TikTok is the latest social platform to preview its strategy for fighting election misinformation ahead of the November midterms. The company is once again promoting its in-app Elections Center, which connects users with voting resources and information about their local races. TikTok says a link to the Elections Center will appear on all content related to the midterms, as well as all videos from candidates, political parties and official government accounts.

The company will also continue to work with third-party fact checkers to debunk false claims and warn users when a video contains unverified information. Videos with claims that are debunked by fact checkers will also direct viewers to the Elections Center.

While much of this is similar to steps the company took ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Eric Han, the company’s head of US safety, says the company has built on learnings from 2020. For example, TikTok is stepping up its outreach to creators in an effort to ensure they understand the company’s ban on political ads also applies to branded content.

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The issue has been a challenging one for TikTok. A report last year from Mozilla found that many creators with financial ties to political candidates and organizations were able to easily evade detection on the app. In a briefing with reporters, Han acknowledged that undisclosed branded content is a “challenge” for the company.

He said the company is creating educational videos for creators and agencies to better inform them of TikTok’s rules around such partnerships. He also said the company is working on improving its ability to detect such content, both by monitoring third-party reports, and with internal teams that are “investigating for potential signals where we should be investigating.”

TikTok isn’t the only social platform getting a head start on preparing for the fall midterms. Twitter announced last week that it was reactivating its civic integrity policy and rolling out redesigned fact-checking labels. Meta also recently previewed its strategy to counter misinformation during the midterms, saying it will repeat many of the steps it took ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

But TikTok has come under particular scrutiny for its rapid growth over the last two years and its parent company ByteDance’s ties to China. The company announced this week that Oracle would be auditing its algorithms and moderation practices.

“As part of Oracle's work, they will be regularly vetting and validating both our recommendation and our moderation models,” Han told reporters. “There'll be regular audits of our content moderation processes, both from automated systems … as well as the content that is moderated and reviewed by humans.”

Logitech has introduced a new audio solution specifically created for the Meta Quest 2: It's called "Chorus," and the company says it can deliver a "new level of immersive, ultra-realistic audio." Chorus features rotating speakers and an open back form factor that lets ambient sounds in. It was designed to slide onto the Quest 2's headset strap until the speakers are positioned over the user's ears. In fact, it will make the VR device look similar to the Valve Index, which comes with two near-field speakers, after installation. According to The Verge, the Chorus is compatible with both the stock strap the Quest 2 ships with and Meta's Elite strap.

The accessory maker says Chorus' big open-back audio drivers ensure users can hear both the "big moments and the smallest details." And while the add-on is not an original part of the Quest 2, it's meant to stay in place instead of being removed after every use. It connects to the headset's USB-C port and draws power from the Quest 2 itself, but since it was designed to stay plugged in, it supports USB-C passthrough. That means users can keep their headset charged or can connect other devices to it while Chorus is also plugged in. As The Verge notes, though, Chorus has little noise isolation and probably isn't the best choice for those who want privacy while watching movies or exploring new experiences in VR.

Vadim Kogan, Logitech's head of AR/VR, said "Chorus enhances the fit and comfort of Meta Quest 2, while allowing those who love long play sessions to stay immersed in their favorite games and experiences through the audio integration in a comfortable design built for the VR gamer."

Chorus will soon be available from Logitech's website and other retailers for $100.

Nintendo is famous for having a family—friendly image and game that people of all ages can enjoy. But a report by Kotaku paints the picture of a company that's not so different from other gaming giants that had previously been accused of fostering a "frat boy" workplace culture. The publication talked to several female game testers who recounted how they were harassed by colleagues and how they were paid less than their male counterparts.

One of Kotaku's main sources is a former game tester called Hannah, who was allegedly told to be less outspoken after she reported the inappropriate behavior of a full-time Nintendo employee in a workplace group chat. The employee reportedly posted a copy of a Reddit post detailing why Vaporeon was the best Pokémon to have sex with and justified why it was OK to be sexually attracted to Paimon, a Genshin Impact NPC with a child-like appearance. 

Hannah, who was a contractor, also found that she was being paid $3 less than a junior male tester and struggled to get her contracting agency to agree to a pay increase. As a queer worker, she was subjected to inappropriate comments by male colleagues whose advances she'd rejected, as well. "Oh, you’re a lesbian. That’s kind of sad," a significantly older colleague told her shortly after starting to work at the company. 

Hannah's experiences are similar to what many of the other female testers Kotaku had interviewed went through. Some of them talked about how Melvin Forrest, a product testing lead at Nintendo of America, "went after all the associate girls" and frequently commented on their weight and appearance. They said Forrest was in charge of deciding on contractors' schedules and on who gets to return after a project, so female testers were forced to get along with him. Another contractor was stalked by a more senior tester for months, but the well-connected perpetrator threatened to get her fired if she reports him. 

One common complaint between the sources was the lack of advancement opportunities. "Your chance [of being converted to full time] was probably worse as a girl. It's usually guys [who get promoted]. They’re usually all friends. They watch the Super Bowl together," one product tester who worked on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild said.

As Kotaku notes, one of the main reasons why these problems persist is that women are underrepresented in the company. Sources believe that the percentage of female contractors testing games for Nintendo is only around 10 percent, and it's not often that they're transitioned into full-time employees. The company's data also shows that female employees only make up around 37 percent of all full-time workers at Nintendo of America.

While the gaming giant didn't respond to Kotaku's questions, company chief Doug Bowser previously addressed reports about Activision Blizzard's sexist "frat boy" culture in an internal memo. "Along with all of you, I've been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company. I find these accounts distressing and disturbing. They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo's beliefs, values and policies," he said. 

The testers who talked to the publication for this particular report are just some of contractors who've recently decided to speak out against the company. Two former workers even filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Nintendo of America of retaliation, surveillance and coercion. We've reached out to the company for a statement, and we'll update this story if we hear back.

Like Blizzard, Rockstar and Ubisoft, Sony may soon require you to download a launcher before you can play its games on PC. Digging through the Windows version of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered, VGC verified code referencing a PlayStation PC launcher. The discovery follows the recent revelation that Sony likely plans to add PlayStation Network integration to its PC titles.

If Sony moves forward with the launcher, it’s unclear if the company also plans to make its games exclusive to the software. At the moment, you can buy all of Sony’s PC titles through both Steam and the Epic Games Store. Different publishers employ different strategies. For instance, Blizzard games are only available to download through the Battle.Net app. Other companies such as EA and Rockstar allow you to buy and download their games through Steam and the Epic Games Store, but you must also install their software for verification purposes. Even if Sony were to go the latter route, it’s almost certain its launcher would include a storefront. In that way, the company could avoid giving Valve and Epic a cut of some of its PC sales.

Activision Blizzard is still receiving complaints over alleged labor violations. The Communications Workers of America union (CWA) has filed an unfair labor practice charge accusing the game developer of illegally surveilling workers during a July walkout protest over gender inequity. The company also denied access to a chat channel discussing working conditions and otherwise cut off internal avenues for discussing labor, the CWA said.

We've asked Activision Blizzard for comment. The company previously said it was cooperating with investigations into its workplace practices and has argued that employees could speak freely about their workplace situations. However, the CWA maintained that the Call of Duty publisher has made "continued efforts" to stifle labor organizers, such as refusing to recognize a quality assurance union and hiring the union-busting law firm Reed Smith.

The charge is the latest in a string of labor-related accusations beyond the sexual harassment scandal that began much of the current uproar. The CWA filed a charge in June claiming Activision Blizzard broke labor law by firing QA contractors. In May, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined there was merit behind allegations the company was threatening labor organizers. Multiple reports have also circulated claiming that the gaming giant has been pushing anti-union messages.

The new complaint doesn't necessarily change Activision Blizzard's predicament. The company risks penalties and mandatory policy changes if it's found to be violating labor law. The charge adds further pressure, however, and could shape potential punishment.

President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The sweeping $750 billion legislation includes $369 billion in investments toward climate and clean energy programs. Following months of infighting, House and Senate Democrats passed the bill along party lines last week after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia struck a compromise deal on Biden's Build Better Back framework. According to one estimate by Princeton University’s Zero Lab, the bill could reduce US greenhouse emissions by about 6.3 billion tons through 2032. The $369 billion set aside by the bill represents the most significant investment to combat climate change in US history. 

"This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever, and it's going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meeting all of the climate goals we set out when we ran," Biden said before signing the bill. "It includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fenceline communities that have been smothered by the legacy of population and fight environmental injustice that has been going on for so long." 

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Meta has outlined its strategy for combatting misinformation during the 2022 US midterm elections, and they'll mostly sound familiar if you remember the company's 2020 approach. The Facebook and Instagram owner said it will maintain policies and protections "consistent" with the presidential election, including policies barring vote misinformation and linking people to trustworthy information. It will once again ban political ads during the last week of the election campaign. This isn't quite a carbon copy, however, as Meta is fine-tuning its methods in response to lessons learned two years ago.

To start, Meta is "elevating" post comments from local elections officials to make sure reliable polling information surfaces in conversations. The company is also acknowledging concerns that it used info labels too often in 2020 — for the 2022 midterms, it's planning to show labels in a "targeted and strategic way."

Meta's update comes just days after Twitter detailed its midterm strategy, and echoes the philosophy of its social media rival. Both are betting that their 2020 measures were largely adequate, and that it's just a question of refining those systems for 2022.

Whether or not that's true is another matter. In a March 2021 study, advocacy group Avaaz said Meta didn't do enough to stem the flow of misinformation and allowed billions of views for known false content. Whistleblower Frances Haugen also maintains that Meta has generally struggled to fight bogus claims, and it's no secret that Meta had to extend its ban on political ads after the 2020 vote. Facebook didn't catch some false Brazilian election ads, according to Global Witness. Meta won't necessarily deal with serious problems during the midterms, but it's not guaranteed a smooth ride.

One of the world’s largest airlines has placed a big bet on supersonic jet startup Boom. On Tuesday, American Airlines announced that it had recently agreed to buy 20 Overture aircraft from Boom, with the option to purchase an additional 40 planes if all goes well. The deal is one of the strongest shows of support for Boom yet, surpassing the potential 50-jet commitment United Airlines made last year. That’s all for a startup that has yet to build a working passenger jet.

At the start of the year, Boom announced it would build a manufacturing facility at North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad International Airport. The company expects to begin construction on its “Overture Superfactory” later this year, with production to follow in 2024 – though the plant’s first completed jet won’t fly until sometime in 2026. Still, that hasn’t stopped Boom from being bullish about Overture’s prospects. The company envisions the Mach 1.7 jet completing flights between Newark and London in under four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in approximately six hours. The company also claims Overture will be a “net-zero carbon” aircraft thanks to its ability to fly on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuels.

Despite some missteps with Instagram, Meta is marching forward with its plan to make Reels a bigger component of its apps in an attempt to better compete with TikTok. It's rolling out several updates to Reels, particularly on Facebook's side. For one thing, everyone can now cross-post Reels from Instagram to Facebook with the tap of a button. Meta suggests that this may help creators to grow their audiences on the apps and monetize their content across both platforms.

In addition, Facebook now offers a way to automatically create Reels using Stories you have already shared. The idea is to help folks create Reels with little additional effort. On top of that, Facebook has gained more Reels remix options, which Meta previously introduced to Instagram. You can now show your video after the original Reel that you're remixing in addition to having the side-by-side option.

Elsewhere, the Add Yours sticker that became popular in Stories is coming to Reels on Instagram and Facebook. The idea is to nudge other users to take part in a trend. If you create your own Add Yours prompt, every Reel that uses the sticker will appear on a dedicated page. The person who created the prompt will be displayed prominently on the page as well. So, if an Add Yours trend takes off and you're behind it, that could help you to grow your audience.

Meanwhile, the Facebook Stars tipping feature will soon be available to all eligible creators on the platform. Creators will also have access to more Reels insights via Creator Studio (with metrics including reach, minutes viewed and average watch time) to help them figure out what content is working for their audiences.

Meta has a long way to go to catch up to TikTok, but perhaps these features will help, especially since engagement with Reels is growing across both platforms. TikTok is gobbling up almost every other social media app's lunch. A recent Pew Research report suggested that 16 percent of US teens "almost constantly" use the app, compared with 10 percent for Instagram and two percent for Facebook. 

Rain or shine, a new pair of solar-powered wireless headphones by Adidas has you covered. The athletic brand teamed up with Zound Industries to make the Adidas RPT-02 SOL on-ear headphones, which can be charged with either natural or artificial light. We were pleasantly surprised by Adidas’ previously-launched RPT-01, which features 40 hours of wireless playback. The newer line promises double that amount — 80 hours of stored playtime — not to mention the ability to charge at any time of day. It's also made of a combination of recycled plastic and nylon. 

The headband of the RPT-02 SOL is made of a highly flexible light-cell material by Swedish solar tech company Exeger called Powerfoyle. The solar cell material can be screen-printed onto plastic, allowing for a wide variety of applications — everything from walls to cars to consumer electronics. Unlike older types of solar cells that need a strong and constant source of natural light, Powerfoyle can charge in various light conditions.

The RPT-02 isn’t waterproof — but is IPX4-rated — so it can handle sweat and splashing from a nearby ocean or lake. The headphones feature built-in controls for changing songs or volume, and there's also an indicator that helps find the best light for charging. And if all else fails, it includes a USB-C port. The RPT-02 SOL retails for $229, and will be available for purchase online on August 23rd.