Facebook’s News Feed algorithm has long been at the center of debates about some of Meta’s biggest problems. It’s also been a near constant source of complaints from users. But, if a newly filed lawsuit is successful, Facebook users may be able to use the social network with a vastly different feed. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University is suing Meta on behalf of a researcher who wants to release a browser extension that would allow people to “effectively turn off” their algorithmic feeds.

The extension was created by Ethan Zuckerman, a researcher and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He argues that Facebook users would be better off with more control over their feeds. “The tool, called Unfollow Everything 2.0, would allow users to unfollow their friends, groups, and pages, and, in doing so, to effectively turn off their newsfeed—the endless scroll of posts that users see when they log into Facebook,” the lawsuit explains. “Users who download the tool would be free to use the platform without the feed, or to curate the feed by refollowing only those friends and groups whose posts they really want to see.” (Meta officially renamed the News Feed to “Feed” in 2022.)

Zuckerman isn’t the first to come up with such a tool. He was inspired by a similar project, also called “Unfollow Everything,” from 2021. Facebook sued the U.K man who created that extension and permanently disabled his account. Zuckerman is trying to avoid a similar fate with his lawsuit. The suit, filed in San Francisco federal court Wednesday, asks the court “to recognize that Section 230 protects the development of tools designed to empower people to better control their social media experiences.”

The case could be a novel test of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which is mostly known as the law that shields online platforms from legal liability for the actions of their users. But unlike recent Supreme Court cases involving the statute, Zuckerman’s case “relies on a separate provision protecting the developers of third-party tools that allow people to curate what they see online, including by blocking content they consider objectionable.”

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the lawsuit. The company has a history of heavy-handed tactics when it comes to independent researchers. In addition to shutting down the earlier version “Unfollow Everything,” the company disabled the Facebook accounts of a group of NYU researchers attempting to study political ad targeting in 2021. Those types of tactics have led to some researchers pursuing “data donation” programs, which recruit volunteers to “donate” their own browsing data for academic studies.

If released, Zuckerman’s browser extension would also have a data donation component, allowing users to opt-in to sharing “anonymized data about their Facebook usage.” The data would then be used for research into the effects of Facebook’s feed algorithm.

LinkedIn, the professional network known for job listings and unsolicited career advice, is jumping into gaming. The platform is officially introducing a set of Wordle-style puzzle games, weeks after they were first spotted in the app.

The company is starting with three games: Pinpoint, a word game where players must guess the theme that ties a series of words together; Queens, a puzzle game that’s a bit like a cross between Sudoku and Minesweeper; and Crossclimb, a trivia game that involves guessing a series of four-letter words and placing them in the correct order.

LinkedIn describes them as “thinking-oriented games,” though the format will likely look familiar to fans of The New York Times Games app. Each game can only be played once a day, and players can share their score with friends in cute emoji-filled messages reminiscent of the “Wordle grid.” The service will also keep track of “streaks,” to encourage players to come back every day. Given the similarities, it shouldn’t be surprising that games were developed by LinkedIn’s news team, which recently hired a dedicated games editor.

Games have been a boon for The New York Times since it acquired Wordle in 2022, and other publications have tried to emulate that success with their own lineup of word and puzzle games. I asked LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief and VP of Product Dan Roth if the company was inspired by the success of Wordle and the NYT’s Games app. He said that the inspiration was actually much older: “the very first crossword puzzle” in the New York World newspaper more than 100 years ago. He added that there aren’t currently plans for a standalone gaming app.

“These games aren't designed to be just played,” Roth told Engadget. “We're not getting into the gaming world to get into the gaming world. The idea is games that can help you think differently and connect with your network.”

You can try out the new games on LinkedIn.

Instagram is overhauling its recommendation algorithm for Reels to boost “original content” in a move that will have significant implications for aggregator accounts and others that primarily repost other users’ work. The company is also changing the way it ranks Reels in an attempt to give smaller accounts more distribution in the app.

In a blog post announcing the changes, the company said it’s trying to “correct” its ranking system so that accounts with smaller followings will have an easier time expanding their reach. “Historically because of how we’ve ranked content, creators with large followings and aggregators of reposted content have gotten more reach in recommendations than smaller, original content creators,” the company explains. “We think it’s important to correct this to give all creators a more equal chance of breaking through to new audiences.”

It’s unclear exactly how Instagram is tweaking its recommendations to make them "more equal,” but the company suggests that the algorithm will no longer prioritize accounts with more followers. “Eligible content … is shown to a small audience that we think will enjoy it, regardless of whether they follow the account that posted it or not,” the company says. “As this audience engages with the content, the top performing set of reels are shown to a slightly wider audience, then the best of these are shown to an even wider group, and so on.” The change will roll out “over the coming months” so it could still be some time before creators see the effects of this update.

The app’s changes around “original content,” however, could be much more immediate. Instagram says it will actively replace reposted Reels with the “original” clip in its suggestions when it detects two pieces of identical content. Accounts that share reposted Reels will also be slapped with a label prominently tagging the original creator. The company says these changes won’t apply to creators that make “significant” changes like recording voice-overs or reaction clips, or if posts are “materially edited to become a meme.”

Aggregator accounts that “repeatedly'' publish posts from others will be penalized even more harshly. Instagram says it will stop recommending Reels from these accounts altogether if they have posted unoriginal content 10 or more times over the previous 30 days. That change could crater the reach of popular aggregator accounts that share other users’ clips, often in order to promote affiliate shopping links and other schemes.

Of note, all of these changes for now only apply to Reels and not other types of posts on Instagram (a spokesperson said the company will “explore expanding to other formats in the future”.) The changes also broadly reflect the fact that Instagram has tried to decrease the importance of follower counts. That has frustrated some creators who complain that most of their followers don’t see their posts in their feeds.

In recent weeks, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has taken to Threads to field complaints from several creators sharing their account statistics and demanding to know why more of their followers don’t see their posts. In one recent exchange, nature photographer Nate Luebbe who has 142,000 followers on Instagram, pressed Mosseri on why a popular post only reached about 20 percent of his followers. In his reply, Mosseri suggested that was how Instagram’s algorithm is intended to function.

So while these latest changes are directed at Reels specifically, the updates suggest Meta will continue to focus on other metrics besides follower counts. That may be disappointing to those who have built up a large audience over several years, but Meta seems to view it as a better way of leveling the playing field for small accounts.

Instagram previously updated its algorithm in 2022 in order to prioritize original content. Mosseri said at the time that he didn't want the app to “overvalue aggregators” though he acknowledged it was difficult to know “for sure” when a piece of content was original. Whatever changes were made at the time, though, may not have gone far enough if the company is still trying to “correct” imbalances a full two years later.

Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars if they go viral on Threads. The payouts are part of a new invitation-only bonus program that rewards creators who use Meta’s newest app.

An Instagram support page offers some details about the bonus program, which Meta hasn’t formally announced. It states that creators can earn money “based on the performance of your Threads posts” or “the number of posts you create.” It appears that specific terms of the bonuses are individualized to each creator. “Details of the bonus program may vary by participant,” the company notes.

The program seems to be a small-scale effort for now — the company refers to it as being in “testing” — but it offers a preview of how Meta may look to ramp up its efforts to use creators to boost engagement on the service. Meta has previously offered bonuses for posting Reels on Facebook and Instagram, but it’s the first time the company has paid for posts on Threads. The Threads bonus program was first reported by Business Insider earlier this month.

Some creators are already being offered thousands of dollars for high-performing posts. According to one screenshot making the rounds on Threads, at least one creator was offered “up to $5,000” for Threads posts or replies with 10,000 views or more. That’s not nearly as high as the $10,000 bonuses Reels creators could once earn on Instagram, but is still quite generous considering posting on Threads requires far less effort than shooting and editing a compelling video.

Meta isn’t the only platform trying to lure creators with promises of potential payouts. X also offers creators direct payments based on their engagement, but that program is a revenue sharing arrangement for users who pay for premium subscriptions.

Threads has been growing steadily since its launch last year, and has more than 150 million monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg revealed last week. The Facebook founder has speculated that the app could one day be the company’s next billion-user platform, though it would likely take several years to reach that milestone. Either way, onboarding popular creators from Instagram would be an important step to boost engagement on Threads. The company also recently partnered with Taylor Swift’s team to get the pop star on the app to promote her latest album. Meta hasn’t shared what, if any, terms were associated with that arrangement, but the effort involved custom animations and other “Easter eggs” for Swift fans.

The European Union is getting ready to launch a new investigation into Meta over its handling of election-related content, according to a new report in The Guardian. Details of the investigation could be announced “later this week,” but European officials are reportedly concerned about “deceptive advertising and political content.”

According to the Financial Times, the EU has also raised concerns about Russia’s “efforts to undermine upcoming European elections” and other foreign interference campaigns. The EU is set to hold parliamentary elections in June. If the company is found to have run afoul of the Europe’s Digital Services Act, it could be hit with large fines.

EU officials are also “particularly concerned” about Meta’s plan to shut down CrowdTangle in August. The tool has been widely used by researchers and fact checkers for years to study how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Dozens of researchers and fact-checking groups signed an open letter to the company last month saying that shutting down the tool ahead of dozens of global elections would be a “direct threat” to election integrity efforts around the world.

“We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”

Elsewhere, the EU is also investigating Meta over its ad-free subscription plan available to European users. That investigation, which could last up to a year, will look into whether the social media company has violated Europe’s Digital Markets Act, by not offering users a “real alternative” to opt out of data collection.

Meta’s Threads app now has more than 150 million monthly users, an increase of about 20 million new users since February. Mark Zuckerberg shared the latest user numbers during Meta’’s first-quarter earnings call, saying that the app “continues to be on the trajectory that I hope to see.”

The update suggests Threads is continuing to grow steadily, though at a slower rate than its initial explosive growth. The app racked up more than 100 million downloads in its first week, but later saw a drop-off in engagement. But over the last six months, Threads has seen more consistent growth and Zuckerberg has speculated the service could eventually be Meta’s next billion-user app.

Notably, Threads seems to be out-performing X (formerly known as Twitter) by some metrics. Estimates from analytics firm Apptopia indicated Threads has more daily users in the United States than X, Business Insider reported earlier this week. (X has claimed 550 million daily users globally.) Threads also scored another significant win recently when Taylor Swift joined the platform to promote her latest album.

Threads is, for now, unique among Meta’s apps in that it doesn’t have advertising so the company doesn’t make money from the app directly. That will likely change at some point provided Threads continues to expand its reach. Zuckerberg has previously said the company would “focus on monetization” only after the app has grown sufficiently.

Threads users may soon have a new way to clean up their timelines. The app is testing a new archive feature that can be used to manually archive individual posts or automatically hide posts after a set period of time, Adam Mosseri shared.

As on Instagram, archiving a post on Threads will hide it from public view, though the post will be available to the original author to view or undo. The Instagram head said the feature will be available to a “small number of people” to start. Though optional, Mosseri has made no secret that his preference is for all posts on the service to be somewhat ephemeral. “I think we should move to automatically archive posts on Threads after a month or so,” he wrote in a post back in February.

But, in a poll shared with that earlier post, Threads users overwhelmingly said they would “never” want their posts automatically hidden from public view. In his latest update, Mosseri noted that “the resounding feedback was not to make this the default” so the company will try out archiving “as an option” to start.

While archiving old posts is popular on Instagram, the feature could be somewhat more controversial on Threads. As the service grows and adds more features geared toward real-time information, posts that automatically archive could make it harder to go back and revisit the original source of an update. (If Mosseri, for example, were to automatically archive all his old posts, it would be much more difficult to track his evolving thoughts on Threads, which he often shares publicly on the platform.) At the same time, allowing posts to be ephemeral often encourages users to share more often, which is even more important for Threads’ continued growth.

The bill that will force a sale or ban of TikTok in the United States is now law. President Joe Biden signed a package of foreign aid bills that included the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” one day after the legislation was approved by the Senate.

In a statement, TikTok said it would challenge the law in court, which could delay an eventual sale or ban. “This unconstitutional law is a TikTok ban, and we will challenge it in court,” the company said. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail. The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”

The law gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which is based in China, up to a year to sell the app to a new owner. If the company fails to divest, then TikTok will be banned from US app stores and web hosting services.

Unlike previous attempts to force a sale or ban of the app, the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” had overwhelming bipartisan support and was able to move through Congress with remarkable speed. The original version of the bill, which called for a six-month window to divest, passed the House in March, just days after it was introduced. An updated version, which allows up to 12 months for a divestment, passed over the weekend.

In a video shared on TikTok, CEO Shou Chew called it a “disappointing moment” for the company. “Make no mistake, this is a ban on TikTok and a ban on you and your voice,” he said. “It's actually ironic because the freedom of expression on TikTok reflects the same American values that make the United States a beacon of freedom.”

Developing...

A bill that could ban TikTok is now all but certain to become law. The Senate approved a measure that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, in a vote of 79 - 18. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” will next head to President Joe Biden, who has said he would sign the bill into law.

While it’s far from the first effort to force a ban or divestment of the social media app, the bill managed to draw far more support than previous attempts. The bill was introduced in March and sailed through the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan agreement. A slightly revised version was approved as part of a package of foreign aid legislation on Saturday.

Under the updated terms, TikTok would have up to 12 months to divest from parent company ByteDance or face a ban in US app stores and web hosting services. The company has called the bill unconstitutional and indicated it would mount a legal challenge to such a law, which could further delay an eventual sale or ban.

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

TikTok has long been viewed with suspicion by lawmakers and the intelligence community. Ahead of votes in the House and Senate, members of Congress were briefed by intelligence officials on the alleged national security threat posed by the app. The exact nature of those concerns is still unclear, though some members of Congress have asked for details from the briefings to be declassified.

At the same time, some lawmakers have expressed skepticism, saying that the alleged threat posed by TikTok is largely hypothetical. Free speech and digital rights groups also oppose the bill, noting that comprehensive privacy legislation would be a more effective way of protecting Americans’ personal data. TikTok CEO Shou Chew has made a similar argument, telling Congress last year that a forced sale wouldn’t resolve data concerns about the app.

But TikTok’s recent efforts to muster opposition to the bill may have backfired. Lawmakers rebuked the company for sending in-app notifications to users about the bill after the alerts resulted in a flood of calls to Congressional offices. And the app may have drawn even more suspicion when Politico reported last week that Chinese diplomats were lobbying Congressional staffers to oppose the bill. Officials in China have condemned the measure. A Chinese law, passed in 2020, could prevent ByteDance from including TikTok’s recommendation algorithm in a sale of the app.

Tesla has shown off a preview of an upcoming ride-hailing feature in its app ahead of an August robotaxi unveiling. The company released mock-ups of the upcoming feature, which showed the ability to “summon” a ride from the Tesla app.

The company didn’t offer many details about how it would work, but images show Uber-like functionality, with the ability to remotely set the car’s temperature ahead of its arrival. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month that the company would unveil its long-promised robotaxis August 8.

Tesla has been promising a self-driving ride hailing service for years, with Musk promising the company’s robotaxi would start picking up riders back in 2019. For now, it’s unclear exactly when such a service might launch. “We are currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. “We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App.”

The update was shared in Tesla’s first-quarter earnings report for 2024. The automaker reported a revenue decline of 9 percent from last year, its steepest loss in more than a decade.