Biden Facebook video triggers probe into Meta | Musk must tackle disinformation over Israel-Hamas conflict on X

Biden Facebook video triggers probe into Meta content policy

The Meta Oversight Board will hear a case over a manipulated video of President Biden which was posted during the 2022 midterm elections.

The video showed Biden placing an “I Voted” sticker on his granddaughter and then kissing her on the cheek. It was altered in a Facebook post repeating the moment where Biden’s “hand makes contact with his granddaughter’s chest,” according to the board’s announcement.

Meta did not take down the video and argued that its manipulated media rules did not warrant the removal of the content because it only applies to videos generated by AI.

Thomas Hughes, director of the Oversight Board Administration, said that although the specific case involves Biden, it “touches on the much border issue of how manipulated media might impact elections in every corner of the world”.

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EU tells Musk to tackle disinformation over Israel-Hamas conflict on X

European Commissioner Thierry Breton said he had seen evidence that the former Twitter platform, X was being used to broadcast illegal content and disinformation.

This includes “repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games,” Breton said in a letter to Musk. “This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information.”

Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against 🇮🇱, we have indications of X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.

Urgent letter to @elonmusk on #DSA obligations ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/avMm1LHq54

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 10, 2023

It comes after the battle to identify reliable sources for news about the war was exacerbated over the weekend by Musk, who on Sunday posted the names of two accounts he said were “good” for “following the war in real-time”.

Analyst Emerson Brooking of the Atlantic Council called one of those accounts “absolutely poisonous”.

Musk said his company’s policy was that everything is open source and transparent and asked Brenton to list the violations he alludes to.

Microsoft finally gets approval to purchase Activision Blizzard

The initial £59bn ($69bn) bid was rejected in April, sparking criticism from Microsoft’s president. After two tears of back and forth, the revised deal sees Microsoft concede the rights for Activision’s game distribution on consoles and PCs via the cloud to French video game publisher Ubisoft.

Still, Microsoft will retain control over blockbuster games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, promising significant revenue to the company.

This takeover signifies a pivotal shift in the gaming industry, potentially elevating Microsoft above Nintendo to become the third-largest player, following Sony and Tencent. The transaction met with opposition from Sony due to fears that major Activision games like Call of Duty could become Xbox exclusives, threatening the content available for PlayStation.

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Vodafone to create Open RAN chipsets with Intel

Telecom giant Vodafone will create an Open RAN network for chipsets with technology giant Intel at its campus in Malaga, Spain.

Vodafone’s director of network architecture Santiago Tenorio said that the chipsets will be available to smaller third-party vendors to test their own algorithms without a large financial outlay in silicon.

Tenorio added that the company’s ability to produce silicon designs in testing sample quantities would significantly speed up the time to deliver innovation.

“Using Vodafone’s networking expertise with Intel’s silicon architecture design we as a team will enable rapid prototyping, verification and testing, eventually leading to a faster mass production of the chips that the industry needs to accelerate,” Tenorio said in a statement.

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Legoland owner to roll out AR 

The theme park owner Merlin Entertainments is introducing augmented reality games in partnership with AR company Immersive Gamebox.

The interactive game rooms will launch in two of Merlin’s locations, including one in Germany and one in Australia, with the rooms potentially being rolled out to more of the operator’s 140 sites globally.

There will be eight game rooms per location. Each will hold up to six users who will wear visors with motion-tracking sensors to select from an extensive collection of games with touch screens, projection mapping, and surround sound.

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