Best of the Beat
The top posts on SiliconBeat.com, our blog on Silicon Valley news
TWITTER TIMEOUT: NEWEST ABUSE-FIGHTING FEATURE LIMITING USERS’ REACH
The next Twitter tool to fight abuse: throttling users. The social network is limiting the reach of some users’ tweets temporarily. Those users have tweeted that they have received emails telling them that their tweets will only reach their followers for a certain amount of time.
“We will be taking action on accounts that demonstrate potentially abusive behavior,” a Twitter spokeswoman told SiliconBeat in an email Thursday. For example, the throttling might be applied to users who keep tweeting abusive language at an account that doesn’t follow them.
It all boils down to a timeout for users, BuzzFeed reported. Retweets by a user’s followers wouldn’t be seen by people who don’t follow the user on timeout.
The move comes after the San Francisco company said that it’s rolling out a fresh set of tools to fight harassment and abuse on its platform — issues that have plagued it for years. The company has dealt with trolls, hate speech and harassment while trying to stick to the freewheeling, sometimes anonymous nature of the platform.
“We’re approaching safety with a sense of urgency,” the Twitter spokeswoman said. “As such, we will be rolling out a number of product changes in the coming days and weeks — some will be immediately visible, while others will be more targeted to specific scenarios.”
Most recently, Twitter reversed its decision to mute notifications when users are added to a list, one of the tools it had hoped would help fight abuse. — Levi Sumagaysay
FACEBOOK IS ROLLING OUT A VIDEO APP FOR TELEVISION
Watch more Facebook videos on your television? Yes, there’s going to be an app for that.
The social media giant, which has been making bigger bets on video, said Tuesday that it was launching a video app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV.
“People are watching and sharing more video on Facebook than ever, and we’re focused on continuously improving the video experience,” wrote Dana Sittler, Facebook’s product manager, and Alex Li, Facebook’s engineering manager, in a post about the topic.
The tech firm released a way to stream video on television last year, and Facebook said the video app is an expansion of that effort. Facebook’s push to stream more video will also give the company another way to capture more ad dollars. Facebook also made other tweaks aimed at making it easier to view videos on the social media site, including a larger preview of vertical videos in News Feed.
Other social media companies are making a push for the bigger screen, too. Last year, Twitter launched video apps for Apple TV, Microsoft’s Xbox One and Amazon Fire TV.
Facebook doesn’t break out how much money it makes from video ads, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the tech firm is focusing first on shorter videos. In addition to live video, video filters and 360-degree video, the company rolled out a video tab so users could find that content in one place.
“I’ve said before that I see video as a mega trend on the same order as mobile,” said Zuckerberg in a conference call this month after the tech firm released its earnings. “That’s why we’re going to keep putting video first across our family of apps and making it easier for people to capture and share video in new ways.”
— Queenie Wong
TESLA LIMOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? COMPANY MAKES DEAL WITH DUBAI
Tesla has found a new market — the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority.
The wealthy Middle Eastern state contracted to buy 200 Model S and Model X vehicles for limousine service. The United Arab Emirates, an economy driven by oil exports, has recently embraced more renewable energy products.
The deal plays into Tesla’s aggressive move into autonomous vehicles with its Autopilot driver-assist package. Dubai, a state within the UAE, has set a goal of making one-quarter of its vehicle miles autonomous by 2030.
The agreement was announced at the World Government Summit this week in the United Arab Emirates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke at the event, covering favorite topics as Mars, sustainable future and artificial intelligence, according to Teslarati.
— Louis Hansen
TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY BUYS $7 MILLION IN COMPANY STOCK
Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey showed some love for the tech firm on Valentine’s Day by purchasing about $7 million of the company’s shares, regulatory filings posted on Tuesday show.
Twitter’s shares took a big hit last week after its fourth-quarter sales and first-quarter guidance missed Wall Street’s expectations, sending its stock down about 12.3 percent to $16.41 per share when the market closed. The company is trying to make a profit this year, but faces stiff competition for ad dollars from other social media companies such as Facebook with more users.
Dorsey then purchased about 426,000 of the shares this week at prices from $15.84 to $16.60, a sign of confidence from the 40-year-old tech mogul.
“We see it as a mild positive that the CEO bought company shares, especially after the significant stock decline following last week’s Q4 results and forward guidance we saw as somewhat disappointing,” wrote Scott Kessler, an analyst at CFRA Research, in a note on Wednesday. “However, we note Dorsey increased his stake by only 3%.”
— Queenie Wong