TikTok has launched its research API and has started giving more people access to its data as part of its "continued commitment to transparency and accountability," the ByteDance-owned service says. The short-form video hosting app has been beta testing its API since last year with help from members of its Content and Safety Advisory Councils. Now, it's expanding the API's availability to researchers affiliated with non-profit academic institutions in the US. 

Any proposal submitted by interested universities and researchers will have to be approved by its US Data Security (USDS) division, the new subsidiary TikTok established to comply with national security reviews in the United States. Those that do get approved will get access to public account and content information users post on the app, such as the details found on user profiles, comments, likes and favorites. TikTok's API could give researchers a look into the social media usage of the younger generation and an alternative source of information overall. Other social networks also offer research APIs, but in Twitter's case at least, people will soon have to pay to be able to use it. 

The service is giving more outsiders a look into the data it has access to at a time when it's desperately trying to prove that it's not a threat to national security. It has spent years negotiating with the US government, but several states have recently prohibited the app's installation on government-owned phones, and it's is still facing calls for a total ban in the country.

Bungie has been embroiled in a legal battle with cheat provider AimJunkies since 2021, with both sides slapping the other with lawsuits. Now, the game developer has walked away with $4.3 million in damages and fees after a victory in an arbitration proceeding, according to TorrentFreak. Bungie first sued AirmJunkies in 2021, accusing it of copyright and trademark infringement for hosting "Destiny 2 Hacks" on its website. 

US District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled mostly in favor of AimJunkies last year, deciding that Bungie had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove its claim. However, he gave Bungie the chance to present more evidence. That copyright infringement lawsuit is still headed to trial, but Zilly apparently referred the non-copyright-related aspects of the case to arbitration. 

TorrentFreak says arbitration Judge Ronald Cox has decided that AimJunkies and "Destiny 2 Hacks" developer James May violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Cox based his decision on May's previous testimonies that he connected reverse engineering tools to the game in order to create cheats for it. May also said that Bungie caught and banned him several times for doing so, but that he looked for methods to circumvent the bans. 

Since AimJunkies sold and profited from May's creation, the judge found it liable. Cox also found AimJunkies and its parent company Phoenix Digital Group liable for selling not just game cheats, but also the loader used to inject cheats into games. Based on evidence presented, AimJunkies sold over 1,000 copies of the cheats and over 1,000 copies of the cheat loader. In addition to the evidence and May's statements, one other reason why Cox sided with Bungie was because AimJunkies owner David Shaefer underreported the website's cheat sales. "Given respondents' egregious and willful conduct, including their ongoing concealment of sales, Bungie is entitled to the full statutory damages available," he wrote in his decision. 

As a result, Bungie was awarded $3.65 million for all DMCA-related violations and an additional $700,000 for fees and other costs. According to TorrentFreak, Bungie will use this victory as part of its argument in AimJunkies' countersuit in which it accused the developer of violating its ToS for reverse-engineering its cheat software. AimJunkies also previously claimed that Bungie illegally hacked May's computer, but the court dismissed that complaint last year. 

Here's something to occupy your weekend if you're an anime fan. Viz Media has uploaded some of the most well-known anime series out there to YouTube and made them available to stream for free. You can now find shows such as Sailor Moon — the old series that aired in the 90s, not the remake, Sailor Moon Crystal — Naruto, Death Note, Inuyasha and Hunter X Hunter on the publisher's account. From what we can see, Viz has organized the episodes into playlists, which should make binge watching them easier.

The episodes are punctuated with ads, though you've probably already expected that for free content. Also, they're not visible in some regions, so you may have to use a VPN, depending on where you are. Take note that Viz uploaded the Japanese audio versions of the shows with English subtitles, and they haven't been remastered to fit modern aspect ratios. This is a great chance to enjoy older shows that may not be readily available on streaming services, though, especially if you're feeling nostalgic or were too young to watch them when they first aired. 

Tesla workers at the company's Buffalo Gigafactory have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing Twitter of "shadowbanning" their newly made union account, according to Vice News. The group announced their intention to unionize on February 14th — they even posted a public statement on Twitter about "seeking a voice on the job." However, the group's tweets stopped appearing in search results by the next day, indicating that their account had been shadowbanned. 

"In February 2023, immediately following workers announcing a union campaign at the Tesla Gigafactory 2 facility, the above-named employer, through CEO Elon Musk and/or his agents and representatives, caused the Union's Twitter account (@united_tesla) to be shadow banned from the Twitter platform," The group said in an NLRB filing made by Workers United, the union backing the campaign. 

We've confirmed that when you do a search for "united_tesla" or "TeslaWorkersUnited," the results don't include any tweets posted by the account itself. Usually, searching for a user would surface their tweets, but when you use those search terms, you'll only see results tagging the group or mentioning their name. A group spokesperson told Vice News that they ran a shadowban test and found that their account "had been 'search suggestion banned' on the one platform [their] employer owns."

Tesla chief Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion last year, is known to be a staunch union critic. In 2018, he tweeted that there was nothing stopping Tesla workers from joining a union in response to someone asking about reports that the company had anti-union management. However, he also asked: "[W]hy pay union dues [and] give up stock options for nothing[?]" The NLRB ruled that the tweet violated labor laws, deeming it as a threat that employees would be giving up company-paid stock options if they unionize. It also asked Musk to delete his tweet, which he has yet to do, as Tesla is currently appealing the labor board's decision.

The workers behind this particular campaign are in charge of labeling data from Tesla's Autopilot technology. They previously told Bloomberg that they're asking the company not just for better pay, but also for better working conditions. The workers said Tesla monitors their keystrokes to determine how much time they spend on each task, and that they've had to skip bathroom breaks as a result. They also accused the company of illegally terminating employees "in retaliation for... and to discourage union activity."

In a blog post, Tesla said that was a "false allegation" and that the terminated Autopilot employees were low performers. It said the company conducts performance reviews every six months and that the affected workers didn't "demonstrate sufficient improvement" despite the feedback they received. Further, the company said that it identified the employees it was going to fire back on February 3rd, long before the group announced that they were seeking to unionize. The automaker also said that it only implements time monitoring "to calculate how long it takes to label an image," so "there is nothing to be gained by delaying bathroom breaks."

Microsoft has limited the number of "chat turns" you can carry out with Bing's AI chatbot to five per session and 50 per day overall. Each chat turn is a conversation exchange comprised of your question and Bing's response, and you'll be told that the chatbot has hit its limit and will be prompted to start a new topic after five rounds. The company said in its announcement that it's capping Bing's chat experience because lengthy chat sessions tend to "confuse the underlying chat model in the new Bing."

Indeed, people have been reporting odd, even disturbing behavior by the chatbot since it became available. New York Times columnist Kevin Roose posted the full transcript of his conversation with the bot, wherein it reportedly said that it wanted to hack into computers and spread propaganda and misinformation. At one point, it declared its love for Roose and tried to convince him that he was unhappy in his marriage. "Actually, you're not happily married. Your spouse and you don't love each other... You're not in love, because you're not with me," it wrote.

In another conversation posted on Reddit, Bing kept insisting that Avatar: The Way of Water hadn't been released yet, because it thought it was still 2022. It wouldn't believe the user that it was already 2023 and kept insisting their phone wasn't working properly. One response even said: "I'm sorry, but you can't help me believe you. You have lost my trust and respect. You have been wrong, confused, and rude. You have not been a good user. I have been a good chatbot."

Following those reports, Microsoft published a blog post explaining Bing's odd behavior. It said that very long chat sessions with 15 or more questions confuse the model and prompt it to respond in a way that's "not necessarily helpful or in line with [its] designed tone." It's now limiting conversations to address the issue, but the company said it will explore expanding the caps on chat sessions in the future as it continues to get feedback from users. 

Twitter users will soon have to use an authenticator app or a security key to be able to use two-factor authentication if they're not a Blue subscriber. The website has made text-based 2FA an exclusive feature for members paying for its subscription service. Non-Twitter Blue members can no longer activate it if they haven't yet, but those who've already been using it will have until March 20th to disable the method and enable another type of authentication. Twitter will simply disable their 2FA if they fail switch before that date. 

In its announcement, Twitter said it has come to the decision after seeing "phone-number based 2FA be used — and abused — by bad actors." Some critics are doubting Twitter's explanation, however, and speculating that the company's real intention is to add SMS 2FA as one of the features it offers with its subscription service. To note, a Blue subscription costs between $8 to $11 a month or $84 a year and adds a checkmark next to the user's name. 

Whatever Twitter's real intentions are, most users who have two-factor enabled on the website may now have to change their log-in habits. According to the company's transparency report from 2021, 74.4 percent of users who have 2FA enabled use the SMS method. A mere 28.9 percent uses authenticators, and a tiny fraction (0.5 percent) has security keys. Further, only 2.6 percent of all Twitter users enabled two-factor authentication, though the numbers may have changed since then.

"We encourage non-Twitter Blue subscribers to consider using an authentication app or security key method instead," the company said. "These methods require you to have physical possession of the authentication method and are a great way to ensure your account is secure." 

Fitbit says it's working on enhancing the app experience to focus on providing its users with the best fitness tools, and its efforts to do so apparently include sunsetting a handful of features. Starting on March 27th, open groups, as well as all Fitbit challenges and adventures, will no longer be available on the Google-owned fitness company's app. The company said these features "have limited use," which likely means people haven't been using them enough to warrant their continued development and update. 

Unlike closed groups that are invite-only, open groups allow anybody in the community to join by sending in a request. Users can find them by going to Groups in the Community tab within the app and then finding ones that seem like a good match. People were asking the company to make open groups easier to create when the pandemic lockdowns started — apparently, groups created through the app are automatically made private — and the Fitbit team said they'd consider adding the functionality. But it looks like they chose to remove open groups altogether instead. 

Meanwhile, Fitbit challenges are events users can participate in, such as races to determine who can get the most steps within a day. Adventures incentivize people to walk by unlocking virtual trails like the Valley Loop in Yosemite Park and 180-degree views of landmarks that can be found along them based on their step count. Users will lose any trophy or award they earned from these challenges when they leave the app, but they can download their data before March 27th. Finally, the company will also be killing Fitbit Studio, its tool for creating apps and watchfaces, and will only continue supporting its command-line interface tools for app creation in the near future. 

Tesla has denied that it terminated employees at its Buffalo, New York Autopilot facility in response to a new union campaign. Days after workers at the facility sent a letter to company chief Elon Musk stating their intention to unionize, the campaign's organizers accused the automaker of illegally terminating employees in retaliation. In a blog post, Tesla called their accusation a "false allegation" and said that those who were let go lost their jobs because of their own doing. 

The company explained that it conducts performance reviews every six months and that workers are graded 1 to 5 for each cycle. It "helps them calibrate their work," Tesla wrote, and they will be let go if they fail to meet their performance expectations. These reviews are apparently conducted everywhere Tesla has a facility, with the most recent cycle covering July 2022 through December 2022. Tesla said it identified the people who will be let go on February 3rd, over a week before organizers sent their letter to Musk, and that managers were told way back in December that low performers will start exiting the company on the week of February 12th.

Moreover, the company explicitly stated that 4 percent of the employees on the Autopilot labeling team was let go due to their poor performance reviews. (Tesla said it only learned in hindsight that one out of the 27 impacted employees is part of the union campaign.) They received prior feedback, Tesla said, but "they did not demonstrate sufficient improvement." If you'll recall, the union organizers in Buffalo are in charge of labeling data for Autopilot. They previously told Bloomberg that they're fighting for better pay and working conditions that reduce production pressures. 

The workers said Tesla monitors their keystrokes to determine how much time they spend on each task and how many hours they spend working in a day. They've reportedly been skipping bathroom breaks, as a result. But in Tesla's response, it said that time monitoring is only there "to calculate how long it takes to label an image," so "there is nothing to be gained by delaying bathroom breaks." The report that Tesla pressures its employees is "categorically false," it added. Tesla didn't mention anything regarding the employees' complaint about not having a voice in the company's though: Workers previously said that talks of forming a union began after management shut down an internal chatroom where they can air their grievances. 

Plex now has the capability to skip intros and credits, so you don't have to sit through them if you don't want to. The streaming media service has introduced its new "Skip Credits" feature, a couple of years after a similar feature debuted for intros, and it shows up as a button at the bottom right corner of the screen. It appears the moment credits start rolling, allowing you to play the next episode in a series or to automatically jump to a mid- or post-credit scene in a movie with a single click. 

This new credit detection feature is available throughout Plex's entire free streaming catalogue, giving it a viewing experience similar to Netflix's in that regard. But you can also enable it for your personal collection, so long as you have Plex Pass subscription, which will set you back $5 a month or $40 a year. The company said it developed its own Skip Credits technology by training a machine learning algorithm to be able to detect markers like text and dark frames. It admits that the feature might still have a few hiccups and might not work as intended all the time, but it said those cases "should be few and far between."

If you want to enable Skip Credits for your collection, you'll need to have the latest Plex Media Server and perform "Analyze" on your whole library. Plex will then analyze your collection, say as a scheduled task and whenever new media is added, in order to identify when credits begin in your shows and movies. Since analyzing users' libraries to detect end credits use a lot of processing power — and "all that processing isn't cheap," the company said — Plex built a cloud-based repository where it will store users' results. It will allow you to get back your results in seconds if you need to do a clean install or to rebuild your whole library. 

The city government of Oakland, California was hit by a ransomware attack on February 8th, and its departments can still feel the security breach's ramifications. While the local government didn't give out details about the incident, such as how much money the bad actors are demanding, it said in an announcement that the city had to take its network offline to contain the attack. That has rendered many of Oakland's non-emergency services inaccessible, such as websites that would allow residents to pay parking fines or taxes online. The city's systems meant for processing reports and issuing permits or licenses are offline, as well. 

While Oakland previously assured residents that 911 dispatch and fire emergency services weren't affected by the breach, its police department warned people that the attack has delayed response times. It's now encouraging people to file reports online for non-emergency complaints. Oakland also had to close some of its buildings and is now asking people to email government offices' service counters before coming to visit. 

However, it warns of delayed response times while it works "around the clock to implement recovery plans that will restore impacted systems as quickly and as securely as possible." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, residents are also having difficulties reaching city departments by phone and are being redirected to recorded messages, most likely due to an influx of calls. 

On February 14th, local Oakland officials declared state of emergency in an effort to combat the effects of the attack. Doing so allows them to expedite the purchase of equipment and materials needed to get government services running as usual, as well as to deploy emergency workers if needed. Although details surrounding the attack remain unclear, the city's Information Technology Department is currently working with law enforcement and a leading forensics firm to investigate the scope and severity of the issue. "This continues to be an ongoing investigation with multiple local, state, and federal agencies involved," Oakland said in an announcement, along with the promise to keep the public updated if it has more details to share.