Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Social apps take on big content problems. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6 2016 By Darrell Etherington

The Daily Crunch 12/6/16

Tech takes on terrorist content, Instagram takes on abusive comments and Facebook takes on misleading language. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for December 6, 2016. And if you're wondering about Apple Watch sales, Tim Cook, for one, says they're great.

1. Tech titans team to tackle terrorism

It's an alliterative dream, but it's also a meaningful effort – Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube are joining forces to develop a plan that will help them limit the spread of terrorist content through their services.

This will take the shape of a shared industry database for quickly tagging the worst of this type of content and quickly readying it for removal, using past examples to build the library. Each member company will still retain the independent decision-making capability for what does and doesn't get removed.

2. Facebook is now asking users to help flag "misleading language"

Facebook is doing more to address the ongoing 'fake news' problem, with a new survey being sent out to select users that's asking their opinion on how much certain headlines use "misleading language." It's a five degree scale, and could be used to help build some kind of database of what words are seen by users as most misleading overall, which could then filter out certain items from appearing in the newsfeed. But people who were sharing fake news with abandon during the lead up to the U.S. election aren't likely to admit that the stuff they're endorsing is intentionally misleading, so it isn't clear how this will help.

3. Open Bionics is going to work with the world's largest healthcare network on advanced bionic prosthetics

Prosthetics can stand to gain a lot from technology improvements, and Open Bionics is one startup working to make that happen. They're taking inspiration from pop culture, including movies and video games, and they're working to drastically reduce cost and performance as well. And now they're working with the National Health Service in the UK to potentially get prosthetics to the people who need them most as effectively as possible.

4. Tim Cook makes a rare public denial of an analyst assessment of Watch sales

A new IDC report essentially claimed that the wearables category is dead or dying, but Apple CEO Tim Cook says that Apple Watch is doing just fine. He told Reuters that it had its best sales week ever during the first week of the holiday shopping period – but he's still not talking specifics.

5. The Elysium Health anti-aging pill picks up more funding

Anti-aging is one of those things that will interest humans forever, or at least until we finally become sentient computers in earnest. Elysium Health has a pill that it claims can help slow down the aging process. Its Basis product is viewed as pseudoscience by some, but hey, who likes aging?

6. Instagram is fighting back against user abuse

Instagram definitely engenders a lot of abuse in its comments (every comments system does always forever and that's a universal constant or something). But the photo-focused social network is fighting back, with the ability to disable comments entirely on posts, and the ability to remove followers. Plus, users can now like comments, too – which they'll hopefully use to encourage positivity.

7. Sonos speaker support is now live for all on Spotify

Spotify Connect makes me very happy because it works with a lot of my existing speakers without any tweaks. Now, it also works with Sonos, meaning you can broadcast your music to your Sonos speakers without having to leave the Spotify app. Good.

Get more stories at techcrunch.com 

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