Techmeme
November 27, 2019, 11:20 AM

Top News

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Twitter says accounts that have not been logged into for six months leading up to Dec. 11 will be removed, likely freeing up a large number of usernames  —  No exact date for when usernames will be available  —  Twitter is sending out emails to owners of inactive accounts with a warning …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook buys the VR studio behind Beat Saber, one of virtual reality's biggest titles with over 1M copies sold since May 2018  —  Virtual reality doesn't have many hit games yet, but Facebook is buying the studio behind one of the platform's biggest titles.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Amazon announces new Alexa emotions for developers to let Alexa respond to questions from US users with a “happy/excited” or a “disappointed/empathetic” tone  —  Alexa is also getting a radio DJ-like voice  —  You might hear a little more emotion from Alexa's vaguely-robotic voice …
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
Leaked docs: Amazon's Ring was working on neighborhood “watch lists” and a feature to notify users of individuals deemed suspicious, built on facial recognition  —  Ring, Amazon's crimefighting surveillance camera division, has crafted plans to use facial recognition software …
Frank Pasquale / Law and Political Economy:
A look at the state of AI accountability research, which is focused not just on improving existing systems but also on whether such systems should ever be used  —  Over the past decade, algorithmic accountability has become an important concern for social scientists, computer scientists, journalists, and lawyers.
Steven Scheer / Reuters:
Facebook sued by NSO Group employees who claim their private Facebook and Instagram accounts were unfairly blocked after WhatsApp had sued NSO Group last month  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of employees from Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc on Tuesday …

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More News

David Dayen / American Prospect:
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

CNBC:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Leo Kelion / BBC:
Bloomberg:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: