26/01/2023

The Morning After: Donald Trump is getting his Facebook and Instagram accounts back

It's already been over two years since Meta extended former President Donald Trump's "indefinite" suspension from Facebook. Now, the company has reinstated his account. In a statement, Meta said Trump would be able to access his Facebook and Instagram accounts in the "coming weeks," but there would be "new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses."Trump's campaign had reportedly pushed for the former president to be allowed back on Facebook ahead of the upcoming presidential primaries. This decision from Meta comes just months after Elon Musk restored the former president's Twitter account. Trump has so far declined to restart his Twitter habit – he's been a Truth Social user since last year.Another reason he's back could be Meta's handling of Trump's initial suspension, which it quickly extended from a 24-hour ban to an "indefinite" suspension. It was heavily criticized, even by its own Oversight Board, which chastised Meta for not following its own rules and trying to "avoid its responsibilities." Trump was initially booted from Facebook for publicly praising the rioters in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021.– Mat SmithThe Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missed

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'GoldenEye 007' will hit Switch and Xbox on January 27thIf you have Switch Online's Expansion Pack or Game Pass, it's free. Nintendo One of the best-loved Nintendo 64 games is coming to Switch Online's Expansion Pack this week. You'll be able to play the game on your Nintendo Switch on January 27th. The game will be available on Xbox on the same date. It's unusual to see a licensed game arrive on Nintendo's subscription service, but GoldenEye 007 is one that many fans have been looking forward to replaying (or even playing for the first time). It remains to be seen how well Rare's classic first-person shooter will hold up almost 26 years after its debut. Xbox owners will get some updates: dual analogue stick support, 4K resolution and "a consistent refresh rate." Oddly, there's no online multiplayer on the Xbox version.Continue reading.Senator Manchin tries to close battery loophole around $7,500 EV tax creditHe's trying to halt credits from being offered to foreign-sourced batteries before March.Senator Joe Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has introduced a new bill that squashes a small loophole around the Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) $7,500 EV tax credit. The new credits are restricted to cars with final assembly in the US, as well as those with a certain amount of North American battery content."It is unacceptable that the US Treasury has failed to issue updated guidance for the 30D electric vehicle tax credits and continues to make the full $7,500 credits available without meeting all of the clear requirements included in the Inflation Reduction Act," Manchin wrote in a statement. He added: “EV tax credits were designed to grow domestic manufacturing and reduce our reliance on foreign supply chains for the critical minerals needed to produce EV batteries."Continue reading.‘NBA All-World’ hands-on: Taking basketball video games back to the streetsNiantic's latest AR app might be the best use of its location-based tech yet. Engadget Niantic, creators of Pokémon Go, is launching a new title called NBA All-World, which might be the best application of its location-based tech to date. That said, the formula appears pretty similar: You get a starter player and use the in-game map to collect items, earn cash or battle other players. The big twist for NBA All-World is you'll need to visit real-world basketball courts to earn your spot on local leaderboards.Continue reading.Multiple Microsoft services, including Teams, Outlook and Xbox Live, go down across the worldIt was apparently a network issue.Multiple Microsoft 365 services went down for thousands of users worldwide, prompting the tech giant to investigate the incident affecting several of its products. In an update, Microsoft said it "isolated the problem to a networking configuration issue." By 4:26 AM ET, Microsoft "rolled back a network change" it believed was causing the outage, and it was monitoring its services as they started coming back online.Continue reading.

23/01/2023

Facebook Messenger encrypted chats now include more of the features you expect

You no longer have to give up the privacy of end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger just to get the creature comforts you take for granted. Meta is bringing several common features to encrypted chats. You can now choose themes, set profiles for group conversations and use custom emoji as well as reactions. Active status and web link previews now work in this more secure mode, while the Android crowd can take advantage of floating Bubbles to talk while they're using other apps.You're more likely to use encrypted chats, too. Meta is expanding tests that make encryption the default for Facebook Messenger. You'll see the changes to some conversation threads in the "next few months," the company says. If you're part of the test, you'll get a notification in a relevant thread.Meta started testing default encryption last August. At the time, it said it hoped to roll out the Facebook Messenger upgrade sometime in 2023. The social media firm didn't provide an updated timeline, but the feature expansion takes Meta considerably closer to that goal — there's considerably more parity with unencrypted chats. Encrypted Messenger caught up on some features at the start of 2022, but was still well behind its less secure counterpart.Not everyone will be happy. Officials in the US, UK and elsewhere have attacked end-to-end encryption. They're concerned criminals could use encrypted chats to discuss plans beyond the reach of law enforcement and surveillance agencies. Politicians, such as former US Attorney General Bill Barr, have called on Meta to weaken encryption by creating "backdoors." Meta has refused to back down, though, and it's evident that the company is determined to bolster privacy across its products.

25/01/2023

Facebook Is Bringing Back Trump

Facebook says Trump's account no longer poses the same "serious risk to public safety" as it did when he was banned in the days after the Capitol riot.