Meta has announced that it is replacing its third-party fact-checking program with a user-driven “Community Notes” system, similar to the one employed by X (formerly Twitter).

This change was detailed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, signaling a significant shift in content moderation strategy on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Here’s what you need to know:

End of Third-Party Fact-Checking: Meta is discontinuing its fact-checking program with independent third parties in the United States, citing the political bias of fact-checkers and the excessive amount of content being fact-checked.

Community Notes Implementation: Starting in the US, Meta will introduce a system where users contribute notes to provide context or corrections to posts, akin to X’s Community Notes. This is intended to empower the community to address potentially misleading content, with notes requiring approval from users with diverse perspectives to be visible to all.

Policy Simplification: Alongside this, Meta aims to simplify its content policies, reducing restrictions on topics like immigration and gender, which have been contentious. The company plans to focus its automated systems more on high-severity violations such as terrorism, child sexual exploitation, and scams, rather than on a broad set of content.

This move comes after the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, which Zuckerberg described as a “cultural tipping point” towards prioritizing free speech. There’s an underlying political dimension to this decision, with some viewing it as an alignment with conservative critiques of content moderation as censorship.

The change has elicited mixed reactions. Some applaud it as a return to free expression, while others, including misinformation researchers, fear it might lead to an increase in misinformation.

The rollout of Community Notes in the U.S. will begin over the next couple of months, with plans to refine the system throughout the year.

This shift is part of Meta’s broader strategy to reduce the complexity of its content moderation systems, which they argue have led to too many mistakes and censorship. Critics worry about the potential for less accurate information control, whereas supporters see it as enhancing user autonomy and expression.

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of using its Siri virtual assistant to eavesdrop on users of iPhones and other Apple devices.

The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for five years, claims that Siri recorded conversations without user consent, even when the device wasn’t intentionally activated by the “Hey, Siri” trigger phrase. The recordings were allegedly shared with advertisers to tailor ads to consumers based on their conversations.

The settlement, filed in an Oakland, California federal court, covers consumers who owned Siri-enabled devices from September 17, 2014, to December 31, 2024.

If approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, eligible users could receive up to $20 per device, with a cap of compensation for five devices per individual.

However, the actual amount might vary depending on the number of claims filed, with an estimated participation rate of only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers.

Apple denies any wrongdoing as part of this settlement but has agreed to compensate affected users.

The settlement amount is significantly less than the potential $1.5 billion in damages that could have been awarded if the case had gone to trial and Apple was found liable for violations of wiretapping and privacy laws.

A hearing to review the settlement terms is proposed for February 14, 2024 in Oakland.

The PlayStation 5 Pro (PS5 Pro) is set to launch on November 7, 2024.

The PS5 Pro will be priced at £699.99/$699.99. Pre-orders for the console have been open, with widespread availability at participating retailers and directly from PlayStation.

The PS5 Pro boasts an enhanced GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI-optimized upscaling among its improvements. It includes a 2TB SSD, comes with a DualSense wireless controller, and has Astro’s Playroom pre-installed. Notably, it’s designed as a disc-less console, with an option to purchase a separate disc drive.

The design maintains the visual language of the PS5 family but with internal enhancements for performance. It’s compatible with existing PS5 accessories like PlayStation VR2, PlayStation Portal, and others.

Several games are confirmed to receive updates for PS5 Pro’s enhanced features, including titles like “Alan Wake 2,” “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows,” and “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” among others.

Sony positions the PS5 Pro not just as an upgrade for existing PlayStation users but also appealing to new users, emphasizing its power and performance enhancements over the standard PS5.

There’s significant buzz around the PS5 Pro, with an unboxing video leaked by a German retailer, showcasing the console before its official launch, indicating high anticipation and stock readiness among retailers.

From posts on platforms like X, there’s a mix of excitement for the performance leap the PS5 Pro promises, concerns about its price point, and discussions on how it stacks against high-end gaming PCs and other consoles like the Xbox Series X.

This launch represents Sony’s strategy to keep the PlayStation at the forefront of console gaming technology with a mid-generation refresh, focusing on performance improvements that could potentially redefine gaming experiences with better graphics and faster loading times due to enhanced hardware capabilities.