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Twitter Testing a New Moderation Feature to Help Users Fight Toxic Comments

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According to a tweet from a security researcher and expert software unpacker, Jane Manchun Wong, Twitter is testing its new moderation feature, that will allow the users to hide unwanted comments on their tweets. The company itself confirmed the news that they are testing a new feature hide replies feature, such that the users will be able to hide replies to their tweets, through that feature.

The new feature will let the users hide comments on their tweets, but the comments won’t be permanently hidden, and other users can also see the comments by simply clicking a button on the tweet, that may say See Replies or so. The feature will also allow the users to unhide the tweets from the history and report any of the ‘bad’ replies on them, any time.

The Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, also had admitted in a statement last year, that the company has been fighting with a lot of negativity in the user conversations, which is leading to abuse, harassment, and the spread of misinformation, which clearly is not the intentions of the company.

“People who start interesting conversations on Twitter are really important to us, and we want to empower them to make the conversations they start as healthy as possible by giving them some control,” Michelle Yasmeen Haq, the senior product manager, said in tweet thread, confirming the news, “We already see people trying to keep their conversations healthy by using block, mute, and report, but these tools don’t always address the issue. Block and mute only change the experience of the blocker, and report only works for the content that violates our policies.”

Although Twitter has already provided its users with the mute, block, and report options, the hide replies option will help them show their disagreement with the replies on their tweet, and signal the audience that the conversation was becoming toxic.

There have been many features that Twitter tested but never implemented. Although the hide replies features seem to be quite useful, it only depends on the company whether it will publish the feature or not.

Chinese Govt to Put Digital Locks on PUBG to Restrict Young Players Under 13

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There have been rounds of rumours for quite some time now, that the multi-player battle online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), will be banned soon in various countries due to the extra engagement of children on the game. But there had been no confirmation on the same ever, from any of the governments.

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But now there is bad news for the Chinese young video game players, as Tencent has imposed a digital lock on the games like Honour of Kings and PUBG Mobile, for the children of age below 13. The children of the same age group, now, will have to ask their guardians to open the lock in order to play the game.

The Chinese gaming giant Tencent announced the new curbs for the underage video-game players, following the Chinese internet governance requirements, to restrain the gaming addiction in youth. The company had already imposed the screen time limit and other rules in order to restrict children from spending more time on games. Now, Tencent plans to double down the rules in order to prevent minors from accessing some of its games in China, to prohibit things like violence, information about gambling or pornography, national politics, or another damaging behaviour for the minors.

The digital lock will be based on facial recognition and player ID checks, such that it will identify the age of the player and restrict the access. The company has set up the barriers, as the Chinese governments have raised concerns about addiction and myopia in children. The government is also worried about the worsening sightedness and poor optical heath among minors, due to their indulgence in long-hour gaming habits.

For now, the digital lock will only work in 12 cities in China. The cross-platform game PUBG has been most criticised for the increased addiction among the video game players. The game is one of the fastest growing video game that is available to play on PCs, Xbox, as well as smartphones. PUBG hosts 100 players during a single game in real-time, which has been the biggest factor in the popularity of the game.

Last year, too, the Chinese Government had imposed a nine-month freeze on new video games for the same reasons, that ended in December, itself.

Uber, Lyft Rewarding the Drivers with Cash Bonuses to Invest in Shares in Their Respective IPOs

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According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, the cab-renting service Uber and Lyft are planning to allocate some cash bonuses to their drives so that they can invest in the company’s shares through the upcoming IPO of those companies.

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There has been a lot of discussions about the role of a driver in a transport company and most of the times those drivers are not recognised as the full-time employees of that company. Also, under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), those companies are not allowed to grant those drives a share of the stocks, directly, in the company.

Although many times several laws have been trying to put those drivers into the full-time employee category, companies like Uber and Lyft regards the drivers as individual contractors. Now the two companies are planning to offer those drivers who have been a part of their team for a longer time with rewards, such that they would be able to buy a share of the stakes in the IPO of those companies, before shares to begin trading on public stock exchanges.

According to the reports, Lyft will be granting the drivers, who have completed 10,000 rides, with $1,000 and the driver who have completed over 20,000 rides will get $10,000. It will be the choice of the drivers if they want to keep the money or put the money towards IPO-priced shares.

On the other hand, there is no hint from Uber over the amount of reward money. Although there has been no confirmation from Lyft as well, and the money value can be changed depending upon the situation.

Uber had been talking about offering a part of the shares of the company to its drivers since 2016, and last year, in May, the Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also announced that the company was planning to provide extra benefits and rewards to its drivers. Uber has also started free tuition fee and insurance programs for the drivers working for the company.

Noticeably, both Lyft and Uber are ready to debut on the Nasdaq for their IPOs. It is expected that Lyft between $20 billion and $25 billion in its IPO, and Uber may reach $120 billion in the IPO. Lyft and Uber will be putting hundreds of millions of dollars toward the reward program for its drivers so that they would be able to invest during their IPOs.

Spotify App Launched in India Providing Access to Forty Million Songs

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Amid a legal conflict with music label Warner Music Group, Spotify, successfully launched its app for the Indian users yesterday. The company quietly rolled out the app for the Indian users on Wednesday, and it is also expected that the Indian Spotify app may be used to test the upcoming features to the app.

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With the launch of the app, Spotify will provide its Indian users with access to over 40 million songs, and in different languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, etc. The app is specially designed for the Indian users, such that they will be able to create playlists for the trending songs in the major cities of India. The app also offers on-demand songs with a free account.

“India has an incredibly rich music culture, and to best serve this market, we’re launching a custom-built experience,” Spotify founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, said in a statement. “Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, but we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India.”

The app is offering various different plans for its users in India. The offers include one day to monthly plans, under which for one day access the users need to pay 13 rupees ($0.18), for a week they have to pay 39 rupees ($0.55), and one single month plan is for 129 rupees ($1.81). Spotify has also introduced the student plans offering discounts up to 50 per cent.

Although the company had set up its office in India last year and had plans to launch the app in India in the month of February in the same year, in order to get the licensing deals with major record labels including Sony, Universal and Warner Music, the launch got delayed for a whole year.

Even though the company has finally launched the app in India, it is a bit late, as there are many other companies including Apple Music, Google Play/YouTube Music, JioSaavn, Gaana, and Amazon, that are already ruling the music streaming industry in India. So it can be a bit tough for the company to establish itself in the Indian music streaming industry amid the high competition.

The Sweden-based company Spotify is operating since 2007 in several other countries, having a huge client base across the globe. As of February 2019 records, the company is catering to 207 million total monthly active users, including 96 million paying subscribers.

Disney Plans to Expand in Streaming Business; Plans to Acquire 10% Hulu Stake from AT&T

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Reportedly, Disney is in talks with AT&T to acquire a 10 per cent stake that the latter holds in the streaming service media company Hulu, in order to expand its control over the company. AT&T carries the 10 per cent stakes in Hulu through its subsidiary WarnerMedia unit. Disney, currently, owns 30 per cent of shares in the streaming service and is already close to acquiring another majority stake in the same from the 21st Century Fox, which owns the rest of 30 per cent shares in the company.

Clearly, after the acquisition from 21st Century Fox and AT&T, Disney will be a 70 per cent stake owner in Hulu, and there will be only one other owner left with 30 per cent of the stakes in Hulu, i.e. the subsidiary of Comcast, NBCUniversal.

AT&T is in the process of settling off its extreme debts, and in 2018, it had announced that it would pay down at least $20 billion worth of debt in 2019, alone. Selling off the Hulu stakes is one of the major moves that the company has taken in order to settle its debts. It was in 2018 when the company announced that it is interested in selling its 10 per cent of shares it owns in Hulu. According to the reports, the deal between Disney and AT&T may close at $1 billion, which may help the latter to pay down its excessive debt to an extent.

Hulu has been providing its streaming services since 2007 but has always failed in front of its rivals including Netflix. But last year, the company started streaming its original content and gained much popularity among people. Also, the company registered 8 million new users in 2018. This increased client base has also increased the company’s worth. But still, it needs more focus and good content.

Disney already is looking forward to expanding its business in the streaming services and is working on its own home project for it, the Disney+. Disney+ will be a streaming service that will carry exclusive Disney movies and TV shows and will be launched by the end of this year. Initially, the service will be available domestically.

Porsche’s Best Seller ‘Macan Compact SUV’ to Go All Electric

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The luxury vehicle producers, Porsche, announced on Tuesday that it is going to transform it’s best selling Macan SUV, into all electric. The company has recently started working on its first electric vehicles, the Taycan and Cross Tourismo, and the electric Macan SUV will be another addition to its electric vehicle lineup.

The company has revealed that the production of the electric Macan SUV will start anytime at the start of the coming decade, and the company is already set to launch its Taycan sedan by the end of this year, and the launch of the Taycan Cross Turismo will follow shortly afterwards, which is also the final production version of the Mission E concept of the company.

Like Porsche’s electric vehicle Taycan, the Macan compact SUV will also feature 800-volt architecture and will be capable of taking charge up to 350 kW. The company has not given any statement on the total distance it would be able to cover when fully charged, but we can get a good idea of its mile range from the Taycan model, which will have a range of 250 miles, after charging in fewer than 20 minutes.

The company has said that the Macan compact will be based on the PPE architecture, and for that Porsche has collaborated with the Audi AG. The company plans to turn most of its vehicles into electric or hybrid models, like its contemporary Tesla, and according to the company, 50 per cent of all new Porsche vehicles may have an electric drive system, by the year 2025.

“Our aim is to take a pioneering role in technology, and for this reason, we will continue to consistently align the company with the mobility of the future,” Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said in a statement.

Porsche is known for its luxury and sports vehicles, and Macan compact crossover is the best-selling vehicle of the company, having been sold 23,500 Macan SUVs in 2018, in the U.S. only. Porsche has plans to invest over $6.9 billion on EVs manufacturing through 2022. The company will manufacture all its electric vehicles at the company’s existing plant in Leipzig, Germany.