Twitter will remove misleading COVID-19-related tweets that could incite people to engage in ‘harmful activity’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has updated its COVID-19 policies to require users remove tweets making unverified claims that “incite people to action and cause widespread panic, social unrest or large-scale disorder.”

The changes come as COVID-19 misinformation has spread across social media that has incited people to act rashly. For example, people have set British 5G towers on fire because of conspiracy theories that falsely link the spread of COVID-19 to the rollout of 5G — which is probably why Twitter specifically mentions that tweets inciting people to damage 5G infrastructure are included in the new guidance.

We have broadened our guidance on unverified claims that incite people to engage in harmful activity, could lead to the destruction or damage...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21231956/twitter-remove-covid-19-tweets-call-to-action-harm-5g

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Google Duo video calls are about to look a whole lot better

Image: Google

Google’s Duo video chatting app is about to get a big bump in call quality, thanks to a new video codec technology the company plans to roll out in the next week. The codec, called AV1, is the product of an industry-wide consortium called the Alliance for Open Media. AV1 is the successor to VP9 and can produce significantly higher data compression rates than prior standards, which makes it great for mobile video applications like streaming TV shows and live video calling.

Google says all Duo calls with now use AV1, making even low-bandwidth video calls appear much higher quality than before. The codec change will also help with video call stability, too. In addition to the AV1 update, Google is also releasing a new photo mode for Duo...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21231959/google-duo-update-video-call-quality-av1-codec

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Verizon extends 15GB of extra data deal to customers through May

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon announced today that it’s extending its pledge to provide an additional 15GB of high-speed data to customers with a wireless plan through May 31st due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Verizon notes that customers will not have to perform an additional action to opt into the extended offer as it intends to automatically add the additional data to both consumer and small business accounts. Verizon is not waiving data caps, though, so if you max out your data plan, your internet speeds can still be reduced. In late March, Verizon announced it would provide additional data to mobile customers at no extra cost through April 30th.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the world, many communications companies have made pledges...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21231803/verizon-extends-15gb-of-extra-data-deal-to-customers-through-may

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Nikola gets $4 million pandemic loan, as patent lawsuit against Tesla continues

Image: Nikola

Electric big rig startup Nikola received a $4.1 million loan from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) meant to help small businesses keep people employed during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 15th filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s at least the third EV startup to receive money from the PPP, following Faraday Future (which got a $9.1 million loan) and Workhorse (which got a $1.1 million loan).

The loan, which can be forgiven as long as Nikola hangs on to most of its employees, comes a little more than one month after the startup received a $525 million investment and became a publicly traded company. That move made gave founder Trevor Milton a net worth of more than...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21231758/nikola-sba-loan-pandemic-tesla-patent-lawsuit

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Samsung’s blood pressure measurement on smartwatches still a have long way to go

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 has taken another big step toward offering blood pressure monitoring, a feature Samsung has been promising since the original Galaxy Watch Active was released in 2019. This week saw Samsung’s Health Monitor app get regulatory approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the first government agency to do so — but there’s a whole lot of caveats that bring to question how useful Samsung’s measuring will really be.

The first hurdle is that the app has only been approved in South Korea, meaning that users in other countries will still have to wait for it to be approved by their own governmental agencies. And even in South Korea, Samsung says that the app won’t be available until the...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21229314/samsung-smartwatches-galaxy-active-2-blood-pressure-app-south-korea-regulatory-approval

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