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GLAAD, the largest advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ , accuses Meta in its new report of allowing hate against the trans community to a dangerous extent on its platform.

 

In the report, GLAAD provides evidence that shows how Meta’s moderation system has enabled a large number of violent and hateful posts against trans people, that are potentially responsible for propaganda campaigns and offline violence. The evidence cited exhibits posts with anti-trans content posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads from June 2023 to March 2024 by anti-trans extremists.

 

The posts appear to consist of hateful language and slur, which GLAAD has reported to Meta via its standard reporting systems. However, the organization asserts that Meta’s systems either failed to recognize the reported content as problematic or refused to take it down, even though it clearly violated the company’s policy against hate speech. This in turn poses real-life harm to the LGBTQ+ community.

LGBTQ+ Advocacy Group GLAAD Expresses Angst against Meta for Enabling Anti-Trans Content



Israeli company Corsight, based in Tel-Aviv, has developed a facial recognition tool in the Gaza Strip for the purpose of identifying Hamas members. However, the tool has not only been found inaccurate in its function, but also scans Palestinians and creates their database with neither their knowledge nor consent.

 

Israel first developed its facial recognition program after the October 7 attacks, with the help of technology from Google Photos and Corsight’s custom tool. Following the attacks on October 7, Israeli officers from the IDF’s main intelligence unit attempted to identify potential Hamas members from security camera footage and photos and videos uploaded on social media by Hamas. They also forced Palestinian prisoners into identifying people from their communities that were associated with Hamas. 

Israel’s Facial Recognition Program in Gaza is Mistaking Palestinian Civilians for Hamas Members



Cloud collaboration and productivity platform Airtable is launching ‘Airtable AI’ that consists of generative AI summary, categorization, and translation features. The company has tested these features with more than 1,200 organizations and is now making them available for purchase to all its users.

 

AI has been proven to be an efficient integration in workspace platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office – especially for the purpose of producing summaries and drafting text documents. Airtable AI is therefore likely to make Airtable an all-rounder platform, with functions dedicated to organizing teams, pushing tailored content to customers, and more.

Airtable is Levelling up Productivity with a Set of New AI Features for Paying Users



Meta has added a new default control setting to Instagram and Threads, that limits recommendations of political content from accounts that one doesn’t follow. Meta defines “political content” as posts about governments, elections, and social topics.

 

The setting was first introduced in February and started rolling out to more users since last week, but without any notifications informing people about the update.

 

The option is available within “content preferences” in account settings as “Limit political content from people you don’t follow.” Although activated by default, it can be disabled by a user who wishes to see more political content on Meta’s apps. Meta also clarifies that the setting does not change the visibility of political content from accounts that a user follows.

Meta is Reducing Visibility of Political Content from Accounts you Don’t Follow on Instagram and Threads



As part of the annual Studio Ghibli Fest, 14 of the Ghibli films are set to be screened in theatres across the US this year. The films will be available to watch both in English dubbing as well as subtitled versions with the original Japanese voiceover.

 

Since the 2017 Fest, this Studio Ghibli Fest will be putting on the largest number of Ghibli movies. They include titles like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and other Miyazaki classics; as well as those from other Ghibli directors like Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Hiroyuki Morita. In addition to the films, some exclusive content is expected for screening as well, as confirmed by film distributor Fathom Events.

Studio Ghibli Fest 2024 is Bringing 14 Ghibli Movies to Theatres in the US



TikTok is promoting its search function by adding a new condition in its latest monetization program Creator Rewards. According to the new metric, a fraction of creators’ earnings will be dependent on how well their content matches with topics that other TikTok users are searching for on the platform.

 

The metric, called Search Value, is one of the four core elements that TikTok will be using to establish its creators’ payouts. It is similar to how SEO works, particularly in context of its ‘keyword research’ tactic. Keyword research revolves around making content that aligns with what people are looking up on search engines, mainly Google.

 

On TikTok, creators can optimize their content in alignment with frequently searched topics by relying on Creator Search Insights to discover trending searches. According to TikTok, these insights can provide creators with ideas for their content, so they can design their creative strategies that best meet audience’s interests. Mainly, the insights tool provides suggestions for video layouts, based on both personalized and general data.

TikTok Announces New Payout Metric as Part of its Monetization Program: Search Value

Uber’s all-electric luxury rideshare service ‘Comfort Electric’ is coming to New York City for the first time after it was launched in 2022.

 

The Comfort Electric service is an extension of Uber Comfort, and has enabled Uber customers across 41 cities to book rides in premium priced EVs like Tesla, Polestar, and Ford Mustang Mach-E.

 

What prevented Comfort Electric from entering Uber’s biggest market, the NYC until now, has been a cap that was imposed by the city on the number of EV ridehail licenses given out by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Since the cap has now been lifted, the service is now finally available to NYC customers.

Uber Rolls Out its Premium-Priced Rideshare Service ‘Comfort Electric’ in NYC



Airbnb has announced a new security update regarding the use of indoor and outdoor security cameras, and noise decibel monitors. The most major rule in the update is complete termination of the use of indoor security cameras.

 

Previously, Airbnb allowed hosts to install indoor security cameras in specific “common” areas like hallways, living rooms, and front doors; and disallowed their installation in bedrooms and bathrooms. The rental company additionally demanded transparency by requiring hosts to make the presence of the cameras visible in their listings.

 

Although the rules regarding installation of security cameras were strict enough, there were still instances reported by guests who found hidden cameras within their rentals, leading visitors to scan their rooms for cameras.

 

Airbnb’s security update also requires greater transparency for outdoor security cameras, such as around the disclosure of their use and locations to guests before they book a listing. Hosts are also prohibited from using their outdoor security cameras to monitor any indoor spaces, as well as from using them in certain outdoor areas where privacy may be greatly expected, like outdoor showers or saunas.

Airbnb is Banning Installation of Indoor Security Cameras



In an open letter / blog post, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has shared the streaming platform’s developmental plans for the year of 2024. From changes to its mobile platform to collaboration tools and more, it seems like the company has some major upgrades in store for its customers.

 

While Twitch has not revealed specific details about the products that it plans to launch, its vice president of community product, Jeremy Forrester, has emphasized three main areas of development. These include sharing of content across other platforms, enabling collaboration between streamers, and upgrades to the mobile version.

Twitch has New Plans for an Improved User Experience in 2024



Ikea’s smart home hub Dirigera is reportedly getting support for the Matter smart home standard in beta. Matter is an open-sourced IP-based connectivity software layer for smart home devices that enables connected devices to communicate locally in a home without a cloud connection. 


Although the news of Matter’s integration was announced at the time of Dirigera’s launch, its rollout got delayed. Matter is now available for the Dirigera hub via the Ikea Home Smart app, which also already supports Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.

 

During Matter’s beta testing for Dirigera, Ikea plans to collect feedback from the beta users so it can further improve the overall experience before launching Matter to all customers on Dirigera.

Ikea Launches Matter in Beta for its Dirigera Smart Home Hub



Microsoft is releasing Copilot for OneDrive in April and has recently revealed in a new blog post how the AI integration will work for its file hosting platform. From finding information to summarizing and extracting it from an extensive range of files, Copilot will basically function as your research assistant bot in OneDrive.

 

The files that Copilot can work with include text documents, presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDFs, and more. In addition to generating summaries, the bot can also customize them as per the user’s command, such as only adding key points or highlights from a select part.

Copilot for OneDrive can Extract and Summarize Data from a Wide Range of Files



Adobe has launched a new prototype of its generative AI tool ‘Project Music GenAI Control.’ It is currently undergoing development with the help of collaborative efforts by the University of California and the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

The tool, like other generative AI audio tools, is designed to produce audio based on text descriptions. But there is more to it too: the ability to edit the output without having to use a separate editing software – allowing the user enhanced control over their creation. This is something that is either lacking or not sufficiently supported in other tools like Google’s MusicLM or Meta’s AudioCraft.

Get to Know Adobe’s new Prototype Generative AI Tool ‘Project Music GenAI Control’

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