank also includes two USB-C ports, a single USB-A port on top, and a short integrated USB-C charging cable that doubles as a carrying strap. It has a 20,000mAh battery inside but its power output maxes out at 67W, so larger devices, like some laptops, will need to fly solo to get enough power to charge. A display subtly integrated into the side of the power bank provides details on its remaining charge, power output, and wireless connectivity.

Image: Baseus

Baseus also debuted a more traditional 20,000mAh power bank today featuring two integrated USB-C charging cables, one of which fully retracts.

It also offers USB-C and USB-A ports for connecting your own cables, up to 100W of power delivery for a single device, and a small screen displaying current power output and the power bank’s remaining charge level. It’s expected to be available sometime in April 2025 priced at $99.99.

Baseus is following Anker’s lead and debuting new charging accessories at CES 2025 that could help ensure you’re never hunting for missing charging cables. The company is expanding its Enercore line with a new $69.99 wall charger, expected as soon as April 2025, featuring a pair of built-in USB-C cables that fully retract and stay out of the way when not in use.

The retractable cables on the Baseus Enercore CJ11 are each a little over 32 inches long and work alongside an additional USB-C port so you can also use cables with different connectors. The charger can deliver up to 67W of power with one device connected, allowing you to charge a power-hungry device like a laptop. With two or three of its ports in use, the total power output drops to 65W.

Image: Baseus

Baseus also announced a new car charger with more functionality than the one Anker released last November. The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max also features two built-in retractable USB-C cables that are just over 31 inches in length, plus an additional USB-C and USB-A port on its base.

Image: Baseus

It connects to a vehicle’s auxiliary power outlet and delivers a total of 240W of power across all four ports and up to a maximum of 105W to a single port. It’s expected to be available in April 2025 priced at $44.99.

Baseus has announced a new version of its solar-powered security camera at CES 2025 that improves video quality from 2K to 4K and extends battery life from 180 to 210 days. But like the previous version, the new Baseus Security S2 camera can potentially run indefinitely using a battery-charging solar panel on top that tilts left and right throughout the day to maximize its exposure to the sun.

The company hasn’t announced when the Baseus Security S2 will be available or what it will cost, but the older S1 model currently sells for $129.99 through retailers like Amazon.

Without the need for connecting it to power, Baseus says the S2 camera can be installed in about five minutes and in places where running a power line could be difficult or expensive. The only installation limitations are finding a place with enough sun exposure if you’re hoping to completely avoid charging the camera yourself and a spot that’s in range of your Wi-Fi network.

The S2 camera doesn’t come with any subscription fees as everything captured by its 4K camera (with a 145-degree field of view and night vision capabilities) is stored locally on the device. Its capacity can be expanded with a microSD card up to 256GB in size, but as with many battery-powered security cameras, the S2 doesn’t support 24/7 continuous recording.

Baseus’ camera only records events detected by its passive infrared and radar-based motion sensors. Nothing is uploaded or stored in the cloud, but recordings are remotely accessible through a mobile app. The S2 also features AI-powered object detection with the ability to differentiate people, pets, and vehicles and provide notifications based on what it spotted. Through the app, you can also define activity zones for specific areas you want the camera to focus on, and it includes both Amazon Alexa and Google home compatibility.

AI startup Anthropic, known for its AI assistant Claude, is reportedly in discussions to secure $2 billion in funding. If successful, this round would push the company’s valuation to an impressive $60 billion, positioning it as a major contender in […]

The post AI startup Anthropic is raising $2B in new funding at $60 billion valuation first appeared on Tech Startups.

X wants to make its platform a home to the future of news and journalism. On that front, the company has now hired John Stoll, a former editor and Detroit bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal, to lead its news group and partnership team at X. The hiring news was announced on Tuesday during […]

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Amazon Ads revealed at CES in Las Vegas that brands using its data clean room, Amazon Marketing Cloud, can now query up to five years of purchase signals from the ecommerce giant for measurement use cases. Amazon Marketing Cloud is Amazon's privacy-safe, cloud-based clean room that advertisers use to plan and measure ads. Previously, Amazon...