Facebook has updated its Community Help section in Ukraine to add resources from local UN and Red Cross agencies. The information Facebook has added will make it easier for users to find medical help and other kinds of assistance not just in Ukraine, but also in neighboring countries. In addition, Community Help now contains the WhatsApp helpline for Ukraine's State Emergency Services to connect people with critical updates and vital services.

To make sure that people who need it can quickly access the section, Facebook is putting a link to Community Help at the top of its feeds for Ukrainain users, even if they've already left the country. The link will also appear at the top of the results for relevant searches on Facebook, as well as at the top of users' Instagram feeds. 

Facebook has updated its Emotional Health Center, as well, adding mental health tips (such as how to support children during a crisis) from the WHO and other organizations in Ukrainian, Russian and English. Users in Ukraine might also start seeing more ads connecting them to organizations providing aid, because Facebook is giving those groups access to free ad campaigns to get critical messaging out to those who need it. The World Health Organization, for instance, has put out ads promoting information on breastfeeding for displaced mothers. 

Finally, those who need to get in touch with the WHO's Health Alert helpline for mental health in Ukraine and neighboring countries can add the number +41 79 893 18 92 to their WhatsApp contacts. They simply have to message "hi" to that number to get the process started. 

Facebook made several other moves over the past couple of weeks in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The social network previously demoted Russian state media across its entire platform and took down fake accounts boosting Russian information in Ukraine shortly after the attacks started. It also enabled a "lock profile" tool for people in Ukraine, giving them a one-click solution to ensure that nobody outside their friends list can see their posts, photos and information. 

In the Internet age, nothing is gone forever, and everything can be resurrected time and again as an easy way to sell products. Sadly, whatever residual affection our parents’ generation had for brands like Polaroid and Atari has been strip-mined to sell, well, whatever their new owners choose. Consequently, it’s time for a newer, fresher name to return from the dust and remind everyone over the age of 34 that our childhoods are now something that people can feel nostalgia towards. Oh, and apropos of nothing, LimeWire is coming back as an NFT marketplace.

In May, LimeWire is relaunching as a “mainstream-ready, digital collectibles marketplace for art and entertainment, initially focusing on music.” Its backers believe that it will be a place for artists and fans to create and sell digital trinkets without the “technical hurdles of the current NFT landscape.” It is hoping to partner with a raft of high-profile musicians in the hope of spreading word about LimeWire’s resurrection in the hope of getting a million willing buyers signed up before the first year is done.

The phrase of the day is ensuring that “NFT newbies” are well catered-for, offering easy signup, pricing in US dollars and a lack of any crypto-based gatekeeping. Users will be able to buy straight from their credit cards (or any other regular money) via Wyre’s payment platform, which is also used by OpenSea. The company added that it is working with “top-tier artists” from the music world who will create content for the platform and also open lines of communication with willing fans.

LimeWire’s resurrection is being handled by Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, who are also both co-CEOs of the company. The Zehetmayrs are the figures behind Eversign, as well as b2b-software companies Currencylayer and Stack Holdings. Julian, in a statement, said that “it’s important to note that we are not relaunching LimeWire as an alternative to streaming platforms, but rather as an additional channel for artists to sell exclusive music and art directly to collectors.”

Of course, it’s not clear if the folks who really loved LimeWire had much affection for the platform itself back in the day. After all, LimeWire’s ability to let you illegally pirate music from your friends and enemies came with the added inclusion of some spyware. But with LimeWire back and Napster lurking in the background as some sort of VR thing these days, maybe we can club together to get Kazaa revived so we can once again feel the delight at hearing Corky and the Juice Pigs’ Eskimo Song even though we’d tried to download the Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way.

Instagram is joining Facebook in its attempt to bury Russian state media in its app. The app will now down-rank posts from state media outlets in its feed and in Stories, and will add prominent labels to discourage other users from sharing their posts.

“Instagram believes the account that created this post may be partially or wholly under the editorial control of the Russian government,” the labels warn. Users who do share links to Russian state media outlets via the app’s link sticker will also have their posts down-ranked in their followers’ Stories trays. Instagram is also stripping Russian state media accounts from recommendations in Reels and Explore, and making the accounts more difficult to find in search.

Instagram’s update follows a similar move from Facebook last week. In addition to limiting the spread of content from Russian state media, the social network has also blocked ads from Russian advertisers and taken down a network of fake accounts that were boosting pro-Russia propaganda. In response to Facebook’s crackdown on state media, the Russian government blocked access to the social network. Importantly, that block hasn’t affected Instagram, at least for now.

Instagram

Instagram is also ramping up some privacy features for accounts in Ukraine and Russia. The app will hide follower details for all private accounts in the countries so people won’t be able to view the followers of others or who private accounts are following. The app will also highlight its tools for bulk-deleting past activity and downloading their account data.

After several months of testing, Amazon is opening up access to Amp, its social audio app. Amp shares some DNA with the likes of Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Spotify Greenroom, but there's one thing that sets it apart: the option for hosts to become DJs with tens of millions of licensed songs at their fingertips.

"This limited-access beta will allow us to partner with passionate early adopters in a diverse community of creators, so we can improve the experience and better serve everyone when the app officially launches," Amp vice-president John Ciancutti said. 

Amp is only available in the US on iOS for the time being, but an Android app is in the works. Users can download Amp from the App Store and sign up for a waitlist. Access codes will also be shared on Amp's social accounts. 

You'll need an Amazon account but Amp is free to use. Hosts can bring in callers and will have control over who can speak and when. They'll be able to schedule shows too.

Amazon has deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and independent labels and publishers to use their music. Hosts can play songs at any time during broadcasts, but there are some limits.

Amazon

They can play up two songs from the same album or three songs from the same artist in any three-hour window. You can't repeat songs in that timeframe either. You'll also need at least one listener before you can start playing songs, so don't expect to use it as a free ad-hoc music streaming app. Shows can't primarily be focused on taking song requests and you can't play any songs from outside the Amp library unless you have the right to do so.

Listeners will be able to follow creators and get notifications when they go live. More features are on the way, including Alexa integration and more search and discovery tools. You'll be able to listen to shows from high-profile hosts including Nicki Minaj, Pusha T, Travis Barker and Big Boi.

Shows aren't archived, so you'll only be able to listen live for now. Hosts won't be able to generate any revenue from the platform directly as things stand, but Amazon plans to add monetization options later.

Amp's community guidelines prohibit users from promoting self-harm, calling for violence, supporting terrorism and engaging in hate speech. They are prohibited from, among other things, denying mass tragedies (including the Holocaust and 9/11), having slurs in their usernames and profiles, victim blaming and glorifying hate crimes.

Amazon

Harmful misleading information and disinformation are banned too. "We believe that science and facts matter. That truth is a matter of safety," Amp's website reads. Mature content is allowed to an extent, but it needs to be labeled. Amazon has a moderation team that will look into reports, and, if necessary, suspend or ban users.

Creating a successful social app from scratch is no easy feat, even for companies of this size (remember Google+?). Amazon has another pretty successful platform where creators can engage with their communities in Twitch. However, it didn’t create Twitch — it bought the company in 2014. (As an aside, it'd be nice to see Twitch creators getting access to the same library of licensed music for their streams.)

It remains to be seen whether Amp will take off, particularly given that people aren't staying at home as much as they were when pandemic stay-at-home measures were broadly in place. However, Amp's mashup of Clubhouse and Turntable.FM with licensed music could be enough to convince people to try it.

Amazon Studios and Sony’s PlayStation Productions unit are in talks to produce a live-action TV series adaptation of God of War, according to Deadline. The outlet reports that Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, best known for their work on The Expanse and Children of Men, are involved in the project. Beyond those details, Deadline didn’t have much other information to share about the adaption and both Sony and Amazon declined to comment on the outlet’s reporting.

God of War is one of Sony’s longest-running franchises, spanning seven mainline games across four consoles. The most recent entry in the series was 2018’s God of War, which acted as a soft reboot of the franchise by introducing players to Atreus, the son of protagonist Kratos, and the pantheon of Norse gods. The sequel to God of War is currently in development at Santa Monica Studio and is expected to come out sometime this year.

If the report is accurate, it would be the fourth gaming property to get the film and or television treatment from Sony’s recently established PlayStation Productions unit. The division currently has three projects officially underway. Most notably, it’s working with HBO to produce a TV series based on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us that will star Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey and Nick Offerman. It’s also working on a Ghost of Tsushima movie and a Twisted Metal series that will stream on Peacock.

Square Enix has delayed Forspoken. The upcoming action role-playing game from Final Fantasy XV studio Luminous Productions was previously scheduled to release on May 24th. It will instead come out on October 11th, the studio announced on Monday. 

"Our vision for this exciting new IP is to deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come, so getting it right is extremely important to us," Luminous Productions said. "To that end, during the next few months we will focus all of our efforts on polishing the game and can't wait for you to experience Frey's journey this fall."

We last saw Forspoken at a hands-off briefing Square Enix held at the end of last year. Forspoken stars Frey, a New York City native who's transported to the fantastical land of Athia. Voiced by actor Ella Balinsk, Frey must save the world from corruption while trying to find a way home. Square will release Forspoken on PlayStation 5 and PC.

The last we heard, Halo Infinite's campaign co-op was supposed to arrive with season two when it launched in May this year. Now, developer 343 Industries has announced that it won't be available when season 2 debuts but will instead come "later" at an unspecified date in the second season. 

"We are still aiming to deliver campaign network co-op later in season two, and we will share a release date for that and for split-screen co-op as soon as we can," said the game's head of creative, Joseph Staten. "It’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite."

It seems likely that split-screen for co-op will arrive at the same time, though the company didn't confirm that. "We’re also committed to a great two-player split-screen co-op experience on all Xbox consoles, from the original Xbox One through Xbox Series X — the non-linear, wide-open sections of the Campaign present some big challenges for split-screen that have taken us more time to solve," Staten wrote. 

Forge, meanwhile, is still slated to arrive with season three. It's currently in level editor testing with a small group of players and public flights are set for "later this year," the company said. 

Season two was supposed to come three months after Halo Infinite's launch on December 8th, but it was pushed back by a couple of months as 343 decided to extend season one. What you will see when it launches on May 3rd are new arena ("Catalyst") and Big Team Battle ("Breaker") maps. It'll also feature new game modes known as Land Grab and Last Spartan Standing, which the company calls "a free-for-all elimination mode."  

Advertisers within Russia can no longer create or run ads on Facebook "anywhere in the world," including their home country, the social network told Business Insider. The website has also suspended all ads targeting people in Russia, "due to the difficulties of operating in [the country] at this time." 

This is just the latest step Facebook has taken following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Shortly after the attacks started, it blocked Russian state media from running ads on its platform before restricting access to RT and Sputnik in Ukraine and across the European Union. A few days after that, Facebook started demoting the outlets' pages and any post linking to them on its main website and on Instagram. 

As a response to the social network restricting access to state-run media, Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor blocked Facebook in the country, though Instagram and WhatsApp remain available. The agency throttled access to the website before that when Facebook officials refused to stop fact-checking state media outlets upon its request. In a statement issued after Roskomnadzor blocked Facebook completely, Meta's president of global affairs Nick Clegg said the company "will continue to do everything [it] can to restore [its] services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action."

According to a report by independent Russian news agency Interfax, Russia also recently blocked Twitter in the country. Roskomnadzor previously limited the country's access to Twitter, as well, after the social network paused ads and recommendations and started labeling tweets from Russian state media outlets. The social network said, however, that it's only seeing the effects of throttling within the region and not of an outright ban. 

Russia has moved to block access to Twitter just after a similar crackdown on Facebook, Interfax reported. Russian regulator Roskomnadzor reportedly said it was complying with a February 24 request from Russia's Prosecutor General.

Twitter didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The company had previously confirmed its service was being "restricted for some people in Russia," and there were widespread reports of throttling. Now, it seems Russia is looking to make Twitter completely inaccessible, just as it has with Facebook. Twitter said earlier this week it would label all tweets with links to Russian state media outlets, as social media companies have rushed to limit the influence of RT and Sputnik.  

As of September, new episodes of some NBCUniversal shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Voice and American Auto will no longer hit Hulu the day after they air. NBCUniversal has ended a content deal between the two sides, meaning those series will stream exclusively on Peacock. It's not clear which other shows will be affected by the move, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

The decision to sever ties with Hulu comes as NBCU tries to drive more subscribers to Peacock. At the end of last year, it had 9 million paying subscribers (most of whom opt for the $5 ad-supported tier) and 24.5 million monthly active accounts. It's unclear how many of those are using the free tier. Comcast subscribers can access an ad-supported version of Peacock Premium at no extra cost.

“Much of our strong NBC content premieres on Hulu. Over time we’d like to bring that back to Peacock,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said during Comcast's January earnings call. Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh said the company planned to spend $3 billion on Peacock content this year.

Keeping popular shows like SNL and The Voice as streaming exclusives could help NBCU boost Peacock user numbers. NBCU has invested in other types of content to bring in subscribers, including live sports rights, local news channels and making WWE Network exclusive to the platform. Peacock also has a slate of originals, including Bel-Air and an upcoming Twisted Metal series.

Having many broadcast and cable shows available to stream the day after they air has long been a selling point for Hulu. It'll be a blow for the service to lose some notable NBC series.

Although Disney has been fully in charge of Hulu since 2019, Comcast still owns 33 percent of the service. Comcast can require Disney to buy out its stake, but not until 2024. At the end of 2021, Hulu had 45.3 million subscribers.