Fast Company returns after attack that saw obscene Apple News alerts pushed to readers

Fast Company’s website finally came back online eight days after the publication took it down due to a cyberattack. The business publication was initially hacked on September 25th, but it wasn’t until the second security breach on September 27th that it had to take drastic measures to contain the situation. If you’ll recall, Apple News users who are subscribed to Fast Company received a couple of obscene push notifications with racial slurs in late September. The bad actors had also defaced the website with obscene and racist messages and posted details on how they were able to infiltrate the publication. 

They said that Fast Company used an easy-to-crack password for its WordPress CMS and had re-used it for its other accounts. From there, they were able to grab the company’s Apple News API keys, as well as authentication tokens that gave them access to employee names, email addresses and IPs. In a forum the hackers linked to on the defaced website, a user called “Thrax” posted a database dump with 6,737 employee records that include mails, password hashes for some of them and unpublished drafts, among other details.

No customer or advertiser information was exposed as a result of the hack, though, Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan wrote in a new post announcing that the publication is back. The main Fast Company website, its corporate site Mansueto.com and its sister site Inc.com remained offline for eight days while an investigation was being conducted. During that period, the publication posted content on other platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Medium. Vaughan didn’t go into details with the result of the probe, other than saying that no customer or advertiser data was compromised and that the publication has “taken steps to safeguard against further attacks.”

The Internet Archive is building a library of amateur radio broadcasts

The Internet Archive is aiming to build up a new library of old content. It’s expanding beyond Flash games and animations, movies, books and (of course) snapshots of websites with the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). This particular archive, which will be led by tech historian Kay Savetz, will include amateur radio broadcasts and digital material from the early days of the internet.

Savetz told Gizmodo that his remit includes just about any kind of digital communications from the 1970s until the early 1990s. While the preservation project focuses on amateur radio recordings, it may also feature early podcasts, digital newsletters, photos, videos and, yes, websites. There are plans to digitize print materials as well. “I want the obscure stuff, the locally-produced ham radio newsletters or the smaller magazines, that sort of thing,” Savetz said.

The DLARC team, which has funding from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation, is looking for help to build out the collection. It’s seeking “partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications-related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small.” It added that every collection in the library will be accessible to everyone. The project will also offer a discovery portal designed for education and research use cases.

Facebook is letting users choose which posts they want to see more of

With profits shrinking of late, Facebook has been shutting down unpopular apps and focusing on its core services. To that end, it’s updating the primary Facebook Feed to let users see fewer or more posts from friends, groups and pages. That will in turn let it incorporate user feedback into Feed rankings, “making our artificial intelligence systems smarter and more responsive,” it said in a blog post. 

As it stands now, the Facebook app only lets you hide posts from people you follow or those it suggests. Now, for friends or recommended posts, a new setting will allow you to “show more” or “show less” of that content. Doing so will not only change your feed content, but improve its AI system used for Feed rankings.

It’ll “periodically” show the setting on posts in Feed, and you’ll soon be able to access a similar setting on every post by tapping on the three-dot menu at the top right. It’s also testing the feature in its short video Reels feature.

Facebook wants users to help improve AI feed recommendations
Facebook

In addition, Facebook is testing a global menu to customize the number of posts you see from Friends and family; Groups; and Pages and public figures. As shown in the image above, you’ll be able to select “Normal,” “Show more” or “Show less” of that content. That will appear along with the current Favorites, Snooze, Unfollow and Reconnect in the Feed Preferences.

With the changes, Facebook appears to be addressing one of the main user complaints: too many posts that they don’t want to see. Considering the number of ads in Feed (with more coming to Instagram and Reels as well), parent Meta no doubt wants to make sure users are happy with other content. 

Instagram will shove ads into more parts of the app

Meta’s quarterly revenue dipped for the first time ever in the second quarter. It’s looking to make those numbers go back up and keep smiles on investors’ faces. One of the strategies it’s employing to do that is by attempting to squeeze more money out of Instagram. As such, it will shove ads into more areas of the app, namely the Explore feed as well as the feed of posts from a user’s profile.

Brands can now place ads in the Explore feed, but profile feed ads are still in the testing phase. The company will also offer some creators the chance to earn a cut of revenue from ads that are displayed in their profile feeds.

Meta announced a slew of other updates for its advertising products. Some of those will impact Instagram. For one thing, the company will try out augmented reality ads in both the feed and Stories. Meta suggests that brands might use these to let people test virtual furniture in their home or get a closer look at a car.

Augmented reality ad in Instagram Reels
Meta

In addition, the company is experimenting with new formats for ads in Facebook and Instagram Reels. These include a “post-loop” format — skippable ads lasting between four and 10 seconds that play after a reel. After the ad finishes, the reel will play again. The company is also testing image carousel ads, which you may start to see at the bottom of Facebook Reels starting today. In addition, brands will have access to a free library of music to use in Reels ads.

As for how many ads you’ll actually see, that may be different for each person. You may or may not see more of them, but they’ll at least pop up in places where they weren’t present before. “The number of ads across the platform varies based on how people use Instagram,” an Instagram spokesperson told Engadget. “We closely monitor people’s sentiment — both for ads and overall commerciality.”

It doesn’t seem that Meta is considering the sentiment that some people don’t want to see ads at all. The company swiftly took action against an unofficial, ad-free Instagram client that popped up last week.

Update, 5PM ET: This post originally stated that ads would appear in a profile’s grid view. They don’t show up there, but they can appear in the profile feed.

Twitter finally starts rolling out the edit button, but US users will have to wait

After years of users begging Twitter for an edit button, they’re finally getting their wish. The company is rolling out the long-awaited feature in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but only for Twitter Blue subscribers. The option isn’t available in the US just yet, but Twitter says users there will get access soon. It plans to offer the feature in other markets too.

Twitter Blue subscribers who send a tweet and realize they made a typo or two will have 30 minutes to make edits. They can make changes up to five times during that time frame. For the sake of transparency, edited tweets have a modified timestamp that reads “last edited” and the time of the last change. Click the timestamp and you’ll see the entire edit history.

Twitter said in April that it was at long last starting to test an edit button. There were indications early on that the feature could include an edit history screen. At the beginning of September, Twitter said that it had, in fact, created an edit button. It published a test tweet at the end of the month and, a few days later, the edit button is going out into the wild.

The company is still technically testing the feature — it’ll be available as part of the Labs section of the $5 per month Twitter Blue service. Moreover, you can only edit original tweets and quote tweets, according to a support page. Many types of tweets cannot be edited, such as threads, replies, retweets, pinned tweets, Super Follow tweets and ones you draft on third-party apps.

Still, it’s a start. Twitter’s approach to the edit button makes sense in terms of keeping things as transparent as possible. It’s easy to imagine news organizations making changes to a breaking news tweet that’s going viral as clarifications or more details come in. Maybe if Twitter opens up the edit button to everyone, they’ll be able to fix innocuous typos like “sneak peak” without too much strife.

YouTube has begun asking users to subscribe to Premium to watch 4K videos

You might soon need YouTube Premium for more than ditching ads, background playback and trying new features. As MacRumorsnotes, users on Reddit and Twitter have noticed that YouTube is asking some viewers to upgrade to Premium to watch videos in 4K resolution. It’s not clear which countries, devices or videos are affected, but this won’t be thrilling if you were hoping for better than 1440p on your computer or tablet.

It’s not certain if this is a test or broader rollout. We’ve asked YouTube for comment, and will let you know if we hear back. Premium normally costs $12 per month, or $120 per year.

A move like this wouldn’t be unexpected. YouTube claimed a combined 50 million Premium and Music subscribers last September. That may sound like a lot of customers, but it’s a modest amount compared to paid media services like Spotify Premium (188 million users as of the second quarter) and Netflix (220.7 million). In theory, locking 4K videos behind YouTube Premium could spur sign-ups and make it a larger revenue source for Google.

Twitter embraces TikTok-style ‘immersive’ video

Videos on Twitter will now look a lot more like TikTok. The company announced that it’s switching to a full-screen “immersive” video player for watching clips. It’s also borrowing the now-familiar “swipe up” gesture that will allow people to endlessly …

Twitter says it inadvertently ran ads on profiles containing CSAM

Twitter is still having trouble curbing the spread of CSAM (child sexual abuse material). Insider has learned (subscription required) that Twitter inadvertently ran ads on profiles either selling or soliciting CSAM. In an email to marketers, the social network said it had suspended all ads on profiles, updated its detection systems, banned accounts that broke its rules and launched an investigation. Reutersnotes Coca-Cola, Disney and NBCUniversal were some of the brands whose ads appeared next to the offending content.

Existing technology had already blocked over 91 percent of accounts like these, Twitter said. In its most recent transparency report, the company said it took action against 31 percent more CSAM-related accounts in the second half of 2021.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the incident and investigation in a statement. On top of existing work to catch CSAM, the company said it was ensuring it had the “right models, processes and products” to protect both advertisers and users.

The news is ill-timed for Twitter. It comes just weeks after The Verge reported that Twitter ditched efforts to build an OnlyFans clone over concerns it couldn’t effectively catch CSAM and other forms of sexual abuse. It’s also emerging as the social media continues to fight with Elon Musk over the fate of his potentially cancelled $44 billion acquisition. Musk has focused most of his objections on alleged misreporting of fake account data.

There’s been an immediate financial impact as well. Reuters added that big names like Dyson and Mazda had either frozen their marketing campaigns or pulled ads from some areas on Twitter. More might be coming — Coca-Cola and Disney both said they considered the activity unacceptable, while NBCUniversal told Twitter to remove ads that ran against CSAM.

YouTube Shorts copies TikTok again with voiceover narration

What’s the best way for YouTube Shorts to take on TikTok? Apparently, it’s by continually copying its popular competitor. Yesterday, YouTube announced (via TechCrunch) that it would be adding voiceover narrations to Shorts on iOS. It’ll let you add your own commentary on top of existing videos with just a few taps. That’s simple enough, but it’s also something that TikTok has offered for a while, and it brings to mind Instagram’s repeated attempts to copy TikTok’s core features. 

Previously, YouTube also lifted TikTok’s feature that lets you reply to comments with your own video. It’s not unusual to tech companies copy each other — Facebook and Instagram practically made a habit of it. But it also makes it clear when established companies are starting to feel defensive about their younger, and usually more innovative, competition. To its credit, YouTube is trying to separate itself by sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators. TikTok may be wildly popular, but that historically hasn’t led to much money for creators.

Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forums

Google is making it easier to find search results from Reddit and other forum sites. The search engine is adding a new module that will surface discussions happening on forums across the web for queries that may benefit from crowd-sourced answers.

The “discussions and forums” module will surface relevant posts from sites like Reddit and Quora alongside more traditional search results. It’s not clear exactly how Google is determining what types of searches are best suited to forum posts. The company says the new “forum” results will “appear when you search for something that might benefit from the diverse personal experiences found in online discussions.”

The feature is already rolling out for mobile searches in the United States. Google didn’t specify when it may be available more widely, but said they will consider updates in the future.

Google is also adding a new feature to news-related searches that will make it easier to browse international headlines that are published in languages other than English. With the change, news-related searches will also turn up relevant local coverage translated by Google.

Google is also making it easier to read international news.
Google

The company uses the example of the recent earthquake in Mexico. With the update, search results will also show “news from Mexico,” which will highlight coverage from local outlets originally written in Spanish, but translated into English. Of course, Google Chrome and other browsers are already able to translate web pages. But Google says that by elevating stories from international outlets directly in search will help provide “new global perspectives” on important stories.

The feature, which is labeled as being in beta for now, is expected early next year. It’s starting off with the ability to translate headlines and stories from Spanish, French and German into English, though the beta designation means Google is likely to add more languages over time.