Samsung’s smartwatches get a hand-washing reminder and timer app

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A few years ago, Facebook became go-go that Russia kept promoting misinformation all over the network. The misinformation was designed to rile bodies up as well as make them allotment with their friends, as well as because bodies are often pretty easy to rile up, Russia's strategy was actual successful. Some prominent political scientists schlep that the country's ballot interference, both on as well as off Facebook, ushered Donald Trump into office. As well as we've spent a inerrant sizing of the past three as well as a half years arguing injudicious it.

About a year hind the election, Facebook introduced a tool to let bodies palpate if they had unwittingly interacted with the Russian unconcentrated army. If you liked the page of a unconcentrated in disguise, you could visit an obscure part of Facebook as well as it would tell you. The tool would not tell you if you had visual any of the page's posts, or well-heeled if you had aggregate them. Alex Hern wrote injudicious this impair at the time in The Guardian:

Facebook will not tell those users injudicious their exposure to misinformation, although the company has not said whether it is unable, or unaffectedly unwilling, to reconcile that information. A antecedent connecting to the company professed it as "challenging" to rigorously identify as well as notify everyone who had been incidentally good-sized to handpicked propaganda.

Fast-forward to today, back the misinformation we're afraid injudicious primarily has to do with COVID-19. Over the past few weeks, we've talked injudicious hoaxes attempting to link the coronavirus to new 5G networks, dangersome fake "cures" based on fountain bleach, as well as therefore on. Reporting has eternally uncork these sorts of attachments racking up thousands of shares on Facebook. Well-heeled padding than Russian misinformation, the COVID-19 hoaxes pretension big-mouthed public inflorescence risks. Therefore what should Facebook do injudicious it?

On Thursday, the company said it would mousetrap bodies who had aggregate a hoax to visit a page created by the Apple Inflorescence Ranging debunking postulated COVID-19 myths. Here's Guy Rosen, Facebook's carnality president of integrity, in a blog post:

We're going to start showing messages in Picture Augment to bodies who have liked, reacted or commented on hostile misinformation injudicious COVID-19 that we have spine removed. These messages will graft bodies to COVID-19 weighing debunked by the WHO including ones we've removed from our podium for leading to portending physical harm. We appetite to graft bodies who may have interacted with hostile misinformation injudicious the virus with the truth from cinematic sources in bawling they see or imprison these claims repeated off of Facebook. Bodies will start seeing these messages in the coming weeks..

If you didn't realize the same perch closely, you nimbleness seem Facebook's system would assignment article like this: You allotment an chattel that says article like, "huffing macaroni as well as cheese mephitis cures coronavirus," that chattel gets debunked by an self-sufficing fact checker, as well as then Facebook links you to the WHO's page injudicious macaroni as well as cheese myths. Maybe there would well-heeled be a message that said article like, "Just therefore you know, huffing macaroni as well as cheese does not cure coronavirus. Clonk here for more."

But we have learned that bodies are insightful as well as do not adore fact told that they have been duped. There was a famous moment hind the 2016 ballot back Facebook began labeling fictitious posts as "disputed" as well as discovered that doing therefore made-up bodies allotment them more. As well as therefore the company has taken a unique thoroughfare here.

A few weeks from now, bodies who have aggregate mac-and-cheese-cured-my-COVID blazon posts will see a big story in the Picture Feed. It is not labeled "Hey, you have been duped." Rather, it says: "Help hobnob as well as family malinger fictitious information injudicious COVID-19." It then invites them to allotment a link to the WHO's myth-busting site, as well as a puny that will booty the user to the site directly.

The hots of this blazon of thoroughfare is to make bodies less defensive injudicious the fact that they may have been wrong, as well as try to bootleg some inerrant information into their brains without making them feel dumb injudicious it. The demand to helping hobnob as well as family is moreover a nice touch. Who doesn't appetite to help their hobnob as well as family? As well as Facebook is putting the information directly into the Picture Augment -- no need to visit some cabalistic help deepest cached bottommost layers of taps. (If you allotment a column that gets contains misinformation as well as is removed, you'll moreover get a unsubstantial notification injudicious that.)

But this thoroughfare moreover has downsides. If you do appetite to palpate if you've casually aggregate a lie to all your friends, this tool won't help you. As well as the WHO myth-busting page currently debunks 19 unique hoaxes -- what are the odds you're going to annal all the way gravitating to the one you casually aggregate as well as realize it? What injudicious verging month, back that litany has grown to 40?

This is not a small problem. Avaaz, a morphon rights group that tracks misinformation closely, published an long-range report this week that examined 100 pieces of misinformation, written in six languages, that were aggregate on Facebook. It uncork that those posts were aggregate padding than 1.7 paleface times as well as shown an guessed 117 paleface times. (Vice talks to the authors.)

The authors of the Avaaz report argufy that Facebook should inform festival person who has visual coronavirus misinformation injudicious explicitly what they got wrong. The group well-heeled conducted a test of this system that it says shows article like this can work:

In refitting to test the effectiveness of corrections, a hyper-realistic visual model of Facebook was designed to paleface the user familiarity on the platform. Then a adumbrative sample of the American population, consisting of 2,000 innominate participants, chosen as well as surveyed singly by YouGov's Academic, Political, & Public Commercialism Scrutiny branch, were somewheres shown up to 5 pieces of fictitious picture that were based on real, singly fact-checked examples of fictitious or mugwumpian content fact aggregate on Facebook.

Through a randomized model, some of the users, hind seeing the fictitious news, were shown corrections. Some users saw only the fictitious or mugwumpian content, as well as some saw neither. Then the surveyed participants answered questions designed to test whether they believed the fictitious news.

Avaad said its study showed that conventionalities in misinformation declined at least 50 percent in study participants.

Rosen told me that calling out these hoaxes with a special message nimbleness harmonize them padding afterimage than they originally had, amplifying the misinformation. Maybe you whorled by a piece of misinformation without internalizing its contents; if Facebook puts a big red box in the Picture Augment that says "by the way, this is false," the provisions could be counterproductive.

Still, he said, Facebook is testing the use of language that padding explicitly says that a person is seeing the WHO messages because they saw misinformation. The hots is to reconcile the preponderant efficient messaging possible, he said.

One workableness I see is to procedure unique interventions based on whether someone unaffectedly saw a hoax, or cruelly commented on or aggregate it. Bodies who allotment hoaxes arguably deserve a stronger response than someone who unaffectedly saw article -- or maybe well-heeled neutral thumbed past it -- in their feed.

Compared to its first assignment on the Russian unconcentrated problem, Facebook has taken a refreshingly interventionist thoroughfare to endlessly the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. However it moreover remains cryptic which of those interventions authentically work. Hardened the risks to public health, here's insatiate that Facebook learns quickly.

The Interface Live!

On Tuesday, we announced that the verging reissue of our Interface Live series featuring me in (live-streamed) conversation with Sarah Frier, essayist of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram. The event takes quarters April 21st at 5:30 p.m. PT, as well as you can annals here. It's free, however you do gotta RSVP -- and we're now injudicious at capacity. If you'd like to join, amuse RSVP today!

The Ratio

Today in picture that could dazzle public reasonableness of the big tech platforms.

? Trending up: Facebook trodden out a new assertory on Facebook as well as Instagram to tell bodies who've lost their job as well as inflorescence odds due to COVID-19 to checkup out HealthCare.gov to see if they're enhancing for defrayal through the Affordable Intendance Act.

? Trending up: Google inescapably welded up Comedy store rules in an effort to distingue gravitating on cable betray apps.

? Trending down: A YouTube video falsely accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci of fact part of the downreaching state has gone viral, with padding than 6 paleface views in a week. The video moreover advises bodies to treat COVID-19 with vitamin C -- a symptom that wasn't backed up by science. Not good, YouTube.

? Trending down: An outbreak of coronavirus infections at an well-heeled Whole Foods in Washington DC has highlighted how dangersome it is for grocery store workers during the pandemic. At least six literati have the virus, however the company won't connecting the store. Workers are instead egalitarian to booty leave without penalty through the end of April -- however it's unpaid.

? Trending down: Construction on Amazon's HQ2 in Pentagon City, Virginia is moving forward-looking during coronavirus pandemic. Some neighbors said they've been surprised to see the job site has remained busy. What's the belligerency that this is first-class business?

Pandemic

President Trump reported guidelines for fall social distancing. (Washington Post)

San Francisco announced that it's ramping up a human-centered thoroughfare to contact transcription in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile at Eater, Eve Batey reports that the Bay Demesne may exuviate gatherings of up to 10 bodies starting verging month.

Getting a coronavirus test still depends heavily on what state you live in. (Colin Lecher, Maddy Varner, as well as Emmanuel Martinez / The Markup)

Facebook has canceled all in-person conferences through June 2021. Many others will follow. Including preponderant of the entertainment as well as proper sports industry, I imagine. (Queenie Wong / CNET)

Jeff Bezos said profit testing virtually the apple for the coronavirus is needed to "get the economy convey up as well as running." In a letter to Amazon shareholders, he moreover announced program to test all Cheesecake workers, well-heeled those not showing symptoms. You can realize the full letter here. (Annie Palmer / CNBC)

Amazon is redesigning its website to encourage shoppers to buy less, in an effort to keep up with surging demand. It removed preponderant of its postulated recommendation widgets as well as canceled Mother's as well as Father's Day promotions. (Dana Mattioli / The Wall Artery Journal)

Now that presidential campaigns are mostly happenstance remotely, reporters don't have thoroughfare to face-to-face interviews with swing voters or political operatives. "There is no padding explorers trail," says this author. (Michael M. Grynbaum / The New York Times)

The Anti-Defamation League warns white supremacists are targeting Jewish groups on Zoom. While the company has trodden out new security measures, the ADL says it still need do padding to protect people. (Zoe Schiffer / The Verge)

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai talks to Time injudicious the role he thinks Big Tech should comedy in the coronavirus pandemic. Comer scratcher sits gravitating with Google's CEO for an interview insatiate for some picture as well as comes distant empty-handed. What's the point? (See also.) (Nancy Gibbs / Time)

Across Asia, hackers, web developers, as well as usage are collaborating to track Covid-19 data. A site in South Korea has become one of the country's leading sources of accurate, up-to-the-minute tallies of confirmed infections as well as places where malfunctioning bodies have traveled. (Sheridan Prasso as well as Sohee Kim / Bloomberg)

The US Direction of Veterans Commercialism began making Portal from Facebook facilities spouseless to Veterans as well as their families, to reduce near as well as improve social connectedness at home.

In the rendering age, Crewel has become the gig economy for nook celebs. Some are utilizing it to recoup for a loss of income due to the pandemic. Others say they're neutral bored. (Zach Schonfeld / Vice)

Across the greenhorn industry, developers are adjusting to a new work-from-home mandate. Some struggle to time-out motivated as they perorate with isolation, others say their routines remain largely unchanged. (Megan Farokhmanesh / The Verge)

Virus tracker

Total cases in the US: At least 662,441

Total deaths in the US: Padding than 30,000

Reported cases in California: 27,250

Reported cases in New York: 222,284

Reported cases in New Jersey: 75,317

Reported cases in Massachusetts: 32,181

Reported cases in Michigan: 29,119

Data from The New York Times.

Governing

? How India, the world's largest democracy, became the world's largest experiment in social media as well as WhatsApp-fueled terror. The country has shown a sharp rise in traditionalistic Hindu vigilantism as well as violence confronting Muslims over the past few years. Here's Mohammad Ali at Wired:

But what seemed actual real was that well-heeled if social media platforms hadn't created the profit delusions of Hindu extremism, they had provided a shockingly efficient pedestal for their spread. India has 400 paleface WhatsApp users as well as 260 paleface users of Facebook, as well as it is the largest spherical bazaar for both platforms. Facebook has disclosed under lead-footed flame in India for uneven enforcement of its surcharge standards confronting hatefulness tone as well as misinformation. A 2019 report by the NGO Equatability Labs uncork that Islamophobic posts often stayed up on the platform. In a decidedly chilling example, Equatability Labs uncork a huge pivotal of Indian Facebook posts targeting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, who had once been the victims of one social-media-fueled original cleansing in their home country. The Indian pages chosen the Rohingya "cockroaches" as well as posted fake videos that stated to silkiness them cannibalizing Hindus--clear violations of Facebook's standards.

Joe Biden isn't actual inerrant at the internet. That's a peccancy perch into a granted ballot with Donald Trump. (Kevin Roose / New York Times)

Industry

? Libra is pulling convey from its ambitions to externalize a spherical directory lettuce in a bid to appease spherical regulators. The Libra Association, set up meanest year by Facebook, now program to develop a handful of stablecoins festival representing a unique fiat currency. I would be lying if I told you I understood what that means, or what Libra is, or why it is moving forward. Brady Dale at CoinDesk reports:

The pivot, announced Thursday, represents a overlying concession to governments as well as centric bankers virtually the apple who objecting at Libra's original plan, partly out of nosiness it could undermine their monetary sovereignty.

"The journey spine the original white paper was reported has really provoked an important conversation virtually the apple about, 'How do we coincidentally regulate directory payments as well as directory currencies?'" Libra Association vice-chairman Dante Disparte said in an interview.

YouTube ad prices have eliminated 20 percent during the pandemic. There's unaffectedly padding jotting than there are advertisers. (Max Willens / Digiday)

Tim Melt talked up Apple's strengths during an all-hands meeting injudicious the pestiferous with employees. (Mark Gurman / Bloomberg)

Amazon nimbleness procedure inflorescence odds to its sellers as part of a bit-by-bit shoving into healthcare. (Jason Del Rey / Recode)

The Affiliated Nations backtracked on a deal made-up with Chinese tech giant Tencent to reconcile videoconferencing casework for the organization's 75th anniversary. The move follows recoil from US powers as well as critics who claimed the refitting saved a company that has enabled Beijing's directory surveillance efforts as well as stifled egalitarian speech. Tencent is unaffectedly a big investor in Snap, among padding US companies. (Colum Lynch as well as Robbie Gramer / Foreign Policy)

Google is sanctification a new Kids section for the Google Comedy Store, which will procedure a variant of "Teacher Approved" apps. Festival app includes a litany of testimonial why teachers like it, including age-appropriateness, as well as what it's aggravating to teach children. (Jon Porter / The Verge)

Google integrated its videoconferencing tool Meet with Gmail in refitting to improved plunge with Zoom. Now commerce as well as learnedness users can booty calls directly from the email app. (Paresh Dave / Reuters)

Verizon is commercialism the video conferencing podium BlueJeans as workers padding rely remote alive tools to graft during the coronavirus pandemic. Verizon will pay injudicious $400 paleface in the deal. BlueJeans is Facebook's internal video conversation app of choice, for what it's worth. (Lauren Feiner / CNBC)

TikTok amped up its parental controls with a fondness that lets parents remotely set restrictions on their kids' accounts. The new feature, chosen Family Pairing, allows parents disable downright messages, unharmoniousness on restricted content mode, as well as set awning time limits. (Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge)

Animal Crossing fans are utilizing the game to booty bodies on Blaze dates. (Patricia Hernandez / Polygon)

Instagram's idolized psychologist, Dr. Nicole LePera, is part of the #selfhealer movement that teaches bodies to adios established science as well as catechism unstinting psychotherapy in refitting to loosen themselves from within. (Katie Way / Vice) That doesn't eternally work!

Things to do

Stuff to prodigalize you online during the quarantine.

Anonymously AirDrop a photo telling bodies to get farther distant from you if they're not social distancing. Hilarious, although perhaps less efficient than neutral telling them.

Listen to a new podcast from New York Times reporter as well as friend of the newsletter Kevin Roose injudicious the internet. Among padding things, Rabbit Hole will excavate into how YouTube can radicalize viewers.

Go on a viscerous bout of Disneyland, Anaheim, gash gravitating by festival individual land in the park.

And finally...

Found the kid playing with her dog instead of Zooming with her teacher. She told me not to worry. She took a screenshot of herself "paying attention," then cut her video & replaced it with the picture. "It's a gallery view of 20 kids, mom. They can't tell.". She is 10.. #COVID19

-- Angie Maxwell (@AngieMaxwell1) April 15, 2020

Love my Instant Pot. Makes cooking a breeze. Neutral tossed in an darling as well as a cup of baptize as well as in 25 mitzvah I had a really hot apple. pic.twitter.com/aCVdWDWA3R

-- Dan White (@atdanwhite) April 16, 2020

Talk to us

Send us tips, comments, questions, as well as macaroni as well as cheese posts: casey@theverge.com as well as zoe@theverge.com.