Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter have committed to battle online abuse and improve women's safety on their platforms. The four tech giants made the promises during the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris.

The pledge follows four consultations arranged by the Web Foundation that took place over 11 months. The organization then ran a few policy design workshops in April to "develop prototypes that center the experiences of women most impacted by online abuse." Two core themes emerged: Curation, with a broad recommendation to "build better ways for women to curate their safety online," and Reporting, with a call to "implement improvements to reporting systems."

The tech companies promised to offer users more granular settings over who can see, comment on, reply to or share posts. Easier navigation and access to safety features, simpler and more accessible language across the user interface and "proactively reducing the amount of abuse" that women encounter are also among the commitments.

As for reporting, Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter say they'll enable users to have the option of tracking and managing the reports they file as well, as having more ways for women to access support and help as they go through the reporting process. The other commitments include "enabling greater capacity to address context and/or language" and "providing more policy and product guidance when reporting abuse."

According to the Web Foundation, the companies pledged to implement their solutions within a certain time frame. They'll provide insights and data on how they're carrying out those commitments. The Web Foundation will publish annual reports on their progress as well.

More than 200 prominent figures have signed an open letter to the CEOs of the four companies, urging them to take action based on the promises. Among those who have signed the letter are actors Emma Watson and Gillian Anderson, UK Members of Parliament Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips, Creative Commons CEO Catherine Stihler and ex-Australia prime minister Julia Gillard.

The Web Foundation says 38 percent of those who identify as women have experienced online abuse. The figure rises to 45 percent for Gen Z and Millennial women. Women of color, and those in LGBTQIA+ and other marginalized communities often experience much worse abuse.

Meanwhile, Facebook just opened a Women's Safety Hub that explains the platform's tools for bolstering privacy and security. It will also run training sessions to help people harness those tools. In addition, the hub has resources for victims of abuse. Facebook developed the hub with the support of nonprofit partners around the globe. The hub's resources will soon be available in 55 languages.

In three weeks' time, you'll be able to start playing the pixel remaster versions of the first three Final Fantasy games. Square Enix has revealed that the Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III remasters are coming out on July 28th for PC via Steam and on July 29th for Android and iOS. You can now also pre-purchase the games individually for prices between $12 and $18, or buy the bundle with all six games for around $96. You'll get three soundtracks and two unique wallpapers for each title you pre-purchase. The gaming giant doesn't have a specific release date for the fourth to sixth installments in the franchise yet, but they're also scheduled to come out sometime this year.

Square Enix first announced that it's giving the first six games in the Final Fantasy franchise the pixel remaster treatment during its E3 presentation back in mid-June, though it barely shared any details about them. In the description box of the first installment on Steam, it says the game will feature completely new graphics, as well as "improved ease of play" with a modernized UI and auto-battle options. Its soundtrack has been rearranged, but the process was overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu. In addition, it will come with extra features, such as a bestiary, an illustration gallery and a music player.

While the other three games getting a remaster don't have a release date yet, Square Enix recently announced it's pulling the current versions of the fifth and sixth installments from Steam on July 27th. The developer received a lot of flak for reducing the quality of the art on the games it originally released on Steam, so it makes sense for the remasters to completely replace them. 

Spotify is reportedly “considering” expanding into events, according to The Information. The outlet reports the company could sell tickets for both virtual and live concerts as it looks to diversify its business. However, making money off of ticketed events isn’t necessarily Spotify’s short-term goal. Its more immediate plan is to use them as a way to improve its relationship with artists.

The Information suggests Spotify thinks there’s an opportunity to leverage the data it has to help musicians plan successful concerts in places most promoters avoid. In this way, the company is said to believe it can better show those artists it’s invested in their careers. It would also be a way for it to differentiate its platform from Apple Music.

Spotify has already dabbled in live events. This past spring, the company put on a handful of prerecorded virtual concerts featuring artists like The Black Keys and Leon Bridges. It sold tickets to those shows for $15 each. The Information reports the results of those concerts “validated” Spotify’s thinking on what events could do for it in the future, and it’s been thinking about next steps ever since. Of course, we wouldn't say that makes an expansion is a done deal. Selling tickets to concerts might make a lot of sense for a music streaming platform, but it would still represent a massive business shift for Spotify.    

Instagram has confirmed it's working on a new feature called "Exclusive Stories." Since June 21st, images of the Stories offshoot have circulated online after software developer Alessandro Paluzzi shared on Twitter that they had found references to the feature in Instagram's codebase. On Wednesday, the company told TechCrunch the screenshots showcase an internal prototype it's working on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Instagram didn't reveal any other details about the project, noting it had nothing more to share when Engadget reached out.

But what we can gather from the screenshots is that the feature is Instagram's take on Twitter's paid Super Follow subscription. When regular users stumble upon an Exclusive Story, Instagram will tell them "only members" can view the content. It also appears the company will prevent people from trying to screenshot what they see. At the same time, it will push creators to save their Exclusive Stories to a Highlight so that new members have something to view as they subscribe.

As with any insight that comes courtesy of someone finding early references to a new feature, there's the possibility Instagram may never release the feature Paluzzi found. But the images clearly show the company is thinking about how it can entice creators to stay on the platform. If that means adapting a feature from one of its rivals, so be it. Facebook and Instagram have done that plenty of times in the past.

Fans of Loki will have more than just a new episode of Marvel’s live-action series to look forward to next Wednesday. On July 7th, Disney will also release The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, a new Simpsons short guest starring Tom Hiddleston, to Disney+. Of his latest (mis)adventure, the company says Loki has once again gotten himself banished from Asgard, only this time to find himself in the town of Springfield. The God of Mischief teams up with Bart and hijinks ensue.

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki is the second Disney+ Simpsons crossover following the Star Wars-themed The Awakens from its Nap. Of course, you can thank the billions Disney spent adding Marvel, Lucasfilm and assets from 21st Century Fox to its empire for that fact the Simpsons and Loki can appear in an animated short together. 

Slack just became the latest company to embrace real-time audio. The messaging app is launching a new, Discord-like chat feature called Huddles. The feature, along with new collaboration tools for sharing pre-recorded audio and video are, according to the company, meant to provide an alternative to the “endless stream of meetings” that have dominated many office workers’ calendars during the pandemic.

Huddles allows Slack users to create impromptu meetups either in direct messages or an existing channel. When a participant starts a Huddle, other members can quickly join and chat in real time, much like you would in Discord. Though it’s meant to be “camera-free,” Huddles does support screen-sharing for an extra layer of collaboration.

Slack says the feature is a good alternative to voice or video calls because it’s a more low-pressure way for workers to quickly chat without the need to schedule a meeting. Tamar Yehoshua, the company’s chief product officer, compared Huddles to the kinds of impromptu conversations that happen in offices but don’t often occur with remote work. “It’s as if you see people congregating in a conference room and you just stick your head in and then leave when you’re ready,” she said during a briefing with reporters.

Slack

While Slack is the latest in a long list of companies embracing the audio trend kickstarted by Clubhouse, the company says it’s responding to the way that work has changed during the pandemic. After more than a year working from home, Zoom fatigue is real. At the same time, many workers may never go back to the office — at least, not full-time. So it’s not surprising Slack would respond to these shifts.

Similarly, the company is also addressing the need to collaborate when everyone isn’t online at the same time. The “schedule send” feature it recently previewed will now be rolling out. And the app is introducing new tools to share videos, voice and screen recordings within Slack.

While the app already allows users to swap video files within chats, the new tools go a step further. Users can record and share natively within a channel, and other team members can respond with a video or voice recording of their own. They also include live captioning, and both the recording and the accompanying transcription are searchable after the fact.

Finally, Slack also showed off a new directory tool for its business users called Slack Atlas. The feature adds more information to Slack’s existing profiles, such as org charts and employee start dates. It can also integrate with existing tools like Workday to automatically pull in relevant details to workers’ Slack profiles.

Facebook is diving into ephemeral messaging. After debuting self-erasing media and texts on Messenger and Instagram, the social giant is rolling out a similar feature on WhatsApp. Starting today, the app's beta testers on Android have begun to receive a "View Once" mode that wipes photos and videos as soon as you view and dismiss them. You'll know if you have access to the new feature if you see a dedicated button (that looks like a timer) in the caption input field, according to the experts at WABetaInfo. 

Not to be confused with WhatsApp's disappearing messages — which delete within seven days — photos and video sent using view once mode are single-use only and vanish after you close them. You'll get a notification once your media has been viewed. 

Despite the added sheen of privacy, there are some quirks you should be aware of before jumping in. As noted by WABetaInfo, disabling read receipts won't stop others from being notified if a view once message has been opened — though, you won't see when a recipient open yours. In groups, you'll be able to see when members have opened disappearing media even if you have read receipts disabled. 

Also, there's nothing stopping people from screenshotting your message without you finding out. View once apparently still works if you send a message to someone who doesn't have access to the feature. Those on iOS will reportedly get the new mode at a later date.

Facebook announced the feature in June on the heels of its divisive WhatsApp privacy policy update. The tech giant was forced to delay the new rules to mid-May from early February following an outcry over its access to additional user data. Facebook also later backtracked on its decision to limit WhatsApp features for those who didn't accept the changes. The company has previously painted ephemeral messaging as a way to encourage more authentic and intimate conversations.

Earlier today, an unfortunate bug led some people to believe Twitter had removed the toggle to switch between an algorithmic and chronological feed while using its web client. Throughout the day, people took to the service to tweet their frustration when they found out the star icon, which allows you to switch between the two feeds, was missing from their interface. 

The bug appears to have only affected some people, but that didn’t stop some outlets from reporting, based on an old support document, Twitter was removing the latest tweets view from its website altogether. Twitter’s Kayvon Beykpour and official support account later addressed the situation, noting it was a software issue the company has since fixed.

The fact so many were upset by this episode speaks to just how much people want to see tweets in the order they were sent out. Many depend on the platform’s chronological timeline to follow breaking events. That’s something Twitter eventually came to realize in 2018 when it started testing a way for people to switch between the two feeds.

Facebook has revealed its long-rumored standalone newsletter platform: Bulletin. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new project during a live audio room, saying that the project was a “response to what’s happening in the media ecosystem.”

Interestingly, unlike previous journalism initiatives from Facebook, Bulletin primarily lives outside of the main Facebook app. The newsletter platform has its own website, though it will take advantage of Facebook’s distribution tools. The newsletters will be integrated into author’s Facebook pages and readers can find the content in the news section of Facebook’s app.

Developing...

Boston Dynamics' robots can boogie. We've seen Spot and Atlas strut their stuff many times, with some videos of them in action becoming viral hits. A collaboration with K-pop phenomenon BTS should be like catnip for the internet. But while the two videos are kind of fun, they're ever-so-slightly underwhelming.

Hyundai closed its deal for a majority stake in Boston Dynamics last week. It brought in Hyundai brand ambassadors BTS to celebrate the occasion and dance with the robots. Spot cuts a rug with the group in one of the clips, but only briefly. They dance together for around 20 seconds altogether. In the other video, seven Spot robot dogs, one for each member of BTS, perform a choreographed routine to the band's "Ioniq: I'm On It" — an ode dedicated to Hyundai's EV sub-brand.

The clip that BTS appear in only racked up a couple of million views within a day or so on YouTube. The video for the group's latest single "Butter," however, was viewed 113 million times on the platform within 24 hours, setting a new record. It seems dancing robots, just like pretty much everything else on the planet right now, aren't quite as popular as BTS.