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Last year, Twitter sued India over orders to block content within the country, saying the government had applied its 2021 IT laws "arbitrarily and disproportionately." Now, India's Karnataka High Court has dismissed the plea, with a judge saying Twitter had failed to explain why it delayed complying with the new laws in the first place, TechCrunch has reported. The court also imposed a 5 million rupee ($61,000 fine) on the Elon Musk-owned firm. 

"Your client (Twitter) was given notices and your client did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is seven years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client," the judge told Twitter's legal representation. "So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay… then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company."

Twitter’s relationship with India was fraught for much of 2021. In February, the government threatened to jail Twitter employees unless the company removed content related to protests by farmers held that year. Shortly after that, India ordered Twitter to pull tweets criticizing the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, the government ordered Twitter to block tweets from Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that claimed India was an example of a country where freedom of the press is on the decline.

Those incidents put Twitter in a compromising situation. It either had to comply with government orders to block content (and face censorship criticism inside and outside the country), or ignore them and risk losing its legal immunity. In August, it complied with the orders and took down content as ordered.

The court order follows recent comments from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, saying that India threatened to raid employees homes if it didn't comply with orders to remove posts and accounts. In a tweet, India's deputy minister for information technique called that "an outright lie" saying Twitter was "in non-compliance with the law." 

Twitter filed the suit around the same time that Elon Musk started trying to wiggle out of buying Twitter. Since then, Twitter has often complied with government takedown requests — most recently in Turkey, where it limited access to some tweets ahead of a tightly contested election won by incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again here: There aren't many options left when it comes to true compact smartphones. (RIP, iPhone mini). But ASUS is willing to offer something. The new Zenfone 10 looks like a carbon copy of its predecessor, and even its 50-megapixel main camera has remained unchanged. Still, the company claims that it’s now powered by a new version of 6-axis gimbal stabilization — a combination of hardware optical stabilization, upgraded electronic stabilization algorithm and fast auto-focus. This apparently lets you capture smoother videos and less blurry photos while on the move. ASUS has extended its "Connex" modular case system once again, which lets you snap either a kickstand or a silicone cardholder into the grid of holes on the back of the case. You can even assign an app — YouTube, by default — to auto-launch whenever the kickstand is flipped out. The Zenfone 10 (all details right here) will be available for pre-order in Europe from June 29, starting from €799 (about $870), with US availability TBC.

– Mat Smith

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Virgin Galactic completes its first commercial spaceflight

The debut is 10 years in the making.

Virgin

Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight. After launching aboard the mothership VMS Eve, the spaceship VSS Unity reached an altitude of around 52 miles, or the edge of space. Itss first client was the Italian government, which had the aim of conducting microgravity research. The company's first fully crewed spaceflight took place in 2021, when Unity hit an altitude of 53.4 miles with founder Richard Branson on board. However, commercial service was delayed multiple times for different reasons, most recently due to issues with upgrading the mothership VMS Eve. From a financial perspective, the launch was crucial for Virgin Galactic. With no paying customers until now, the company has lost money for years, with it burning more than $500 million in 2022 alone.

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It’s a good time to be a fighting-game fan

It’s the biggest year for fighting games since the ‘90s.

While fighting games may never have the same mass-market appeal they did in the '90s, 2023 is proving to be a mini-renaissance for the genre. Street Fighter 6 is already on sale, Mortal Kombat 1 is arriving this fall, and there's Tekken 8 still to come. That's without mentioning the upcoming reboot of Dead or Alive or Riot Games' League of Legends spin-off Project L. It's a good time to be a fighting game fan.

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Google will pull news links in Canada in response to new law

The search firm is joining Meta in reacting to Bill C-18.

Meta isn't the only internet heavyweight removing news content in response to Canada's newly enacted Bill C-18 (aka the Online News Act), which requires that tech companies negotiate compensation with publishers for linked material. Google now says it will pull links to Canadian news stories from its search, News and Discover services in the country. It will also stop operating its News Showcase in Canada when C-18 takes effect in six months. As with Meta, Google is using the threat of blocking news as a bargaining tool, but there's no guarantee of a compromise. Politicians drafted Bill C-18 after concerns about a steep drop in ad revenue for publications over the past two decades.

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Joby Aviation has been cleared by the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) to start flight tests on its first production prototype air taxi, the company wrote in a press release. It's a large step in the company's aim to start shipping the eVTOL aircraft (electric vertical takeoff and landing) to customers in 2024 and launch an air taxi service by 2025. 

"The aircraft will now undergo initial flight testing before being delivered to Edwards Air Force Base, California, where it will be used to demonstrate a range of potential logistics use cases," Joby wrote. 

The aircraft can take off and land like a helicopter, then tilt its six rotors horizontally and fly like an airplane at up to 200 MPH. It's designed to carry a pilot and four passengers over a distance up to 100 miles on a charge — enough range for most types of air taxi operations. At the same time, Joby claims it's nearly silent in cruise mode and 100 times quieter than conventional aircraft during takeoff and landing.

Joby's first production prototype recently rolled off the company's assembly line in Marina, California. The plant was built in partnership with Toyota, Joby's largest investor with a $394 million stake. Cementing that relationship, Joby announced that it was appointing Toyota North America CEO Tetsuo (Ted) Ogawa to the board of directors.

With the the FAA's special airworthiness certificate in hand, Joby can perform flight tests of full production aircraft, following tests with full-scale prototypes that began in 2017. In May last year, the company received another crucial permit, the FAA's Part 135 air carrier certificate for commercial operations. It recently teamed with Delta Air Lines to offer travel to and from airports, and its website shows a scenario of flying from downtown NYC to JFK airport in just seven minutes compared to 49 minutes in a car.

Now, Joby must clear the largest hurdle with full FAA type and production certification in order to take paying passengers on commercial flights. That's likely about 18 months away, aerospace engineer and Vertical Flight Society director Mike Hirschberg told New Scientist. Its first customer would be the US Air Force, as part of a $131 million contract under the military's Agility Prime program, with deliveries set for 2024.

Alll that puts the company tantalizingly close to delivering a true air taxi service, something that has eluded numerous other manufacturers to date. Last year, the Kittyhawk aircraft backed by Larry Page shut down, and other companies like Ehang, Archer, Volocopter and even Airbus aren't as far along as Joby. "This first aircraft coming off our pilot manufacturing line is a really, really big deal for the company," Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt told TechCrunch. 

Meta is gearing up to debut a new type of Facebook ads that will allow users in the European Union to download apps without having to visit their mobile platform's app store, according to The Verge. Yes, it will offer a direct download option for users, though the capability will likely debut only on Android, because the company is reportedly working with Android developers for its pilot launch later this year. 

Android users can already install APKs and sideload apps they download through their browsers. However, those apps still use Google's billing system. Meta's alternative way to download apps is supposedly completely independent of both Apple's App Store and Google Play. It'll be possible to introduce such a feature in the EU due to a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will go into effect in 2024. Under the DMA's rules, consumers must be able to download apps from competing app stores. "When a gatekeeper engages in unfair practices, such as... preventing installation of applications from other sources, consumers are likely to pay more or are effectively deprived of the benefits that alternative services might have brought," the European Commission said. 

Tom Channick, a spokesperson for Meta, has confirmed the company's plan to introduce app downloads through Facebook ads to The Verge. "We've always been interested in helping developers distribute their apps, and new options would add more competition in this space," he said. "Developers deserve more ways to easily get their apps to the people that want them." We also reached out to Meta for confirmation and more details. Meta reportedly won't be taking a cut from developers' earnings and will allow them to use whatever billing system they want. For now, anyway. That could change as the service evolves, if it ever gets past the pilot testing phase. 

YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach in preventing viewers from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. As BleepingComputer reports, people have been posting screenshots on social networks like Reddit that show a pop-up notice warning them that their player will be blocked after three videos. 

The warning says YouTube will block their ability to play videos on the platform unless they disable their ad blocker or add the website to their white list. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," the notice continues. To go ad-free, the company tells users to get a YouTube Premium subscription so "creators can still get paid." Prior to these warnings, YouTube only showed popups to ad blocker users, reminding them that it's against the website's TOS. Eventually, it added a timer to the notices to ensure viewers take the time to read them.

The website has confirmed to BleepingComputer that the new alerts are part of an experiment. A spokesperson told the publication that YouTube is "running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium." They said that YouTube might temporarily disable playback "[i]n extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers." The spokesperson added that they will only disable playback "if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube," though it's unclear if that means YouTube won't automatically block playback after a viewer watches three videos and will give them more opportunities to comply. 

At the moment, this new approach only affects a small number of users, and YouTube didn't say how many people and regions are part of the test. The website, which makes most of its money from ads, has seen its ad revenue decline over the past three quarters, so we won't be surprised if this test expands to more users around the world should it turn out to be effective. 

Activision has employed a string of tactics in its cat-and-mouse battle with Call of Duty cheaters, from making them unable to see targets to simply taking their guns away. The latest measure is one of the first steps that the developers are taking to combat Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 hackers who use banned tools (for instance, wallhacks) to learn extra information and gain an unfair advantage over others.

When Activision's systems detect or suspect a cheater, a "hallucination" may be deployed. These won't impact legitimate players at all and they're designed to disorient hackers. Here's the really clever part: each hallucination is a clone of a real player in the match, according to the Ricochet anti-cheat team. Hallucinations move, look and interact with the world just as a human player would to trick the cheater into thinking they've encountered a genuine opponent.

Ricochet says cheaters won't be able to tell the difference between a hallucination and a genuine player at first glance (the team notes that, in the image above, there's one hallucination and one real player). Hallucinations emit the same kinds of hidden information that cheaters receive for legitimate players through their illicit tools. Hallucinations will also be deployed close to suspected cheaters. If a shady-looking player interacts with a hallucination at all, then boom, they'll out themself as a hacker.

Activision

On the other hand, Ricochet has wound down one of its hacker mitigations. It was called Quicksand and, oddly enough, it would slow down a Call of Duty cheater or freeze them in place. It could mess with their control scheme as well. An updated version of Quicksand may be added in the future, but it's on the shelf for now.

"While Quicksand was a fun mitigation to deploy against bad actors, it could also be very visually jarring to anyone in the lobby," a Call of Duty blog post reads. "Imagine coming upon an enemy that was moving at a snail’s pace in the middle of your rotation out of a hot zone. It could trip you up."

Meanwhile, Ricochet provided an update on its efforts to clamp down on the use of XIM-style controller passthrough devices that cheaters use. "Within the first two weeks of launching this detection we saw a 59 percent drop in any use of these devices across Modern Warfare II and Warzone," Team Ricochet wrote. "Of those users, 57 percent of them did not utilize the device again." Persistent users of such devices are penalized, the anti-cheat team noted.

Annapurna Interactive is developing a game based on the iconic science fiction film Blade Runner. The game’s set between the events of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, so you can get some closure as to what Deckard was doing before meeting up with Ryan Gosling in an abandoned casino or whatever.

Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth follows a Blade Runner — the name on their ID is blanked out in the trailer — as they explore a mysterious location called the “land of the dead.” You can’t tell much from the trailer, but we see footage of what looks like an early version of the memory-crafting technology seen in Blade Runner 2049.

Annapurna says this game is actually canon and it takes place just one year after the events of the original film, which would put it directly in the crosshairs of some big events alluded to in the sequel. It’s always good to see more Blade Runner in gaming, especially after the criminally underrated and recently remastered 1997 adventure title.

It’s also important to note that Annapurna Interactive is actually developing this title, and not just publishing it. This is the company’s first in-house game, after gaining industry notoriety from publishing titles like Stray, Outer Wilds, Donut County and a whole lot more. Annapurna certainly has great taste, so let’s see if this translates to in-house development. There’s no release date yet, but it’s set to launch on major consoles and PC.

Storyteller is a game about writing, word puzzles and the twisted tales we tell ourselves just to get through the day, and it'll be playable on Android and iOS via Netflix on September 26th. Storyteller is published by Annapurna Interactive and it landed on Switch and PC on March 23rd — after spending more than a decade in development. 

Solo creator Daniel Benmergui announced Storyteller in 2011, and a prototype of the game actually won the Nuovo award for innovation at the Game Developers Conference in 2012. After that, life happened and Benmergui stopped working on Storyteller for a few years, but he eventually picked it back up and found a publishing partner in Annapurna.

In Storyteller, players compose narrative arcs using comic book-style building blocks, altering the lives, deaths, romances and betrayals of medieval characters in the process. It's a soothing, surprising and often amusing experience that captures the absurdity of the creative writing process. 

When Storyteller lands on iOS and Android in September, it'll come with free DLC that offers new stories for players to weave. This extra content will come to Switch and PC at the same time, also for free.

The Netflix partnership makes sense for Storyteller and plenty of other indie games at the moment. Netflix is rapidly building up its roster of mobile games, all of which are free to play for anyone with a Netflix subscription, and it plans to have nearly 100 titles in its library by the end of the year. Already, Netflix has brought Kentucky Route Zero, Oxenfree, Spiritfarer, Into the Breach, Moonlighter, Laya's Horizon, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, and other notable names to iOS and Android. The company has even purchased a few renowned indie outfits outright, including the home of Oxenfree, Night School Studio.

Annapurna Interactive’s Thirsty Suitors trailer wraps with the tagline: “Battle Your Exes. Disappoint Your Parents. Find Yourself.” (If that doesn’t proclaim that the upcoming title is venturing off the beaten path, I’m unsure what would.) Annapurna and developer Outerloop Games announced today that the cross-platform RPG about returning home and trying to resolve the disarray of the past arrives on November 2nd.

Initially revealed in 2021, Thirsty Suitors places you in the world of Jala, who heads back to the small town of Timber Hills after a “brutal breakup.” There, she “has to face everything she left behind,” as narrative lead Meghna Jayanth explains. This includes “her immigrant parents’ tattered expectations, claustrophobic small-town gossip and a string of messily broken hearts she left in her wake.” The action unfolds through cooking with her parents, skating at the local park (but watch out for the no-good punk kids) and stylistically over-the-top turn-based battles against her “thirsty ex-suitors.”

The game’s creators say the ex showdowns force Jala to confront each forlorn lover’s perspective: You’re drawn into a world entirely of their subjective creation. For example, when fighting Sergio, her “overconfident, insecure, macho, needy and far far far too thirsty” childhood boyfriend, she sees her immediate environment from his vantage point: “a psychic landscape where he’s the man he imagines himself to be in reality.” In this projection of Sergio’s self-aggrandizement, he appears invincible — that is, until you summon his mother (a giant, foreboding appearance in his immature mind) to cut him down to size with a well-timed slipper smash.

Annapurna Interactive / Outerloop Games

If successful, battles end not with the bloody vanquishing of your opponent but with reconciliation: gaining a better understanding of each other’s perspective. Although the action appears rather busy in the game’s trailers, you can’t deny the apparent creativity and freshness of the development team’s approach to narrative, gameplay and art style.

Thirsty Suitors launches on November 2nd. It will be available on Steam, Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Game Pass.

One of 2022’s cutest – and dare I say best – games is heading to Xbox. Annapurna Interactive announced today that Blue Twelve Studio’s Stray will arrive on Xbox One and Series X/S on August 10th. 

Stray, for those who don’t know, casts you as an adorable tabby cat in a cyberpunk, post-human world. This short and sweet adventure will take you only about five to 10 hours to complete, but will leave you thinking about its thoughtful and poignant story long after the credits roll.

It’s also one of the most fun games I played last year. Stray perfectly captures all the charm and mischief of our feline friends. There’s a dedicated button for meowing, and all of the environmental puzzles push you to think from the perspective of a cat. Best of all, you can lie down to nap nearly whenever you want. No word yet if Microsoft will offer Stray through Xbox Game Pass, but we’ll update this article once we know more.