Australia has fined X (formerly Twitter) for failing to answer all its questions about child exploitation. The country’s government levied a penalty of AUD 610,500 (around $387,000) for the Elon Musk-owned company’s non-compliance with a national law requiring social platforms to disclose how they’re combating online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

“Companies can make empty statements like ‘Child exploitation is our top priority,’ so what we’re saying is show us,” Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, told The New York Times in an interview. “This is important not only in terms of deterrence in the types of defiance we are seeing from the companies but because this information is in the public interest.”

Australian officials said neither X nor Google fully complied with the questions. While Google received a formal warning for “giving generic or aggregated information across multiple services where information regarding specific services was required,” X’s violation “was more serious.” Inman Grant said X failed to reply adequately to questions while leaving other boxes blank. “In other instances, Twitter provided a response that was otherwise incomplete or inaccurate,” she wrote.

Jerod Harris via Getty Images

The official says her department sent a notice to X (then Twitter) on February 22, asking it to fulfill its report by answering mandatory questions; she gave the company 35 days to reply. The company responded on March 29. Inman Grant wrote that she identified 14 questions (including sub-questions) where the firm failed to provide the required info. Her office sent follow-up questions on April 6. Musk’s company responded on May 5, leading Inman Grant to conclude the company had held back info in its initial response. She wrote, “It is evident from many of X Corp.’s subsequent responses that it held information required by the Notice and was capable of providing that information at first instance.”

Inman Grant wrote that the nation can seek civil penalties through the courts if X doesn’t pay the fine. And more compliance tools are on the way. “We also have more powerful systemic tools coming online next year in the form of industry codes and standards which will ensure companies are living up to their responsibilities to protect children,” she wrote.

As highlighted by The NYT, X told the Australian regulators, “Children are not our target customer, and our service is not overwhelmingly used by children.” However, CEO Linda Yaccarino recently said in a forum that Gen Z was the platform’s fastest-growing demographic, with 200 million unique monthly visitors among teens and young adults in their 20s.

Twitch announced today that stories are now available in the platform’s mobile app. Similar to the feature of the same name on Snapchat, Instagram and other social platforms, Twitch’s stories let streamers post photos, text or clips that expire after 48 hours. The company frames the feature as helping creators reach and stay connected with their communities while offline. It first announced the feature in July.

At least at launch, the ability to create Twitch stories is limited to partners and affiliates with at least one stream from the last 30 days. However, all users (after updating to the app’s latest version) will be able to see them at the top of the Following page. The company says access will roll out gradually to eligible streamers by the end of this week — and beyond as more creators meet the requirements.

In addition, creators with at least 30 subscribers (including gift subs) can make subscriber-only stories. Twitch recommends using this feature to “add even more value to your supporters’ subscriptions through exclusive content.”

Twitch suggests using stories for easy outreach to followers, scheduling updates and adding visual flare or fun. The mobile app will push alerts to followers when a streamer posts a story, although it also includes notification settings to control the frequency. Meanwhile, creators can see the total views and reactions for each story they post — including after they expire.

“Viewers will see your stories live alongside stories created by other streamers they follow, so post regularly throughout the week to keep your community in-the-know and up-to-date between your streams,” the company wrote in its announcement blog post.

Valve has warned Counter-Strike 2 players that AMD’s latest graphics driver could get them banned. The problem lies in AMD’s Anti-Lag+ feature, which triggers the Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system, duping it into mistaking the driver’s low-latency mode for cheating.

The problem lies in Anti-Lag+ intercepting and redirecting Dynamic Link Library (DLL) functions. VAC views DLL reroutes as cheats (in other cases, they often are), which could lead to getting booted from Counter-Strike 2.

A Reddit thread about the issue claims “many players” have reported receiving VAC bans from using the latest AMD driver (23.10.1). “It seems that VAC is banning everyone BUT the cheaters,” quipped u/Volfong in the thread. “Can confirm I got banned today and Anti-Lag+ was turned on,” wrote u/trkemrasr. “They better reverse this shit quickly.”

Valve plans to do just that. “Once AMD ships an update we can do the work of identifying affected users and reversing their ban,” the publisher posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Until the problem is resolved, Valve recommends turning off Anti-Lag+ in the graphics card settings. If you haven’t changed the default, you can disable Anti-Lag+ with the hotkey of Alt+L. You can double-check the shortcut’s setting by opening AMD Radeon Software, clicking on the gear icon and choosing Hotkeys from the sub-menu. Selecting the existing hotkey for Anti-Lag+ allows you to customize it.

Engadget has contacted AMD for comment and will update this article if we hear back.

Counter-Strike 2 launched in September after months of hype. The update, which replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam, adds upgraded graphics and maps alongside more realistic smoke. The game uses Valve’s Source 2 engine for improved lighting, clearer textures and updated geometry. You’ll need a somewhat modern Windows machine to play it as Valve says it has no plans to bring the sequel to macOS or older PCs.

The Evil Within will be free next week on the Epic Games Store. The nearly decade-old title is a survival horror game from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, who left Bethesda earlier this year. The game will be free to claim on Epic from October 19 to 26.

The game puts you in the shoes of Detective Sebastian Castellanos as he finds himself sucked into a macabre world full of nightmarish monsters and traps. The Evil Within’s action unfolds in a third-person perspective as Castellanos uses stealth and whatever weapons and resources he can scrap together to unravel the mystery of his environment and the villainous Ruvik. The highly intelligent antagonist toes the line between madman and tortured soul as he helms the STEM machine, a complex device that can link human minds together in a virtual world.

Although some players and reviewers chided the title’s uneven plot and archetypal (sometimes bordering on generic) enemies, it could be seen as something of a modern cult classic for horror fans and Mikami devotees. You can add the game (typically $20 these days) to your account for free next week in the Epic Games Store.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has blasted off and begun a six-year, 2.2-billion-mile journey to a peculiar asteroid. Astronomers have speculated that the space rock, also named Psyche, was once the partial core of a small planet in the early days of the Solar System. The seemingly iron- and nickel-rich asteroid may hold clues to the formation of planets, including our own.

On Friday, the uncrewed Psyche spacecraft lifted off at 10:19AM ET aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After successfully jettisoning its fairings and separating from the rocket, ground controllers established two-way communication. Telemetry reports indicate it made it to space in good health. The mission had faced numerous delays before finally lifting off.

Psyche (the asteroid) rotates around the sun in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Researchers estimate it’s made of 30 to 60 percent nickel-iron core, allowing them a rare glimpse into a (possible) planetary core. “My best guess is that it’s more than half metal based on the data that we’ve got,” Lindy Elkins-Tanton, an Arizona State University professor working as the mission’s principal investigator, told The New York Times. “We’re really going to see a kind of new object, which means that a lot of our ideas are going to be proven wrong.”

NASA / Kim Shiflett

The spacecraft will take around six years to reach Psyche. At that point, NASA’s Psyche craft will orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying it with various instruments. The craft will use cameras to get an up-close peek, a magnetometer to look for an ancient magnetic field, a gamma-ray spectrometer to detect high-energy gamma rays and neutrons and a radio antenna to map the space rock’s gravity.

“I am excited to see the treasure trove of science Psyche will unlock as NASA’s first mission to a metal world,” said Nicola Fox, a NASA Science Mission Directorate associate. “By studying asteroid Psyche, we hope to better understand our universe and our place in it, especially regarding the mysterious and impossible-to-reach metal core of our own home planet, Earth.”

The spacecraft will also test NASA’s deep space laser communications, an experimental communications method that could increase deep space bandwidth 100-fold over the current standard, radio waves. “It’s exciting to know that, in a few short weeks, Deep Space Optical Communications will begin sending data back to Earth to test this critical capability for the future of space exploration,” said Dr. Prasun Desai, Associate Administrator (Acting), STMD at NASA HQ. “The insights we learn will help us advance these innovative new technologies and, ultimately, pursue bolder goals in space.”

The European Union (EU) has opened an investigation into X (formerly Twitter) for lackluster moderation of illegal content and disinformation in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. The move, via Financial Times, comes two days after EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent an “urgent” letter to X owner Elon Musk asking the billionaire about the company’s handling of misinformation. The formal probe is the first under the newly minted Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires platforms operating in Europe to police harmful content — and can levy fines significant enough to give it teeth.

EU officials sent a series of questions to X that the company has until October 18 to answer. The commission says it will determine its next steps “based on the assessment of X replies.” The DSA, which passed into law in 2022, requires social companies to proactively moderate and remove illegal content. Failing to do so could lead to periodic fines or penalties that, in X’s case, could total up to “five percent of the company’s daily global turnover,” according to FT.

Researchers and fact-checkers have cautioned about widely distributed misinformation on X following the Hamas attacks on Israel. Tuesday’s letter warned Musk about harmful content on X, signaling that Breton was prepared to use the DSA’s full muscle to enforce compliance. “Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU,” Breton wrote. “Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.”

Musk’s response appeared to contain at least a whiff of snark. “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports,” the X owner and Tesla CEO wrote. “Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that [sic] the public can see them. Merci beaucoup.” Breton retorted, “You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’ — reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk.”

Isabel Infantes / reuters

Yaccarino’s response claimed the company redistributed its resources and shuffled internal teams to address moderation issues surrounding the Middle East conflict. She said X has removed or labeled “tens of thousands of pieces of content” since the attacks commenced.

The CEO added that X deleted hundreds of Hamas-aligned accounts from the platform while stating that the company works with counter-terrorism organizations. Yaccarino said X’s Community Notes, a crowdsourced moderation feature, is now supported on Android and the web (with iOS “coming soon”). She also claimed the company has “significantly scaled” a feature that sends notifications to people who liked, replied to or reposted something that later received a Community Note fact-check.

The EU’s newly opened probe also questions how X is prepared to react during a crisis and what procedures it has to handle associated misinformation. The company allegedly has until the end of October to respond to that line of questioning.

Breton isn’t focusing exclusively on X. The commissioner also sent letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok owner ByteDance this week, reminding them of their obligations to the DSA in the wake of the Middle East bloodshed.

EA is making a turn-based strategy game based on… soccer? That’s the bizarre premise behind the upcoming EA Sports FC Tactical, a mobile title heading to iOS and Android in early 2024. The company says the most peculiar installment in its decades-old franchise (formerly FIFA) results in “authentic football action like never before.”

As its description suggests, matches will be simulated, so you won’t directly control players’ actions like in traditional sports games. Instead, it focuses on in-game strategies like player stamina and power-play management. Playable modes include online-friendly matches and “intense online competitions” like Rank matches, Leagues, and Guilds. It sounds like a sports game for those who want 100 percent strategy and little or no player-controlled action.

Promotional screenshots show a one-on-one battle with assigned numerical skills for each player. They’re broken down into categories like dribbling, one-two, passing and shooting. The pictured player appears to have “skill move” power-up cards like combative chase shot, wild tap dribble and floating instep shot. It sounds like EA took core gameplay elements familiar from titles like Teamfight Tactics (and many others) and slapped a soccer skin onto it to attract fans of both genres.

EA

The game will have over 5,000 licensed players from “more than 10 top leagues,” including the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Serie A. You can train players to upgrade their moves, unlock new traits as you progress and customize cosmetics like stadium designs, uniforms and balls.

“EA Sports FC Tactical embraces strategic gameplay to create an all-new football experience that immerses players in the World’s Game like never before,” said EA Sports senior vice president Nick Wlodyka. The game is available for pre-registration on the App Store and Google Play ahead of an expected January 18, 2024 launch.

Conventional wisdom about coin flips may have been turned on its head. A global team of researchers investigating the statistical and physical nuances of coin tosses worldwide concluded (via Phys.org) that a coin is 50.8% likely to land on the same side it started on, altering one of society’s most traditional assumptions about random decision-making that dates back at least to the Roman Empire.

The team appeared to validate a smaller-scale 2007 study by Stanford mathematician Persi Diaconis, which suggested a slight bias (about 51 percent) toward the side it started on. The authors of the new paper conducted 350,757 flips, using different coins from 46 global currencies to eliminate a heads-tail bias between coin designs. (They also used a variety of people to rule out individuals with biased flipping techniques corrupting the results.) Regardless of the coin type, the same-side outcome could be predicted at 0.508, which rounds up perfectly to Diaconis’ “about 51 percent” prediction from 16 years ago.

The researchers found no evidence of a heads-tail bias when excluding its starting position from the data. In other words, if you pay no attention to which side the coin is on pre-flip, the odds of the outcome are equally likely to be heads or tails. 

Reuters Photographer / reuters

Coin flippers in the study selected their starting position randomly (or according to an algorithm), flipped the coin, caught it in their hand and recorded the landing position. (If they flipped it over in their palm before revealing it, the opposite side it started on had 50.8% odds.) All participants videotaped and uploaded recordings of their flips to simplify collection and coding errors. “Our data therefore provide strong evidence that when some (but not all) people flip a fair coin, it tends to land on the same side it started,” the authors wrote.

The paper notes there was a high degree of variability between coin flippers. “Some people appear to have little or no same-side bias, whereas others do display a same-side bias, albeit to a varying degree.” But taken on the whole, it leads to those 50.8% odds favoring the starting side. 

The findings could even lead to (slight) financial gains. The researchers say that if you bet $1 on 1,000 separate coin flips, always betting on the side it starts on (and catching the coin rather than letting it roll on a surface or flipping it over in your palm), you’d make a $19 profit. The authors note that this is better odds than a casino’s built-in advantage for six-deck blackjack against a high-level player. They suggest that anyone making a high-stakes decision based on a coin flip would be wise to conceal its starting position.

Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire CEO receiving stern letters this week from Thierry Breton, the European Union’s regulatory commissioner. Following a similar one to Elon Musk, Breton posted a single-page correspondence (via CNBC) he penned to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg today, giving the Facebook founder 24 hours to respond. The letter acknowledges areas where Meta’s content moderation has improved but raises concerns about misinformation (including deepfakes) on the company’s social platforms as the bloody Israel-Hamas war continues.

“In light of a number of serious recent developments, let me recall the precise obligations regarding content moderation under the EU Digital Services Act,” Breton wrote in the letter. “Firstly, following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we are seeing a surge of illegal content and disinformation being disseminated in the EU via certain platforms,” Breton wrote.

“I would ask you to be very vigilant to ensure strict compliance with the DSA rules on terms of service, on the requirement of timely, diligent and objective action following notices of illegal content in the EU, and on the need for proportionate and effective mitigation measures,” the commissioner wrote. “I urgently invite you to ensure that your systems are effective.”

Agencja Wyborcza.pl / reuters

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) requires social companies like Meta to moderate and remove illegal and harmful content. The law, passed in 2022, mandates that platforms operating in the EU be more proactive in policing malicious material. It can levy fines of up to six percent of infringing companies’ total revenue, enough to effectively serve as a “stick” against the deep-pocketed social behemoths.

Breton acknowledged the company’s improvements in certain areas. “We have noted steps taken by Meta to increase mitigation measures in the run-up to the recent elections in Slovakia — such as increased cooperation with independent authorities, improvements in response times, and increased fact-checking,” the letter reads.

However, it raises concerns about deepfakes and other digitally altered content with potential real-world ramifications. “We have also been made aware of reports of a significant number of deep fakes and manipulated content which circulated on your platforms and a few still appear online,” Breton wrote. “I remind you that the DSA requires that the risk of amplification of fake and manipulated images and facts generated with the intention to influence elections is taken extremely seriously in the context of mitigation measures.”

Breton asked Zuckerberg to communicate with the commissioner’s team “without delay” on the details of measures the company has taken to mitigate deepfakes and counter election-related misinformation.

“My team will follow up shortly with a specific request on a number of other issues of DSA compliance that deserve immediate attention,” the letter closed. “The DSA is here to protect free speech against arbitrary decisions, and at the same time protect our citizens and democracies.”

Valve has confirmed that Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) won’t support Mac and older Windows PCs. The game’s predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), ran on those machines, but the company said since the refreshed title “represents the largest technical leap in CS history,” users on those platforms are out of luck.

In addition to macOS, older hardware, “including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems,” are discontinued. Valve described the abandonment as a “difficult decision” based on technological advances. The company notes that, when combined, users on those platforms represented less than one percent of active CS:GO players, suggesting the gaming behemoth didn’t view legacy support for those platforms as a cost-conscious move.

Valve will offer refunds to eligible players on those systems who bought the Prime Status Upgrade, an optional $15 boost that matches players with fellow subscribers while earning various bonuses. However, there are caveats. Mac users can only get their money back if “most of their CS:GO playtime was on macOS” between March 22 and September 27. Meanwhile, DirectX 9 and 32-bit Windows users must have bought Prime Status Upgrade from Steam between those dates. 

Valve will only offer refunds until December 1. In addition, the company notes that CD keys, gifted purchases and banned accounts are ineligible.

The legacy version of CS:GO, currently classified as a “frozen build,” is still available for players on the defunct platforms. But Valve says that version will lose support after January 1, 2024. Any functionality associated with the Game Coordinator (access to inventory) “may degrade and/or fail” after that date.

Valve launched Counter-Strike 2 in late September after months of hype. The enormous update offers enhanced graphics, upgraded maps and more believable smoke. It uses Valve’s in-house Source 2 engine for more believable lighting, sharper textures and updated geometry. CS2 replaced CS:GO on Steam.