Hasta La Gadget!

X is getting closer to releasing its long-promised alerts that will notify users about whether or not their account has been “shadowbanned.” Andrea Conway, a designer at X, offered a preview of the upcoming feature that Elon Musk first promised last year.

Conway shared two mock-ups: an alert in the notifications tab, as well as an informational page that explains why X may limit the visibility of some accounts. “We have found that your account potentially contains sensitive media — such as graphic, violent, nudity, sexual behavior, hateful symbols, or other sensitive content,” it explains.

“We may cover your posts with a warning so people who don’t want to see sensitive content can avoid it. The reach of your account and its content may also be restricted, such as being excluded from the For You and Following timelines, recommended notifications, trends, and search results.”

Underneath the message is an appeal button, so users can request X revisit its initial decision. Conway also said that users would likely be able to view their account status outside of the app’s notifications tab, but didn’t elaborate on how that might work. She added that the wording and user interface hasn’t yet been finalized. 

The company previously introduced a labeling feature for individual tweets that have been “visibility limited” for violating the company’s rules. But the latest update will take that a step further as the restrictions will be visible at the account level, not just for specific tweets.

The feature touches on what has long been a hot-button issue for Twitter, and now X. The company has for years limited the reach of accounts that break its rules. Under Twitter’s previous management, the practice was known as “visibility filtering.” But the company didn’t publicly share details about the practice, or which accounts it limited, which fueled conspiracy theories about “shadowbans.”

The issue came into the spotlight again last year after Musk turned over internal emails and other company records to independent journalists, who published records of Twitter executives discussing visibility filtering. Musk later promised that a future update “will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal.”

Of course visibility filtering and so-called “shadowbanning” were never exactly the same thing. As Recodepointed out last year, Twitter for years said that shadowbanning refers to “deliberately making someone’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who posted it, unbeknownst to the original poster.” Whereas visibility filtering — both under Jack Dorsey and now Musk’s leadership — hides tweets from search, recommendations and other surfaces, but doesn’t make them completely invisible.

In any case, the forthcoming update should add some additional transparency — and, potentially, more controversy — to the practice. It’s not clear when the feature will make an official debut, but Conway said the company “should have more to share on this soon.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-previews-its-shadowban-alerts-003210529.html?src=rss

Scientists may be closer to unraveling the mysteries of long covid. New research this week has found several potentially key differences in the blood of people diagnosed with the chronic ailment compared to those who were not. These differences could help scientists develop accurate diagnostic tests for the condition…

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As part of its efforts to watch over America’s assets in space, the United States Space Force is looking into establishing a line of communication with China in case of an emergency in orbit. It’s not clear, however, whether or not China will pick up the line.

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X, the company previously known as Twitter, could soon find itself in hot water with European Union officials due to the amount of misinformation on its platform. The platform has an outsize role in the spread of misinformation, according to a new EU report.

The EU shared its findings in its first report on platforms’ handling of mis and disinformation as part of the Digital Services Act. The sweeping law, which recently went into effect, requires major platforms to disclose details about their handling of misinformation. Dozens of companies have additionally agreed to a voluntary “Code of Practice” on disinformation. X announced in May that it was pulling out of the agreement, though the company said it would adhere to the stricter disinformation policies required under the DSA.

The report found that X outstripped many of its larger peers when it comes to the volume of disinformation on its platform, and the engagement such posts attract. “X … is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said in a statement. The report also found that X ranked the highest in discoverability of misinformation and disinformation, followed by Facebook and Instagram.

X didn’t respond to a request for comment. In a series of tweets from its Global Affairs account, the company disputed the “framing” of the data and said it remains “committed to complying with the DSA.”

In a statement, Jourova said that all of the major platforms need to “to adjust their actions to reflect that there is a war in the information space waged against us.” She said that upcoming elections within the EU “will be an important test for the Code that platforms signatories should not fail.”

She also said that Musk would not be “off the hook” just because Twitter pulled out of the code of practice, according to comments reported by The Guardian. “My message for Twitter/X is you have to comply. We will be watching what you do.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/european-union-report-finds-x-has-a-major-disinformation-problem-220859617.html?src=rss

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed an innovative fabrication technique for 3D printing metal objects at the nanoscale, with dimensions as small as 150 nanometers (comparable to the size of a flu virus). This innovation builds upon their earlier work of printing microsized metal parts with features as thin as three or four sheets of paper.

What sets this development apart is that the atomic arrangements within these nanosized metal objects are disordered, which, at a larger scale, would typically render them weak and of low quality. However, at the nanoscale, this atomic-level disarray actually makes the parts three to five times stronger than similar structures with more orderly atomic arrangements.

A nanoscale lattice was prepared using a new technique developed by the lab of Julia R. Greer. Credit: Caltech

How Does the Process Happen?

The process begins by creating a photosensitive “cocktail” mainly composed of a hydrogel, a polymer capable of absorbing multiple times its weight in water. This mixture is selectively hardened with a laser to form a 3D scaffold mirroring the desired metal objects’ shapes, such as tiny pillars and nanolattices.

The hydrogel parts are then infused with a solution containing nickel ions, followed by baking to burn out the hydrogel, leaving behind metal ions now oxidized and bound to oxygen atoms. In the final step, the oxygen atoms are chemically removed, converting the metal oxide back into metallic form.

This process creates a messy microstructure full of defects, which, counterintuitively, strengthens the nanoscale parts. In typical metals, defects weaken the material, but in these nanosized structures, defects disrupt the propagation of failure, making them more resilient.

A Diverse Set of Applications

The applications of this nanoscale 3D printing technique are diverse, including catalysts for hydrogen, storage electrodes for chemicals like carbon-free ammonia, and essential components for devices such as sensors and microrobots. It represents one of the first demonstrations of 3D printing metal structures at such a small scale, offering a promising avenue for creating robust and functional nanoscale components.

This innovative approach challenges conventional notions about the relationship between atomic-level structure and material strength, opening up new possibilities for designing and manufacturing advanced materials and devices.

Caltech’s Nanoscale 3D Printing Yields Surprisingly Strong Metal Objects

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