Meta will crack down further on potentially harmful ads. The New York Timesreports Meta is removing detailed ad targeting options for "thousands" of sensitive topics on Facebook, Instagram and other services starting January 19th, 2022. The move will bar ads based on interactions with content related to ethnicity, health, political beliefs, religion and sexual orientation, among other hot-button issues.

It's a drastic move, and Meta was aware this could hurt some businesses and positive ad uses. However, VP Graham Mudd said the outgoing options could lead to "negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups." The internet giant believed it could refine its ad platform to serve everyone without hurting business connections.

The company is also giving you more control over the ads you see. In early 2022, you'll have the option to see fewer ads linked to gambling, weight loss and other delicate subjects. You can already limit the frequency of ads for alcohol, parenting, pets and politics.

The stricter ad policies come the same day as Meta's latest transparency report and an overall effort to counter whistleblower Frances Haugen's accusations that the company is more interested in engagement and revenue than the well-being of its users. A 2020 audit concluded Meta fell short on efforts to combat discrimination, including ads. The firm removed targeting for thousands of sensitive ad topics in 2017 and 2018 (including auto-generated anti-Semitic categories), but there's clearly ongoing pressure to show Meta can clean up its ad business.

Meta will still have plenty of ad targeting, including location-based ads, custom audiences and permission-based customer lists. However, this could easily push some marketers to rethink their strategies. This may help by reducing the number of exploitative ads, but it could also hurt the relevancy of those ads you do see.

The Oversight Board has only been up and running for less than a year, but Facebook says it’s already having trouble keeping up with the group’s recommendations. The company says it wants to work with the Oversight Board to “improve the recommendation process,” though it’s not yet clear what those changes might entail. But it suggests Facebook is looking to shake up the way it deals with the independent body it created to oversee its content policies.

In a new report detailing Facebook’s dealings with the Oversight Board, the company notes that it’s made significant changes as the result of the Oversight Board’s recommendations. These changes include updates to how it handles hate speech and nudity, as well as how it determines “newsworthy” content.

But Facebook is now suggesting it wants to change up the recommendation process. “While we have made these important changes as a result of the board’s recommendations, we believe the current design of the recommendation process may not be the best way to bring about the long-term, structural changes the board is pushing us to undertake,” the company writes in its report. “We are working with the board and our internal teams to explore other ways to potentially improve the recommendation process.”

Again, it’s not clear exactly what this means for the Oversight Board or Facebook’s relationship with the group. The Oversight Board didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and during a call with reporters on Tuesday, Facebook’s Monika Bickert declined to elaborate on specific changes the company was hoping to make.

In its report, Facebook writes that “the pace and volume of the recommendations do not allow us adequate time to initially assess and implement the recommendations.” According to Facebook, most of the board’s recommendations “require over a dozen people to assess feasibility, which we cannot easily complete in 30 days.” the company added that it can take considerable time to determine how to integrate the policy suggestions into its existing product development.

But while it’s not yet clear what will change as a result of Facebook’s proposed “potential changes,” the fact that the company is already trying to make major changes to how it deals with the board is significant. Since its inception, Facebook critics have blasted the Oversight Board as little more than a PR stunt. And while the company has said it will abide by individual content decisions made by the board, its broader policy recommendations are where it could have the greatest influence over the company. For example, the board criticized Facebook’s decision to impose an “indefinite suspension” on former President Donald Trump, and told the company it needed to better define its rules for politicians.

Facebook has even suggested that other platforms should use the Oversight Board to monitor their content policies as well. That the company is now claiming it’s too difficult to keep up with the process its executives and policy officials designed could potentially undermine the influence the board is able to wield.

For too long, people with speech impairments have struggled to be understood not only by other people, but also by voice-based technology. Though some companies have started to make their products work better for people with atypical speech, the most prevalent services still don't hear them well. Google announced today that it's made a new Android app called Project Relate that could help people with speech impairments communicate more easily with others and the Assistant. It's looking for beta testers to test and improve the app starting today.

Like product manager for Google Research Julie Cattiau said in a video, "standard speech recognition doesn't always work as well for people with atypical speech because the algorithms have not been trained on samples of their speech." Project Relate would use custom models trained on each individual user's speech patterns. When someone first launches the app, it'll ask them to repeat a few phrases to create a base model and understand the way they speak. 

Then, Project Relate can do three things: Transcribe the user's speech into text that they can copy and paste or show to people on their screen, read out what the user said in a synthesized voice and communicated with the Google Assistant. 

The app is still being tested, with the company saying it will get back applicants for beta testing positions "in the coming months." But this is an important first step towards improving speech recognition for those with atypical speech. 

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced legislation that would give people more control over the algorithms that shape their online experience. If passed, the Filter Bubble Transparency Act would require companies like Meta to offer a version of their platforms that runs on an "input-transparent" algorithm that doesn't pull on user data to generate recommendations.

The bill would not do away with "opaque" recommendation algorithms altogether but would make it a requirement to include a toggle that allows people to switch that functionality off. Additionally, platforms that continue to use recommendation algorithms need to have a notification that informs people those recommendations are based on inferences generated by their personal data. The prompt can be a one-time notice, but it would need to be presented in a "clear, conspicuous manner," according to the proposed bill.

The legislation was introduced by Representatives Ken Buck (R-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Burgess Owens (R-UT). It's a companion bill to legislation Senators John Thune of South Dakota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced this past June. "Consumers should have the option to engage with internet platforms without being manipulated by secret algorithms driven by user-specific data," Buck told Axios, the first outlet to report on the legislation.

Lawmakers have frequently criticized social media giants for using recommendation algorithms to boost user engagement, but so far, there's been little legislative action to curb their use. In the aftermath of the January 6th US Capitol attack, a group of more than 30 Democratic lawmakers called on Meta (then known as Facebook), Twitter and YouTube to make substantive changes to their recommendation engines but ultimately stopped short of threatening regulatory action. Although the Filter Bubble Transparency Act has bipartisan support across the House and Senate, it's unclear if it would pass.

Soon after the iPhone 13 was released, an iFixit teardown showed that Face ID stopped working if the display was replaced by a third-party repair shop, unless they transferred a microcontroller from the original screen. Apple will soon mitigate the issue with an upcoming software update, so Face ID will still function even without swapping the chip to the new display.

"A solution will be available in an upcoming software update," Apple told Engadget. The Verge first reported on the forthcoming fix.

Moving the microcontroller from the device's original screen to a replacement is no easy feat — iFixit noted a microscope is needed. That may have put independent repair shops outside of Apple's Independent Repair Provider network in a tough spot, since it takes more time and special equipment to replace a screen and swap in the microcontroller.

It's not clear when Apple will roll out the software update to remedy the problem, though questions remain over why the Face ID function broke in the first place if the microcontroller wasn't moved over. The controversy emerged amid a broader push by the US government to strengthen right-to-repair rules.

Facebook has shared new statistics on the amount of bullying, hate speech and harassment on its platform. The new numbers, released with the company’s latest quarterly transparency reports, come as Meta faces increasing scrutiny over its ability to protect users and enforce its policies adequately around the world.

Its latest report marks the first time the company has shared metrics around bullying and harassment on its platform. According to the company. The “prevalence” of this type of content was between 0.14% -0.15% on Facebook and between 0.05%-0.06% on Instagram. “This means bullying and harassment content was seen between 14 and 15 times per every 10,000 views of content on Facebook and between 5 and 6 times per 10,000 views of content on Instagram,” the company explains in a statement. Instagram in particular has faced questions about its ability to deal with bullying and harassment. The company introduced several new anti-bullying measures earlier this year after several UK football players detailed their experience with racist abuse on the app. 

Importantly, the company notes that this “prevalence” metric only accounts for content Facebook and Instagram removes without a user report. That means the statistic is only capturing a subset of all bullying content, since bullying and harassment is not always easy for an automated system to identify.

That distinction has been underscored by revelations in the Facebook Papers, a trove of documents made public by former employee turned whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to documents she shared, Facebook’s own researchers estimate that the company is only able to address around three to five percent of hate speech on its platform, meaning the vast majority goes undetected and is allowed to pollute users’ News Feeds.

Facebook has repeatedly pushed back on these claims, and has pointed to the “prevalence” stats it shares in its transparency reports. But as researchers have pointed out, the company’s own accounting of “prevalence” can mask the true amount of violating content on the platform. That’s because Facebook’s automated systems are not always reliable, especially at detecting content in languages other than English. The revelations have fueled allegations that Facebook puts profits ahead of user safety.

“We have absolutely no incentive, whether it's commercial or otherwise, to do anything other than make sure people have a positive experience,” the company’s VP of Integrity, Guy Rosen, said during a call with reporters on Tuesday. “I think it's also just not true that our algorithms are just optimized to squeeze out engagement. We're constantly refining how we do ranking in order to tackle these problems.”

In its latest report, Facebook reported that hate speech had declined for the fourth straight quarter, with prevalence declining from 0.05% last quarter to 0.03% this quarter. The company also reported prevalence of hate speech on Instagram for the first time, saying hate speech was at 0.02% or around 2 out of every 10,000 pieces of content viewed on its platform.

However, it’s worth noting that even the most optimistic take on these numbers — 0.03% and 0.02% for Facebook and Instagram, respectively — can still mean millions of people are encountering hate speech every day, given the vast number of users and pieces of content posted to the platforms each day.

A week after opening up its games to all subscribers on Android, Netflix is rolling them out on iPhone and iPad worldwide. Users can now download the games from the App Store. 

Starting tomorrow at 1PM ET, you'll see a dedicated row in the Netflix iOS and iPadOS apps, from which you can pick a game to download. Those with an iPad can find the games through the category dropdown menu as well. 

You'll be able to launch the games from within the Netflix app. Whether you open them from there or directly on your iPhone or iPad, you'll need to authenticate your Netflix account before you can play. 

The initial lineup of games are the same as on Android. There are two Stranger Things titles, Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3, which Netflix started testing as part of subscriptions in Poland in August. The other three are more general-interest casual games: Shooting Hoops, Teeter Up and Card Blast.

Earlier today, details emerged about another title that's coming to the library soon. Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story, which will arrive on Nintendo Switch and PC later this month, is the first game announced for Netflix after the broader rollout of games on Android.

One of the best deals in gaming just added something for anime fans. Starting today, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes a free 75-day trial to Crunchyroll. The promotion comes with access to the platform's Mega Fan tier, which allows you to watch Crunchyroll's entire library of more than 1,000 anime titles without ads. It also includes offline viewing and the ability to stream content on four devices concurrently. 

Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have until February 8th, 2022, to take advantage of the promotion through the Game Pass Perks gallery. The deal is only available to new Crunchyroll customers. Additionally, it's set to auto-renew, so keep that in mind if you want to avoid a surprise on your credit card.

Crunchyroll is a particularly interesting addition for Game Pass Ultimate when you consider Sony recently spent $1.175 billion to buy the service from AT&T. The fact it competes with Microsoft in the console market seems secondary to Sony here compared to the potential of attracting new customers to the service. In the less than a year it took for the Crunchyroll deal to close, the platform added approximately 2 million subscribers, a trend Sony likely hopes to continue.

Google's Nest Hub sleep tracking left something to be desired on launch, but it's about to improve significantly — including a tool to help you fall asleep sooner. The company is rolling out a string of sleep-related improvements to Nest screens that include a catalog of Calm "Sleep Stories." As of December, you can ask Google to "start a meditation" and your smart display will play audio to wind you down. You'll only have access to several tracks for free, but you can unlock the full library if you have a Calm Premium membership.

Other upgrades provide more detail for the tracking itself. The second-gen Nest Hub now provides details about sleeping stages, so you'll know how much time you spend in deep, light or REM sleep. You'll know how long any interruptions might have lasted, too. The Hub's sound detection also now focuses only on coughs and snores inside your designated sleeping area, so you'll know how much a partner (or noisy pet) is affecting your rest. All sounds beyond that area are lumped into an "other sounds" section.

The tracking features start reaching users today. They should be available to all users worldwide in the "next few weeks."

Get ready to start paying for all these sleep aids, though. As previously hinted, Google plans to fold these Sleep Sensing features into Fitbit Premium starting in 2023. It's not certain just what you'll pay on launch (Fitbit Premium is currently $80 per year), but Google clearly intends to make a profit from its Nest Hubs beyond the initial hardware sale.

Virgin Galactic reopened ticket sales for its trips to the edge of space at a higher price back in August, and the company says it has sold 100 of the $450,000 tickets so far. They used to cost $250,000 each.

Overall, around 700 people, including Elon Musk, have reserved a spot on a Virgin Galactic flight. The company hopes to sell 1,000 tickets before starting commercial trips, which it recently delayed (again) to the fourth quarter of 2022. As The Verge notes, Virgin Galactic has so far only let people who made a refundable $1,000 deposit buy tickets. The company plans to let more people reserve a spot starting in early 2022.

Virgin Galactic's first crewed flight took place in July with founder Richard Branson on board, nine days before Jeff Bezos ventured to the edge of space on Blue Origin's maiden crewed flight. Unity 23, Virgin Galactic's next flight, won't take off until at least mid-2022. That flight will carry three paying Italian Air Force passengers who will study the effects of microgravity.